Business of Advertising

April 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Virginia Gazette [Rind] (April 17, 1774).

“Advertisements, blanks, and many other kinds of printing work, she ardently hopes, may be discharged at the general courts.”

Clementina Rind printed the Virginia Gazette and operated the printing office following the death of her husband in August 1773.  That included keeping the books and calling on customers to settle accounts.  She issued such a notice in the April 14, 1774, edition of her newspaper, at the same time outlining improvements to the publication that payments would help support.  She asserted that she had “lately considerably enlarged her paper,” providing more content to subscribers and other readers.  In addition, she ordered and “expect[ed] shortly an elegant set of types from London, … together with all other materials relative to the printing business.”  Rind expressed pride in “the dignity of her gazette” while simultaneously noting that those who owed money had a role to play in her goal of “keeping it at a fixed standard.”

To that end, she called on subscribers to submit annual payments.  In the eighteenth century, many newspaper subscribers notoriously went for years without settling accounts with printers.  Advertising revenue offset those delinquent payments, yet not all printers demanded that advertisers pay for their notices in advance, contrary to common assumptions about how they ran their businesses.  Rind’s notice suggests that she may have published advertisements on credit but does not definitively demonstrate that was the case.  She requested that customers pay what they owed for “advertisements, blanks, and many other kinds of printing work … at the general courts.”  She may have meant newspaper notices, but “advertisements” could have also referred to handbills, broadsides, and other job printing for the purposes of marketing goods and services or disseminating information to the public.  The masthead listed prices for subscriptions (“12 s. 6 d. a Year”) and advertisements “of a moderate length” (“3 s. the first Week, and 2 s. each Time after”), while also promoting “PRINTING WORK, of every Kind,” which would have included blanks (or forms for legal and commercial transactions), handbills, and broadsides, but that does not clarify what Rind meant by “advertisements” in her notice.  That other printers sometimes allowed credit for newspaper advertisements leaves open the possibility that Rind may have done so as well.  If that was the case, it made it even more imperative that advertisers discharge their debts to “enable her the better to carry on her paper with that spirit which is so necessary to such an undertaking.”

Virginia Gazette [Rind] (April 14, 1774).

January 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Boston-Gazette (January 24, 1774).

“Our Advertising Customers, are desired for the future to send their Advertisements by Saturday Sunset.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, exercised their prerogative as proprietors of the newspaper to place some notices about its operation at the top of the first column on the first page of the January 24, 1774, edition.  Doing so, they hoped, increased the likelihood that the customers they addressed would see them and take note.  To that end, they enclosed their first notice within a decorative border.  The printers declared, “ALL Persons indebted for this Paper, whose Accounts have been above 12 Months standing, are requested to make immediate Payment.”  Printers often extended credit to subscribers.  Some of them remained delinquent for years.

In another notice, Edes and Gill instructed that “Our Advertising Customers, are desired for the future to send their Advertisements by Saturday Sunset.”  Rather than a decorative border, a manicule and italic font called attention to this notice.  Edes and Gill published the Boston-Gazette on Mondays, but ordinances in colonial Boston prohibited working on Sundays.  Sunset occurred at 4:52 in the afternoon on the day the printers published this announcement.  Though that time has been standardized for modern time zones, it was early enough in the day that those laboring in the printing office could set type and finish printing the newspaper in the evening.  John Adams suggests that Edes and Gill may not have always abided the prohibition on working on Sundays.  On Sunday, September 3, 1769, he wrote in his diary that he attended a “Charity Lecture” and then “Spent the Remainder of the Evening and supped with Mr. Otis, in Company with Mr. Adams, Mr. Wm. Davis, and Mr. Jno. Gill.  The Evening spent in preparing for the Next Days Newspaper – a curios Employment.  Cooking up Paragraphs, Articles, Occurences, &c. – Working the political Engine!”  Things were in motion at Edes and Gill’s printing office on Sundays, at least sometimes!  Yet in the early 1770s some colonizers even complained about work undertaken on Saturday evenings.  Announcing that they accepted advertisements until sunset on Saturdays may have been Edes and Gill’s way of indicating that they completed most of their work by that time while also holding firm that they could labor into the evening if they wished.  Although they would not have used the phrase, it gave them plausible deniability about any intentions of working on Sundays.

