Forty Years an Advertising Agent, 1865-1905
George P. Rowell's memoir of the trade he helped build: he opened an advertising agency in Boston in 1865, launched Rowell's American Newspaper Directory in 1869 and Printers' Ink in 1888.
What it is
George P. Rowell's memoir of the trade he helped build: he opened an advertising agency in Boston in 1865, launched Rowell's American Newspaper Directory in 1869 and Printers' Ink in 1888. The book binds 52 weekly papers that ran in Printers' Ink through 1905, the first one unsigned. He tells how he learned the value of space collecting bills at the Boston Post, how early agents such as Volney B. Palmer took 25 per cent from publishers, and how his List System sold an inch a month in 100 country papers for $100. Later papers cover the Directory's circulation ratings and the publishers they angered, price cutting between agents and papers, advice to young canvassers, and Ripans Tabules, a medicine launched on more than $125,000 of swapped space that sold $976.48 in 15 months. It closes with his handover of the agency to senior staff and his retirement.
Why read it now
Three lessons still hold. First, a media price means little without a checked audience. Rowell's Directory made the first serious public attempt to rate American newspaper circulations, the Audit Bureau of Circulations followed in 1914, and independent verification of platform numbers does the same job today. Second, his account of agents charging advertisers close to the rate card while paying papers as little as they would take describes a conflict of interest that has not gone away; the ANA's 2016 study of US media buying found undisclosed rebates flowing back to agencies. Third, Ripans Tabules shows that advertising alone does not create demand: the space cost the firm little and sales were close to nothing until a five cent packet gave druggists and buyers a reason to act. What has dated: the patent medicine trade, which he treats as an ordinary business, the flat lists of country weeklies, and long papers on fishing and old friends. Use it this way: before any media buy, ask who verified the audience figure and how the seller is paid, and before blaming the ads, check the product and the price.
Passages worth keeping
So far as the success of our Advertising Agency was concerned the publication of the Directory was probably a mistake.
نشر الدليل أضر بالوكالة تجاريًا، لأنه وضع في يد كل منافس قائمة الصحف التي كانت ميزة الوكالة الخاصة.
At the end of fifteen months, when the books were balanced and the advertising all done, the total sales of Ripans Tabules, at wholesale and retail, had reached the very moderate figure of $976.48.
بعد 15 شهرًا من الإعلان بمساحات تزيد قيمتها على 125 ألف دولار، لم تتجاوز مبيعات الدواء الجديد 976 دولارًا، فالإعلان وحده لم يصنع الطلب.
should realize that his material progress will depend upon his acquaintance with the men who have advertising to place, and the degree to which he can deserve and win their confidence.
تقدّم الشاب في مهنة الإعلان يتوقف على معرفته الشخصية بأصحاب الميزانيات، وعلى قدر ما يستحق ثقتهم ويكسبها.
A new advertising agency must specially represent something; must be headquarters for something, and depend upon that special representation to gain a hearing.
الوكالة الجديدة لا تُسمع إلا إذا تخصصت في شيء واحد وصارت المرجع فيه، بدل أن تعرض كل الخدمات.
My career has been one of half successes.
يلخص رويل مسيرته بأنها نجاحات ناقصة، وهذا الاعتراف هو ما يمنح مذكراته مصداقيتها.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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