Newspapers / The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, … / Dec. 7, 1939, edition 1 / Page 7
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Thursday, December 7, 1939 TODAY TOMORROW *T~ FRANK MUUCEI iTOCK B ft IP OB PUBLICITY news In newspaper offices publishers call every item which comes in which might tend to make people interested in buying something either "advertising" or "publici- The difference between the two is that the publisher gets paid for printing advertising ma- I terial, while he doesn't get paid I for printing publicity matter, f That's why the business office gets sore at the press agents who send in publicity stuff, and ed itors print it because it's more in teresting than a lot of the news they get. I've had a lot of experience with small papers and with big ones, and I've never seen the big ones turn down a good story merely because there was a sus picion that it might be a piece of "planted" publicty. I counted one day recently eight first-page news stories in the most influential of all New York papers, every one of which had its origin in a press ( agent's office. i The biggest corps of publicity |K men anywhere is that maintain ed by Uncle Sam. Nine out of ten "news" items you see coming from Washington are the product of the Government press-agents. PROPAGANDA . . . depends We hear a lot about "propa ganda." It is supposed to have the mysterious power of making people believe white is black, or that everybody we don't like is a Red. It means any effort to in fluence public opinion, and be- gan with the organized effort to I propagate the Christian religion. We use the word nowadays to designate efforts to make people believe that one side or another in any controversial question is and the other side is not. If V it's the side we're for it's just "educational" but if it's the side we're against it's "propaganda." The only way propaganda or publicity gets into a newspaper is by the editor's volition. There is no sinister, backstairs way of get ting propaganda printed, that I ever heard of. I've been edttor of several newspapers and I've printed lots of publicity stuff that I knew was propaganda for some thing or other,bbur't r ' only because was interesting to me, and I thought it would interest my readers. BILL expert What started me off on pub licity and propaganda is a couple of mimeographed sheets I lately got in my mail from Bill Sharpe. Bill is an expert propagandist for his home state of North Carolina. If the things he sends out to the papers about North Carolina . aren't true, they're at least in ■ teresting and they get printed. m Presumably they make people f think it's a pretty good state. Bill sends along a story, for ex - ample, about the town of Louis -1 burg, N. C., where folks like to take things esay; so some of the sidewalks have been divided into three traffic lanes, the center one for walking and the two outer ones for sauntering, talking pol itics or just loafing. Sounds like a good idea for any town. Then Bill along with a ■>. geographical discovery. The school books for years have fjjr taught that Mount Mitchell is the highest mountain in the eastern states, with Clingman's Dome second. But Bill Sharpe reports that a North Carolina peak with out even a name, one of the "Black Brothers" in Yancey county, is three feet higher than Clingman and only 39 feet lower than Mount Mitchell. Unimpor tant, perhaps, but interesting and it's propaganda. FACTS Pay My observation of press agents Land publicity men has been long and> on the whole, favorable. I can't recall having caught one in a deliberate lie in forty years or so. The big business organizations which used to refuse to tell news papers anything, discovered that it was better to tell them the flat truth than to leave it to reporters to guess at it. The Pennsylvania Railroad started the plan of telling the » newspaper men all • about every accident on its line. It made of the papers and did with guesswork estimates of the number of people hurt in train wrecks and what caused them. Others saw the value of that sort of frankness, and a new pro fession was born, that of "Public Relations Counselor," Men with that title differ from press agents mainly that they work harder and get more money. Ctoe of them told me once that his great est difficulty was in getting his employers to tell him the truth so that he could pasS it on to the papers. The top men in that pro fession have such a reputation for square dealing and truthful ness that the newspapers take their word without question. CHAINS example One of the topics on which much publicity material comes in my mail is that of chain stores. When it comes from public rela tions organizations of standing I accept their statements of fact. Therefore it interested me, and seems worth passing on, to learn that the housewives of America Here's Good f EAGLE announces ing for an opportunity like T\ fT 1 17 Ik "T1 this ... to get that NEW | JrA . P JVI |\ furniture at January Sav- I ings right NOW, and enjoy it during the holiday sea- * I 1 /•- t son! What better way could . . . glVlllg UOU ttlQ UQTlQtlt Of you invest part of that i new furnishings that you' v" drastic January I been wanting for your m M , - , e r* -% i i • usual'savinGs; 8^ UN Month ahead of Schedule! Our Entire Stock of High Grade Furniture NOW OFFERED AT GREATLY REDUCED PRICES Just to Give You An Idea of the I N OTE!