In a third notice, the printers teased an item that would appear in the next edition.  They acknowledged that they “receiv’d THE REMEMB’RANCER … intended for this Day’s Paper,” yet chose to delay publication for a week.  The piece “publickly reveals very marvellous Practices of his Excellency, at the last Session of the General Assembly.”  Edes and Gill chose to hold off on embarrassing the governor, Thomas Hutchinson, “till next Week, when the Members of both Houses will be more generally in Town.”  The printers may have hoped that the anticipation would yield more sales for the next issue of the Boston-Gazette, though their primary goal seemed to be that as many people as possible, especially those who served in the assembly, would read the piece when issues circulated the following week.  It appeared as the first item on the first page of the January 31 edition.

Rather than opening the January 24 edition with news, editorials, or advertisements submitted by customers, Edes and Gill instead tended to the business of operating their newspaper first and then published other content.  They called on delinquent subscribers to settle accounts, directed advertisers when to submit their notices, and previewed a juicy letter that would appear in the next issue, giving their own notices a prominent place on the page.

January 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-Hampshire Gazette (January 7, 1774).

“ALL Persons who send Advertisements for this Paper, are desired to let the pay accompany them, if they intend they shall be inserted.”

Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette, frequently inserted notices that tended to the business of operating a newspaper.  He had also done so when in partnership with his nephew, Robert Fowle, with most such notices most often calling on subscribers to settle accounts.  Fowle commenced 1774 with an advertisement that addressed several services available at his printing office in Portsmouth.  He exercised his prerogative as proprietor to give that notice a privileged place on the page; it appeared as the first item in the first column on the first page of the first issue of the New-Hampshire Gazette published in the new year.

Fowle presented a variety of instructions to current and prospective customers.  “ALL Persons who send Advertisements for this Paper,” he advised, “are desired to let the pay accompany them, if they intend they shall be inserted.”  In other words, Fowle did not extend credit for advertising.  Most colonial printers likely required advertisers to pay in advance, securing revenues from advertising to balance the credit they allowed for subscriptions, though occasionally some placed notices that called on advertisers to pay overdue bills.  Whatever the policies at the New-Hampshire Gazette had been in the past, Fowle made clear that no advertisements would make it into the pages of his newspaper before receiving payment.  He concluded his notice with a familiar appeal to subscribers to pay what they owed: “all Indebted for this Paper, would do an infinite Service, by discharging their Accounts up to January 1774.”

In addition, Fowle addressed another aspect of his business between his directions about advertisements and subscriptions.  “Those who send their Servants or others for Blanks,” he declared, “are requested to send the Money, that being found by Experience the ONLY  Article to support the Printing-Business.”  Fowle and other printers frequently advertised blanks or printed forms for common commercial and legal transactions.  In the January 7 issue, Fowle ran a short advertisement, “Blanks of most sorts, sold cheap At the Printing Office in Portsmouth,” on the final page.  He suggested that printing and selling blanks represented the only lucrative element of his business, provided that customers paid for them at the time of purchase.  He implied that he only broke even, at best, on advertisements, while the chronic tardiness of subscribers meant that he lost money on subscriptions.  In that case, printing the New-Hampshire Gazetteamounted to a public service rather than a profitable venture for Fowle.  He may have exaggerated whether he made money on anything other than blanks, but Fowle’s exasperation with advertisers and subscribers who did not pay their bills was unmistakable.

November 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Providence Gazette (November 6, 1773).

“Those indebted for advertising, or in any other Manner, are likewise requested to pay.”

Like many other colonial printers, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, published advertisements in his own newspaper.  Many of those notices concerned additional revenue streams.  For instance, in the November 6, 1773, edition, Carter ran an advertisement that promoted “THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR LADY’S and GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, For the Year of our LORD, 1774,” offering to sell the popular pamphlet “in large or small Quantities.”  For many years, Benjamin West, a mathematician and astronomer, collaborated with Carter in publishing and marketing an almanac.  Another advertisement drew attention to a different project undertaken by Carter, a local edition of Daniel Fenning’s Universal Spelling-Book.  The printer proclaimed that he sold this reprint “Cheaper by the Dozen than any imported.”  A third advertisement hawked “BLANKS [or printed forms] of various Kinds,” another common source of revenue for printers.

