An advertisement manager's position on his paper is a very important one, and very often he is more highly paid than the editor himself. In a measure it is to him that his proprietors look for revenue. It is acknow ledged that the main revenue of a publication comes through its advertising columns, and the advertisement manager is he who ordains and arranges exactly what revenue comes in during any given period. The advertisement manager arranges what shall be the rate that advertisers shall pay for space in his columns; he arranges the advertising agency commission, the discount which will be given for certain numbers of insertions in his paper, which is known its a "series" discount; he arranges the special prices for special positions ; he arranges the position of every advertisement, sees that his advertising columns are kept clean, and a proper use is made of them by the person to whom he sells them. This constitutes a very arduous duty, as the demands of advertising agents and advertisers become more exacting from day to day, and the advertisement manager is in the position of having frequently to refuse large advertising contracts because the advertiser or advertising agent desires to make use of the columns he is purchasing in a manner which the advertisement manager thinks is not to the good of his paper. Again, there are always to be found certain conditions appertaining to certain papers with regard to the display of advertisements. Very few papers indeed will allow an intensely black block to appear in their columns since they consider it disfigures their general advertising space. This in itself is a matter which calls for very wise supervision at times. The advertisement manager will frequently refuse a large advertising contract simply to protect other advertisers in his paper. He considers an intensely black block would so far overshadow and disfigure his paper that the public would not be in clined to peruse his advertising columns, and he, therefore, considers it is better for him to refuse a contract than to take it and very probably lose other business in consequence thereof. It is the province of the advertise ment manager to know his paper thoroughly. Although he is nominally the advertisement manager, he, in all probability, knows more about the circulation and the class of people to whom he appeals than even the pro prietor and the editor himself. He must be in possession of this know ledge, because it is upon this knowledge that he bases his appeal to the advertiser. He finds out what sort of circulation his paper has, he finds out where it goes, the quality of its circulation, and the results that other advertisers gain from his columns ; and when armed with this information he bases his claim upon it to the advertiser for his patronage. This, of course, is the broad method of going to work as regards attracting advertise ments to columns of particular papers, but there are other individual schemes which are individual to certain men and certain publications. It will be
noticed that the rate cards of various publications differ considerably. The advertisement manager generally compiles these in accordance with his judgment as to what conditions will be most suitable to the people from whom he expects orders. There is no set rule for arranging a rate card, there is no regular rule for commission allowed by any paper, nor is there any regular rule regarding the positions of advertisements. Every paper differs in its charges and its commissions. Every paper differs in its charges and its methods of making these charges. Whereas some newspapers maintain what is called the " flat" rate, and charge so much per inch for space in their columns, and give a discount of 10 per cent. to the agent, allowing no other discount whatever, there are other papers who allow a discount of 10 per cent. or 15 per cent., and then on top of that other discounts of 5 per cent., 12 per cent. for a series of insertions. There are papers again who accept no blocks at all, and who allow only type advertisements in the paper. Certain other papers will only allow type advertisements displayed in specified type, and so right through the list. Each paper has its own conditions, which are arranged by the advertisement manager and published in printed form to agents and advertisers.
The advertisement manager, while dealing personally with details as mentioned, and while personally interviewing the largest users of space in his columns, generally maintains a staff of canvassers who canvass ad vertisers and agents direct. These canvassers are generally specialists in certain directions. We find, however, that one man canvasses the motor people, whilst another looks after the advertising agent, still another makes his speciality the drapers in the West End of London, or in some other locality, and still others again do nothing else but canvass the provinces.
The advertisement manager is to an extent like a general having com mand of a certain corps of officers, whose efforts he directs, and the success of their efforts are largely resultant upon the plans and scheme which he arranges for them to work upon.
The advertisement manager also prepares the literature which enforces the claims of his paper to the notice of the advertising agent and the advertiser. As has been said, he knows his paper thoroughly, and makes use of the most salient points to enforce upon the advertiser the advisability of using his columns. The advertisement manager cannot be looked upon as an educational factor such as the advertising agent, because he represents the interests of his own paper, and not those of any other paper. The advertising agent on the other hand represents no one paper particularly, but puts the broad case and chooses each paper on its merits. At the !Arne time the experience which most advertisement managers have gained over a number of years has been found to be invaluable to advertisers, especially when exploiting a new article. Sec ADVERTISING.