[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—If Mr. 'Gishford has
any knowledge of the working of the minds of big national advertisers and their agents, he will know that far more wrong conclusions are'drawn from the refusal of publishers to disclose their " circulation " figures than are drawn from the figures disclosed by those publishers who do issue them. To avoid much loose statement hidden behind the terms circulation " and " visibility," the more exact term " net sales " should be used.
True enough, the prospective advertiser will find- that a surer guide to the value of a medium than a mere knowledge of its net sales figures is his own experience of the medium based on his observation, experience and knowledge of it—not necessarily, be it noted, on the amount and type of adver- tising which- it habitually carries—but why in the world should the advertiser in his initial stages of advertising in any medium be denied the knowledge of the net sales thereof ? Curiously, in these enlightened days advertising space seems to be the only commodity that is not sold like every other commodity according to a " Weights and Measures Act." This anomaly the Audit Bureau of Circulations seeks to put right, and I am entirely with Mr. Stokes in his inferred state- ment that advertisers have a right to know the net sales of any publication in which they are invited to buy space for their advertising.
The enlightened advertiser is, in very- many cases, every bit as well qualified to judge the " visibility " or so-called " circulation " of any medium, as is the publisher thereof.
One is reminded of instructions given to space sellers by publishers of a bygone day, but yet unhappily not quite dead —" I will give you our figures, which you are on no account to disclose ;, multiply them by five and call that circulation."
Is it any wonder that men with the outlook and vision of Northcliffe, Murphy of Irish Independent, the proprietors of Yeovil Western Gazette, and several others, led the van years ago in the issue of net sales certificates for their publications ? Is it any wonder that in our own day advertisers have de- manded the establishment of the impartial organization, The Audit Bureau of Circulations, in order that they shall be supplied with net sales of the publications they seek to use—a bit of elementary business information they have every right to know ?—Yours faithfully,
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