In addition to notices about other goods and services available in their printing offices, printers also placed advertisements that tended to the business of publishing their newspapers.  In the same issue that carried advertisements for the almanac, the spelling book, and blanks, Carter inserted a notice to inform readers that “THIS DAY’s GAZETTE closes the Year with ALL the old Subscribers.”  That being the case, “the Printer therefore earnestly intreats of every one in Arrear to make immediate Payment.”  He did not, however, address only subscribers.  “Those indebted for advertising, or in any other Manner,” Carter continued, “are likewise requested to pay.”  That notice reveals an important aspect of how Carter ran his business.  Many historians of the early American press have asserted that printers extended to credit to subscribers, sometimes allowing them to fall behind in payments over several years, but insisted that advertisers had to pay for their notices in advance.  The advertising revenue supposedly amounted to more than the overdue subscriptions.  Yet some colonial printers published notices indicating that they did indeed allow credit for advertisements as well as subscriptions.  The Adverts 250 Project compiles such advertisements to demonstrate that practices in printing offices throughout the colonies varied when it came to paying upfront for advertisements.  Even if most printers did insist on payment in advance, a significant minority adopted other policies.

October 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Chronicle (October 4, 1773).

“The Printer of this Paper begs the Favour of ALL who are indebted to him for the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Advertisements, &c. to make IMMEDIATE PAYMENT.”

William Goddard exercised his prerogative as printer to place his notice first among the advertisements that appeared in the October 4, 1773, edition of the Pennsylvania Chronicle.  He placed it immediately below the shipping news from the customs house in Philadelphia, a strategy frequently deployed by colonial printers.  Even if readers only skimmed the remainder of the contents of that issue, the advertisements, once they determined that the portion devoted to news came to an end then they might give more attention to the first of the notices they encountered than any of the others.

Goddard participated in a familiar refrain among printers: “The Printer of this Paper begs the Favour of ALL who are indebted to him … to make IMMEDIATE PAYMENT.”  He made a special appeal to “his Customers who live in the Country,” whether in Pennsylvania or other colonies served by the Pennsylvania Chronicle, to “order Payment to be made in this City,” Philadelphia, “or remit the same by the first good Opportunity.”  Goddard pleaded for cooperation because “the Accounts are small and lie so wide of each other, that they cannot be collected without great Trouble and Expence.”  He implied that most overdue accounts were so small that customers would not experience any hardship in settling them, while also encouraging their cooperation in not making the process more onerous than necessary.  Stating that the accounts “lie so wide of each other” also suggested an extensive circulation for the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a factor for prospective advertisers to take into consideration when choosing which of the several newspapers published in Philadelphia should carry their notices.

Notably, Goddard addressed customers “indebted to him for the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Advertisements,” and anything else, such as books or job printing.  Historians have traditionally asserted that colonial printers struck a balance between extending credit to subscribers and requiring advertisers to pay before printing their notices, making advertising the more consistent and more significant source of revenue for printers who published newspapers.  Apparently, not all printers, however, adopted that business model.  Goddard was one of several printers who ran notices that called on both subscribers and advertisers to pay their bills.  Those printers may have been more selective in allowing credit for advertising than for subscriptions, yet their own notices indicated that they did allow credit for advertising for at least some customers. Advertising certainly had the potential to be lucrative, but only if printers required payment in advance or successfully collected payments after extending credit to advertisers.

August 23

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Boston-Gazette (August 23, 1773).

“It would greatly oblige us, if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.”

Colonial printers only occasionally addressed the business of advertising in their newspapers.  Some did solicit advertisements in the colophon at the bottom of the final page, though they did not always specify rates or offer additional instructions.  In the colophon for the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, for instance, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks stated that “Subscriptions, Advertisements, and Letters of Intelligence for this Paper are taken in” at their printing office.  John Holt did provide more information in the colophon for the New-York Journal, noting that “Advertisements of no more Length than Breadth are inserted for Five Shillings, four Weeks, and One Shilling for each Week after, and larger Advertisements in the same Proportion.”  A few printers also promoted other forms of advertising.  Isaiah Thomas, for example, informed readers that he printed “Small HAND-BILLS at an Hour’s Notice” in the colophon for the Massachusetts Spy.  The printer of the Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote highlighted a particular service in the masthead of that newspaper: “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”

Most printers, in contrast, did not regularly publish information about advertising in their newspapers.  Among those that did, few presented the sorts of specifics that Holt, Thomas, and Miller did in their colophons.  That makes the note that Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, inserted at the bottom of the third page of the August 23, 1773, edition all the more noteworthy.  “It would greatly oblige us,” they pleaded, “if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.”  The printers presumably meant “no later than Saturday Afternoon.”  They distributed their weekly newspaper on Mondays.  That meant that production of the first and last pages, printed on the same side of a broadsheet, took place near the end of the week and production of the second and third pages, on the other side of the broadsheet, just prior to distribution.  Edes and Gill and others who worked in their printing office needed time to set type for the latest news and new advertisements, manually operate the press, and hang the newspapers for the ink to dry before folding and delivering them to subscribers.  If advertisers wanted their notices to appear in the Boston-Gazette on Monday then they needed to submit them to the printing office in a timely fashion.  Edes and Gill advised that meant Saturday afternoon.  To increase the likelihood that advertisers would take note of such instructions, they inserted this notice as a single line in the margin at the bottom of the page, a line that ran across all three columns of that page. That notice guided advertisers while also testifying to what the printers considered best practices in the business of advertising in their colonial newspaper.

