TOPICS OF THE DAY

TO OUR READERS

AS we have decided to make a slight change in the form of the Spectator next week we desire to say something on this subject and also about our advertise- ments, which, as we shall explain presently, were partly the cause of our decision.

Next week the Spectator will have a cover—not a coloured one, but a cover of the ordinary paper bearing the name of the Spectator and an advertisement. Thus our chronicle of events headed " News of the Week " will no longer appear on the outside of the paper. Several complaints have reached us, especially from old readers whose opinions we value, that the Spectator after being read and handed about a good deal—a fate from which we are proud to know that it suffers—is apt to become untidy. The cover ought to be a remedy for this ; a little wear and tear of the outer cover will not matter so long as the first page of the editorial text is kept clean and smooth.

We want to take our readers into our confidence in discussing this change, and we are glad to know from their friendly bearing towards us that they are generally willing to let us do this. We are bold enough to assume their willingness to read this sort of article for we have always been conscious that they are as ready to take us into their confidence, as we are to take them into ours. It is a reciprocal business which reminds us of the lines in Titus Andronicus :- " Be as just and gracious unto me,

As I am confident and kind to thee."

We have not encountered elsewhere a spirit quite like that between the Spectator and its readers, which is the spirit of a club or perhaps one might even say of a family party. Let us confess, then, exactly what we have been thinking.

It is not easy, nor is it always desirable, to make even a slight change in a paper. People have become used to seeing a paper produced in a particular shape and a particular manner, and, as the saying is, they " know their way about it." The feeling of proprietors is similarly shy of changes because those who own things, whatever their principles may be in politics and the other affairs of life, are notoriously conservative about their own belongings. Thus no one is more commonly opposed to change than the man who owns land, or the schoolboy or the soldier or the sailor, each of whom has grown up to regard his school, or his regiment, or his ship as in a real sense belonging to him. We, too, do not make a change in the Spectator without baying carefully weighed the pros and cons. On the whole, however, the pros in our judgment decisively outweigh the cons. The appeals which we have received from readers for a paper which could be treated more as a book than as a newspaper could not be disregarded. Possibly some day we may have to consider the possi- bility of travelling further along this path and making the cover a stiffer thing than we now contemplate. But that is not- yet. We make a tentative beginning.

The desirability of introducing a cover on- the score of tidiness is by no means, however, our only reason for the- change. We now come to- the question of advertisements. A great many readers have written to us protesting against interleaved advertisements. They say, quite truly, that before the War the advertise- ments were all arranged by themselves at the end of the paper and that readers were not annoyed by finding advertisements mixed up with the ordinary matter of the 'paper. We sympathize. We dislike interleaved' advertisements as much as they do. But not_ merely in justice to ourselves, but in the interests of readers themselves, we must set forth some hard facts which we think they will admit are unanswerable.

In the old days there -would have been a profit on every copy of the Spectator apart from the advertisement revenue ; but circumstances have greatly changed. The cost of producing the Spectator is now more than three times what it used to be, yet the price of the Spectator is still 6d. In no industry, we believe, has the cost of production risen so much as in the printing trade ; not only does it cost much more than formerly to print the paper, but the cost of paper itself is much higher. Under these conditions we could not possibly give our readers the variety of articles and reviews which we now publish every week—we think they will acknowledge that the variety is greater than it ever was before, for there are on an average eight pages more of 'reading matter in the Spectator every week than there were three years ago—unless we were enabled to do it by our advertisement . revenue. Advertisers are willing to pay a higher rate for advertisements which, as the technical phrase is, " face matter," that is to' say, which' are interleaved.

We cherish the hope, without, of course, feeling any certainty about it, that some day we shall be able to arrange all the 'advertisements at the beginning and the end of the paper, so that there will be no inter- leaving. That is an ideal, however, which is not practical politics at present. What we are doing studiously now is to try to insist upon a respectable standard of present- ment and typography in advertisements so that they may be as seemly as possible to the eye. We shall take particular care in regard to the advertisements which will appear on the cover. There is no reason why every advertisement should not be almost a 'work of art. Some advertisers are enthusiasts about securing a high quality of draughtsmanship or writing for their advertisements ; others, to speak- frankly, are careless. In trying to raise the standard we shall be 'consulting the interests not only of our readers, but of the advertisers themselves. It will be an advantage to advertisers to feel not only that they are in good company, but that the fact that an advertisement appears in a paper where care is taken with regard to the details we hive mentioned is in itself a kind of certificate.

We shall not apologize for going on to say something about the philosophy, the uses, and the methods of advertising, for it is a subject which interests us intensely. We live, it is said, in an age of advertisement. We cannot escape from it ; the right thing to do is to inspire and use it and bend it to our will so that we get all its advantages without futility or vulgarity.

Most people do not understand even now how much the public depends upon advertisements. Advertise- ments simplify life for everyone. They make buying easier because readers of advertisements have in their memories a ready-made catalogue of what there is to buy. If advertisements suddenly stopped people would, we think, be almost staggered by the difference which the absence would make. In trade we should seem to have taken a step back into the Dark Ages.

When there was a printers' strike in New York the newspapers appeared temporarily in miniature without advertisements, and the first thing to be noted was that the sales of the large stores instantly dropped. In America the psychology of advertising has been so far elaborated that it is accepted as worth while for adver- tisers to set out a general truth or principle without connecting that truth or principle, for the time being at all events, with any particular article. Thus they create in the public what may be called a favourable state of mind, one which is more capable later of receiving particular impressions. It is enough for the advertiser, that is to say, to call attention to the important part played by his industry and to his own willingness to spend money freely on publicity. The example, of course, is being followed in this country.

The old-fashioned idea that advertisements—within which category we include circulars—were, at least in the case of newspapers, a sign that desperate remedies were needed to save an expiring business is out of date. Advertisements are no longer regarded as a kind of insult 'when they are directed to intelligent• people. It is under- stood well enough not merely that prosperity may be turned into greater prosperity by advertisements, but that greater prosperity can probably only be obtained in that way.

Finally, advertisements are an enormous benefit to the public for this reason. By continually making the goods advertised better known they increase the sales of those goods, and it thus becomes possible to produce them more cheaply. The greater the amount produced the lower the cost of individual production.

In brief, from the point of- view of the readers of a paper advertisements ought to be eagerly encouraged. They provide the wherewithal for a larger and better paper. A larger and better paper brings more readers ; and the more readers there are the more are advertisers willing to advertise. This brings in still more revenue, .which in its turn makes possible further improvements in the paper. Here indeed is a beneficial circle.