Printer

January 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (January 17, 1774).

“WAS taken from a shop window … a SIGN of a bible.”

Joseph Crukshank ran a printing office and sold books at the “SIGN of a bible” in Philadelphia … some of the time.  According to an advertisement that he placed in the January 17, 1774, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, his sign went missing sometime around the beginning of the year.  When he started in the trade, Crukshank did an apprenticeship with Andrew Steuart “at the Bible-in-Heart.”[1]  Perhaps he chose a similar device to mark his location as a means of encouraging an association in the minds of prospective customers familiar with his former master’s work.

“WAS taken from a shop window about two weeks ago,” Crukshank stated, “a SIGN of a bible.”  In that notice, the printer and bookseller provided information that testified to the visual culture of advertising that colonizers encountered when they traversed the streets of Philadelphia.  Although some eighteenth-century trade cards depict shop signs hanging from poles, presumably outside and perhaps perpendicular to the building so pedestrians could see them from a distance, Crukshank apparently positioned his sign in a window, facing into the street.  That gave it less visibility, but likely required less maintenance by protecting it from the weather.  Unfortunately, Crukshank did not indicate the size of the sign, though it must have been small enough for whoever took it to carry away without attracting notice.

The printer and bookseller did not believe that the culprit kept the sign but instead played a trick by abandoning it somewhere.  “It is supposed they who took it had no intention of detaining it,” he declared, “but left it where it may have been found by some person who does not know the owner.”  With that statement, Crukshank confessed the limits of deploying an image to represent his business.  Colonizers who lived in his neighborhood almost certainly recognized the “SIGN of a bible” that identified his shop, as did many others who had resided in the city for some time.  Yet he did not consider the image universally known among the denizens of the busy port.  His advertisement may have aided to establish a connection between Crukshank’s shop and his sign in the minds of those readers, a helpful bit of branding if he managed to recover the sign or replaced it.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Bibliography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 386.

January 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Maryland Journal (January 8, 1774).

“My Entreaty to a great Majority of the Subscribers … to pay the Entrance Money, (a small Sum!)”

Less than five months after William Goddard commenced publication of the Maryland Journal on August 20, 1773, he found the enterprise in a dire financial position, at least according to the notice that he placed in the January 8, 1774, edition.  It appeared under a heading for “New Advertisements,” the first item following news, letters, and editorials.  With a manicule to help draw attention to his message, the printer lamented, “IT gives me real Pain to find myself under the Necessity of repeating my Entreaty to a great Majority of the Subscribers for the Encouragement of this paper, to pay the Entrance Money, (a small Sum!) agreeable to Contract.”  Indeed, Goddard had specified in his subscription proposals that Baltimore’s first newspaper would cost “the moderate Price of TEN SHILLINGS, … per Annum, one Half to be paid at the Time of subscribing, and the Remainder at the Expiration of the Year.”  He also pledged to begin publication “as soon … as I shall obtain a sufficient Number of Subscribers barely to defray the Expence of this Work.”

Enough subscribers may have submitted payment “barely to defray” the cost of printing those first issues, but Goddard apparently did not insist that more subscribers actually pay the entrance fee before he launched the venture.  Publishing a newspaper was a complex endeavor.  With a large enough subscription base, printers could convince others to subscribe.  The size of that subscription base also testified to the circulation of the newspaper, important for bringing in advertisements.  Many printers considered advertising more lucrative than subscriptions, allowing credit for subscriptions but not advertisements.  Still, that was not the deal that Goddard outlined in the subscription proposals for the Maryland Journal.  He may have figured that subscribers would pay once he distributed the first issue, so he gambled on taking the newspaper to press before most subscribers paid.  Goddard may have also been concerned about the prospects of competition.  The growing port had reached the point that it might support its own newspaper instead of relying on newspapers published in Annapolis and Philadelphia … but could it support two newspapers?  At the same time that Goddard circulated proposals for the Maryland Journal, Robert Hodge and Frederick Shober announced that they “intend shortly to exhibit Proposals for publishing a NEWS-PAPER, which shall be justly entitled to the Attention and Encouragement of this FLOURISHING TOWN.”  In the end, Goddard printed a newspaper in Baltimore, while Hodge and Shober did not.  Perhaps Goddard overextended himself when he faced competition.