-Prices in this unusual hst to Give You An Idea of the Tremendous Savings!— clearance are for CASH ONLY! Tremendous Savings!— ot» ¥• • u o•. a a However, terms may be arranged 0 „ n , „., _ _ 3 Pc - Suite CQfi if desired at a small additional p Suites (AC Worth $50.00. Only 4) U W cost! Worth $40.00. Only 4) £%£ 9 Pc.Dining Room Suites d* A ■■ Studio Couches d* A A An $85.00 Value for A FeU) More Examples of the $39.95 Value. Now Only yyy KITCHEN TIQ Hundreds of Exceptional Values! INNER-SPRING A CABINETS $lO Full Size Metal Beds $4.50 MATTRESSES ||| n ~ t* j. jm a Cotton Mattresses $5.00 ut uriTDTr * m a Battery Radios ff-fl A Bed Springs (Folding) $2.65 ™TRIC $lO With Battery j) | Q 9x12 Felt Base Rugs $3.60 S | L Bigelow and Alexander 4* Jfc A F . ace RufirS The Best Be * R OOlll Suite in mg* Smith Axminster Rugs T ff| Kitchen Chairs Elkin for the. Money. c $39.95 Value olf Baby Rockers S IOO A Dandy Utility Cabinets $5.00 SKfSSS&.-. yo M » Ch " h —*«• RANGES!?S4O ors—Worth at least $65.00 ... ASK TO SEE THE MASSIVE ■ W INNER-SPRING MATTRESSES SUI ™ ? ANGE^, Store Samples. Under Priced $5 to $lO WORTH $59 50 $35.00 I *'°-" n l « W"- 01 ' "nderpriced! OtlOZ MIRRORS AND PICTURES, KKK StTIiKS L if ZO HEATERS 1-3 OFF FOR CASH Prices. FREE FREE FELT BASE RUG FELT BASE RUG WITH THE N PURCHASE OF -a, WITH THETURCHASE OF l*l!* A Worth of infill EtKiK.N. C. Worth of I ■ Other 11 Other t l *" Furniture You Can Always Do Better at the Eagle If Furniture THE ELKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN. NORTH CAROLINA are throwing more and more of their patronage to the chain stores, for economy's sake. In the first nine months of this year, the 29 leading grocery, va riety, shoe, apparel and auto sup ply chains did 10 per cent, more business than last year, while the independent stores In the same lines gained only about 6 per cent., according to Departmep> of Commerce reports. One thing that turned public attention to the chain stores was the publicity campaign begun last year to combat legislative efforts to impose ruinous taxes on all kinds of chains. That started millions of housewives to throw their trade to the chains, when they began to learn the truth about their price-saving methods, and to realize that they would have to pay more if the chains were taxed out of business. That's the press agent's story, at least, and I believe him. PLEASANT HILL Rev. and Mrs. D. W. Day were the Friday night supper guests of Mr. and Mrs. Dallas Carter. Misses Agnes Pardue and Gladys »Transou were the guests Thursday of Miss Grace Coch rane, of State Road. Mr. and Mrs. Alex Couch, Mr. E. P. Yarborough, Mr. Leroy Transou and Mr. Fred Yarbor ough spent Saturday in North Wilkesboro on business. Mr. and Mrs. Rastus Darnell were the Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Mathis, of Swan Creek. Prayer meeting was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Milas Couch Wednesday night. Mr. Russell Transou and Agnes Transou are on the sick list this week. JUNIOR DEPARTMENT ' FORMS SAFETY PATROL Cooperating with the Junior Department of the Woman's club, the Boy Scouts are patrolling the streets at the' noon hour for the promotion of safety for the ele mentary school children. The Scouts are stationed at strategic points along Church street and at intersections and they ask the cooperation of motorists and pe destrians in the effort to prevent accidents. The Scouts signal with yellow flags and the mo- torists are urged to observe the signals. This is one of the major ob jectives of the Junior Department this year, in addition to work on the elementary school grounds, and it is hoped that the work will be continued until the children have been educated to observe safety rules. Teacher Anonymous means without a name. Now, Willie, give an example by using the word in a sentence. Willie—Our new baby is anon ymous.
The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.)
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Dec. 7, 1939, edition 1
7
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