June 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-Hampshire Gazette (June 18, 1773).

“(6 w.)”

In the spring and summer of 1773, George Deblois ran an advertisement to inform readers of the New-Hampshire Gazettethat he stocked a ‘GENERAL ASSORTMENT of English, India and Hard Ware GOODS” at his shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  Like many other merchants and shopkeepers of the era, he listed a variety of items in an effort to demonstrate the array of choices he made available to consumers.  One element of his advertisement, however, was not intended for prospective customers.  A notation, “(6 w.),” on the final line provided the compositor and others working in the printing office information about how long Deblois’s advertisement should appear in the New-Hampshire Gazette.  The merchants made arrangements for it to run for six weeks.

Curiously, the advertisement did not appear in six consecutive issues.  Dated May 5, it first ran in the May 14 edition.  It then appeared in the next two issues on May 21 and May 28, but did not run on June 4 and June 11.  The newspaper revived the advertisement for another three consecutive issues, June 18, June 25, and July 2, before discontinuing it following the sixth insertion.  One the type had been set, the compositor could include the advertisement (or not) and move it around within each edition.  An error, “the SIGN of the GOLNEN EAGLE,” remained consistent throughout the run of the advertisement.

The publication history of this advertisement raises questions about the business of advertising and communications between advertisers and printing offices.  Did Deblois intend for his advertisement to appear in six consecutive issues?  Or did he send instructions to Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette, that he wished for it to run six times over the course of a couple of months but not necessarily for six consecutive weeks?  Did Deblois consult the New-Hampshire Gazette each week to confirm whether his advertisement appeared?  If so, did he note the error in the name of his shop sign?  How accommodating would the printing office have been to fixing such an error at the request of an advertiser, especially one who placed such a lengthy advertisement for so many weeks?  What kind of bookkeeping system did the Fowle and others in the printing office use to keep track of how many times each advertisement appeared?  What kind of system, such as entering that information into a ledger or adding it to a running list of recent advertisements, became part of the weekly ritual of publishing the New-Hampshire Gazette?  When it came to adding and removing advertisements, what kind of coordination among the printer and other workers occurred within the printing office? Surviving primary sources may provide partial answers to some of these questions, but other aspects of the day-to-day operations of colonial printing offices, especially the business of advertising, may never have definitive answers.

June 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (June 1, 1773).

“ALL Persons who may favour the Printer of this Gazette with their Advertisements, are requested to send the CASH with them.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, seemed to do good business when it came to advertising.  Dozens of advertisements, including sixteen about enslaved people, filled seven of the twelve columns in the June 1, 1773, edition of his newspaper.  Yet the advertising revenues may not have been as robust as they appeared from merely looking at the contents on the page.

The printer commenced the portion of the issue devoted to advertising with his own notice.  “ALL Persons who may favour the Printer of this Gazette with their Advertisements,” he declared, “are requested to send the CASH with them, except where he owes Money, or has a running Account.”  Crouch suggested that this arrangement “will prevent disagreeable Circumstances, as well as Trouble.”  He apparently experienced some “disagreeable Circumstances” a few months earlier when he ran a notice that called on “ALL Persons indebted to the Printer hereof, for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. … to make immediate Payment, as he is in REAL Want of his Money.”

Historians have often asserted that colonial printers maintained a balance in their accounts by extending credit to subscribers while requiring advertisers to pay in advance.  Accordingly, advertising became the more important revenue stream.  Notices like those placed by Crouch, however, suggest more complex arrangements, at least in some printing offices.  Both of the notices that Crouch placed in 1773 indicate that he sometimes published advertisements submitted to his office without payment, though he revised that practice as a result of some advertisers becoming as notoriously delinquent in settling accounts as many subscribers.

Crouch and other printers sometimes described such situations in the notices they placed in their own newspapers, though not as frequently as printers placed notices calling on subscribers to make payments.  These instances refine our understanding of the significance of advertising revenue to colonial printers without upending the common narrative.  It appears that some printers exercised a degree of flexibility, even if they eventually adjusted their practices, when it came to submitting the fees along with the advertising copy.

May 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Journal (May 21, 1773).

“(The Particulars will be in our next.)”

