HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



for the space he employs in the publication, but pays enougli more 

 than this cost to absorb the publishers' circulation losses. 



Now as to circulation from the advertiser's viewpoint. I hold 

 that a publication has no circulation of value to the advertiser save 

 to those readers it reaches who are possible or probable buyers of the 

 thing he has for sale, and which he advertises. If the circulation 

 of Hardwood Eecord were entirely with the manufacturers of lumber, 

 purchase of space in the advertising j)agos of that publication would 

 possess about as much value from an advertising viewpoint as if the 

 purcb'aser went home and told his wife he was in the lumber business. 



The proportion of circulation that possesses value to you as a lum- 

 berman is that portion which reaches the man who buys lumber in 

 carload or larger lots, inasmuch as yon are not in the retail business, 

 and not selling an odd wagon load of stock with which to build a 

 lien-coop. Hence, it has been the policy of the institution which I 

 represent, to make a pulilication of such a eliaracter that would in- 

 terest the man who actually buys lumber in carload lots, and beyond 

 interesting him, attempt to interest the man actually responsible for 

 the conversion of this lumber into the multitude of manufactured 

 articles for which wood is employed. 



In a moderate way Hardwood Record has been successful. Its 

 owners know this not only from the encomiums received, but from 

 the substantial evidence of increased subscription and increased ad- 

 vertising patronage, but — as publishers of a lumber trade journal, 

 we are not satisfied with what we are doing or with what we have 

 accomplished. It is our desire to make a better paper; to make a 

 stronger paper ; to make a paper so good that no man allied in any- 

 wise with the industry can resist reading it. Here, by the way, is 

 one of the foremost troubles encountered by the trade newspaper 

 publisher, i. e., to get the individual lumberman to read his publica- 

 tion. There are thousands of lumbermen who profess to be too busy 

 to read the trade press, and only read it when some article appeals 

 to their vanity by reason of the fact that their name is mentioned in 

 a favorable way, or if by chance the lumber newspaper man should 

 have the temerity to say something unkind about them. 



However, I hold that this inability of the trade newspaper man 

 to get his paper read is not essentially the fault of the subscriber, 

 but of the publisher himself. He should make his paper good enough, 

 strong enough, and valuable enough to every man that he would be 

 iuipelh'd to read it. 



I hold that a successful trade paper can not agree with everybody. 

 Unfortunately, there are too many diametrically opposite opinions 

 on many subjects to attain that happy result. A successful publica- 

 tion must have opinions, and these opinions should be so strongly 

 backed up by facts and arguments as to impel their endorsement 

 by the majority of the trade. The editor who hasn't beliefs, and 

 strong beliefs, and hasn 't courage to not only express, but to urge 

 these beliefs, had better go out of the business and let someone else 

 conduct his newspaper. 



The publication for which I stand sponsof is a believer and ad- 

 vocate of doing business on the level. In practically every issue it 

 urges good trade morals; not perforce by reason of any particular 

 moral issue, but simply on the basis of the common sense of doing 

 business on the square. The editor is well aware that he has offended 

 a certain element of the trade, which holds that the only way to make 

 money out of the lumber business today is to sell one grade and 

 deliver an inferior one, but there have been no arguments presented 

 by this element thus far that would by the most remote possibility 

 induce Hardwood Record to change its attitude on this particular 

 phase of good ethics in the industry. 



It has urged a single and universal system of inspection, which 

 sliould in the simplest possible way standardize hardwood grades and 

 consequently values, and it believes that this consummation will event- 

 ually be reached, and the sooner it is reached the better it will be not 

 only for the prosperity, but for the good name of the trade. 



Referring further to the functions of the lumber trade newspaper 

 and its relation to the industry, I hold that beyond selling space to 

 the man who is responsible for supplying it with funds on which to 

 do business, it should also sell actual circulation to lumber buy- 

 ers; and furthermore should assist the buyer in making this invest- 



ment profitable. It is no better judgment for a lumljer newspaper 

 to sell a man advertising space, and leave him dissatisfied with his 

 expenditure, than it is for you as lumbermen to sell lumber of such 

 an unsatisfactory character that the buyer will be so sore as to- 

 preclude the possibility of your selling him again. 



A lumber newspaper must "make good" to in.sure its permanent 

 prosperity. To my mind it is one of the essentia! functions of the 

 trade newspaper to collect and collate all information that shall be 

 of essential value to its advertisers, and turn that information over 

 to its patrons as a part of what they are entitled to as advertising 

 clients. Beyond this it should assist them in the preparation of their 

 advertising copy, and attempt to show them that the man who says 

 I am a manufacturer of lumber at Big Ditch, Indiana, or a manu- 

 facturer of flooring at Keno, Ky., is not spending his money wisely. 

 In lieu of that kind of alleged advertising they might just as w-ell 

 have a line in a trade directory. 



The only advertising that is of essential value is specific advertis 

 ing, reciting particular items that an individual umy have for .sale,, 

 and often in connection therewith the added allurements of specific - 

 descriptions. 



The trouble the trade newspaper man finds with the average lumber 

 advertiser is his indifference to his advertising copy. He will take 

 Bill Jones, his salesman, out into his yard, analyze with him his 

 lumber, pile by pile, and then send Bill on the road with a pretty 

 good knowledge of what he has to offer, but when he gets around to 

 his copy for the lumber trade journals, he says my name is So-and-So, 

 and I am a jobber or manufacturer of lumber at some town, some- 

 where. If the lumber advertiser would give one-tenth as much at- 

 tention to posting the readers of the lumber trade newspapers on what 

 he has to sell, as he does Bill Jones, his salesman, he would get much 

 better returns from his investment, and he would find no trouble in 

 getting good results out of his advertising. 



I will say to you in all verity that there is advertising copy in 

 Hardwood Record that has stood there unchanged for nearly seven 

 years. Latterly I have attempted to bulldoze certain advertisers with 

 a threat that they must either supply changes of advertising copy 

 or they would be respectfully invited to withdraw their advertising 

 patronage. Usually, I am laughed at, and they "tell me they are per- 

 fectly satisfied with their investment; that they are getting good 

 returns out of it, and all this sort of thing. I aiii free to confess- 

 that while I don't question their word, I do their belief, because I 

 don 't think it is possible for a man to get good commercial results 

 from a lumber trade newspaper from the bare announcement of his 

 nami\ address, and the fact that he is a manufacturer or jobber of 

 lumlier. 



I believe it is jjossible — and again the deed is founded on the 

 hope — that there might be closer relations established between the 

 lumber trade press and the lumber industry, to the manifest ad- 

 vantage of both. There are a lot of people in this trade who get 

 mighty good value out of the trade press, but I am obliged to con- 

 fess I don't believe the majority do, and I believe that the reason the 

 majority do not get good value out of their investment is they do not 

 realize the possibilities obtainable through the medium of the com- 

 petent trade paper. 



I sincerely hope for a closer communion between the lumber in- 

 dustry and the trade press, and assure you that it is my belief that 

 it is tlie desire of every lumber trade newspaper publisher to make- 

 his publication of essential value to the trade, and not regard his 

 newspaper simply as a means of gaining a livelihood. 



Change in Import and Export Conditions 



A marked change has characterized trade currents into and out 

 of the United States during recent years. This is especially 

 marked in wood and the production thereof. Government statistics, 

 compiled by the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce 

 and Labor show that in 1900 there Avere $20,000,000 worth of wood in 

 various forms imported to this country, with an export of $.53,000,000. 

 In 1911, the wood imports had grown to $.52,000,000 and the exports 

 to more tluui $96,000,000. 



