" From an address by Mr. Adolph S. Ochs,
publisher of _the New York Times,_ at the Philadelphia Convention
of the Associated Advertising Clubs of The World, June 26, 1916.
Cited, Elmer Davis, _History of The New York Times,_ 1851-1921,
pp. 397-398.] The kind of circulation which the advertiser will buy
depends on what he has to sell. It may be "quality" or "mass." On the
whole there is no sharp dividing line, for in respect to most
commodities sold by advertising, the customers are neither the small
class of the very rich nor the very poor. They are the people with
enough surplus over bare necessities to exercise discretion in their
buying. The paper, therefore, which goes into the homes of the fairly
prosperous is by and large the one which offers most to the
advertiser. It may also go into the homes of the poor, but except for
certain lines of goods, an analytical advertising agent does not rate
that circulation as a great asset, unless, as seems to be the case
with certain of Mr. Hearst's properties, the circulation is enormous.
A newspaper which angers those whom it pays best to reach through
advertisements is a bad medium for an advertiser. And since no one
ever claimed that advertising was philanthropy, advertisers buy space
in those publications which are fairly certain to reach their future
customers. One need not spend much time worrying about the unreported
scandals of the dry-goods merchants.
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