Several shopkeepers advised readers of the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy that they recently acquired new merchandise. William Sherman advertised a “compleat Assortment of English & India Goods” and a “general Assortment of Hard-Ware.”  Thomas Gelstharp stocked a “Small Assortment of the neatest Silk, Thread, Cotton & Worsted HOSE” and other garments, while Daniel Lyman carried a “fresh Assortment of GOODS,” including nails, wines, shoes, and “sundry Articles, too tedious for Advertisement.”

Joseph Smith promoted his own “fresh and neat Assortment of GOODS, suitable for the Season,” but, unlike Lyman, he did wish to provide a more complete catalog of his wares to entice prospective customers to visit his shop.  His brief advertisement, however, ended with a note that “(The Particulars will be in our next.)”  A more extensive advertisement did indeed appear in the May 28, 1773, edition of the Connecticut Journal, filling more than half a column and listing dozens of items.

What explained the note appended to Smith’s initial advertisement?  Had his new merchandise “just come to Hand” so recently that he did not have an opportunity to compose a list of items in time to submit his advertisement to the printing office for the next edition of the Connecticut Journal?  Had that been the case, he may have believed that a short notice with few details was better than no advertisement at all.  When readers encountered the advertisements from Sherman, Gelstharp, and Lyman, they also saw Smith’s notice.

On the other hand, the printers, Thomas Green and Samuel Green, may have revised Smith’s advertisement and inserted the note about “The Particulars” appearing in the next issue because they did not have sufficient space to run all of the copy.  They could have strategically selected which advertisement to truncate when they set type for the May 28 edition. In that case, how did they handle the accounting and customer service?  Did the abbreviated version run gratis, the note about “The Particulars” intended for the advertiser rather than readers?  Did Smith pay a reduced rate for it?  Did the printers make any other effort to alert Smith that they would print his advertisement in its entirety but did not have enough space in the current issue?

Printers who published newspapers depended on revenue from advertising as much as revenue from subscriptions.  In addition, they likely had more contact with most advertisers than they had with most subscribers, especially considering that advertisements usually ran for only three or four weeks.  Renewing advertisements or placing new ones required contacting the printing office once again.  Both resulted in additional entries in the ledgers.  Printers likely had to exert more effort in managing their relationships with their advertisers than their relationships with their subscribers.  The note at the end of Smith’s advertisement may have been part of the Greens’ effort to manage their relationship with a local shopkeeper they hoped would continue to place notices in their newspaper.

May 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Maryland Gazette (May 20, 1773).

“Seasonable notice will be given in this gazette, to give gentlemen an opportunity to advertise in the first number.”

William Goddard, the printer of the Pennsylvania Chronicle in Philadelphia, continued his efforts to establish a new operation in Baltimore.  In the early 1770s, Maryland had only one newspaper, the Maryland Gazette, published by Anne Catherine Green and Son in Annapolis.  In late October 1772, Goddard placed an advertisement in that newspaper to announce his intention to publish the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser “as soon … as I shall obtain a sufficient Number of Subscribers barely to defray the Expence of the Work.”  He also solicited advertisements, stating that they “shall likewise be accurately published, in a conspicuous Manner, with great Punctuality, at the customary Prices.”

Nearly seven months later, Goddard inserted an update in the May 20, 1773, edition of the Maryland Gazette.   He had opened a printing office “in Baltimore-town,” where “PRINTING in all it’s various branches, [was] performed in a neat,correct, and expeditious manner, on the most reasonable terms.”  The printer also informed readers that he would begin publishing the Maryland Journal “As soon as proper posts or carriers are established.”  They could expect at least one more update in the Maryland Gazette before that happened because Goddard wished “to give gentlemen an opportunity to advertise in the first number.”  While advertising could aid merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and others in capturing the markets served by Baltimore’s first newspaper, Goddard also knew from experience that advertisements accounted for an important revenue stream.

In his notice, Goddard attended to both advertisers and subscribers.  He requested that the “gentlemen” who served as local agents “who have been so obliging as to take in subscriptions … transmit the subscription lists (or the subscribers names and places of abode) as speedily as possible” so he “may be enable to ascertain the number necessary to be printed” as well as make arrangements for delivering the newspapers “to every subscriber.”  Goddard was still three months away from publishing “the first number” of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, but his notice in the Maryland Gazette kept the public, including prospective subscribers and advertisers, apprised of his progress.  In the coming months, the Adverts 250 Project will examine Goddard’s success in attracting advertisers for “the first number” and subsequent editions of Baltimore’s first newspaper.