If the Maryland Journal failed and Goddard shuttered his printing shop in Baltimore, it would not be his fault.  At least that was what he claimed in his notice, asserting that “[t]hose who neglect complying with this reasonable Request” to pay the entrance fee “may consider themselves individually accessary to the Fall of the Maryland Journal.”   Goddard did not acknowledge that he may have been overzealous in publishing the newspaper before he secured sufficient funding, nor did he acknowledge reasons that some subscribers may have been dissatisfied.  For instance, publication had been sporadic at times in those first months.  From Goddard’s perspective, however, that did not absolve subscribers of their obligation to pay.  After all, publishing a newspaper was an “arduous and very expensive Undertaking” that would not endure without “that Assistance which was expected, according to the Terms of the Proposals.”  Even if Goddard got a little ahead of himself by publishing the newspaper before collecting the entrance fees, subscribers now had a duty to catch up with their payments.  Otherwise, the public would lose a newspaper that disseminated all sorts of advertisements and news, including coverage of the crisis over tea that resulted in colonizers in Boston dumping tea shipped by the East India Company into the harbor.

November 12

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

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

New-London Gazette (November 12, 1773).

“A COMPLEAT and ENTIRELY NEW Assortment Of the best PRINTING MATERIALS.”

Timothy Green, the printer of the New-London Gazette, made an important announcement about his business in the November 12, 1773, edition of his newspaper.  He proclaimed that he “Has just IMPORTED from LONDON, A COMPLEAT and ENTIRELY NEW Assortment Of the best PRINTING MATERIALS.”  New type and other equipment would enhance not only the newspaper, making it more attractive for both subscribers and advertisers, but also books, pamphlets, almanacs, and blanks produced in his printing office.  In addition, he sought orders for broadsides, handbills, and other job printing.  With the arrival of these “best PRINTING MATERIALS,” Green “hopes that the kind of Encouragement of the PUBLIC will not be wanting.”  He was ready to serve clients, giving “his constant Attention to please them.”

The savvy printer just happened to place the most ornate of all the advertisements in that issue of the New-London Gazetteimmediately below his own notice.  A border made of decorative type enclosed an advertisement in which David Gardiner, Jr., offered cash for “Small Furrs, Bees-Wax, old Brass, Copper, and Pewter” and hawked a “good ASSORTMENT of Ship-Chandlery Ware, Groceries of all Kinds, an Assortment of Glass and Stone Ware,” and other merchandise.  The distinctive advertisement demonstrated to prospective clients that they could place their own notices that featured visual elements designed to attract attention.  It also presented possibilities for broadsides, handbills, catalogs, billheads, blanks, and other job printing orders.

New-London Gazette (November 19, 1773).

Gardiner’s advertisement ran in the next issue of the New-London Gazette, but it was no longer the only one with a decorative border.  In a new advertisement, Peabody Clement promoted imported goods “JUST COME TO HAND.” Green or one of the compositors in his shop selected different printing ornaments for Clement’s advertisement than those in Gardiner’s notice.  That distinguished the notices from each other, while also displaying some of the range of new types in Green’s printing office.  Perhaps Clement saw the printer’s announcement and Gardiner’s advertisement in the November 12 edition and that helped convince him to place his own notice and influenced his decision about the format.

June 8

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 8, 1773).

“THE Printer of this Paper … will undertake any Kind of Printing-Work.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, included a brief note in the June 8, 1773, to alert readers and, especially, advertisers that “Advertisements omitted this Week, for want of Room, shall be in our next.”  Despite that “want of Room,” Crouch found space to run six of his own notices.  Some of them concerned the business of running the newspaper, while others advertised goods and services available at the printing office.

In tending to the operations of the newspaper, Crouch requested that “ALL Persons who may favour the Printer of this Gazette with their Advertisements … send the CASH with them, except where he owes Money, or has a running Account.”  Crouch suggested that “will prevent disagreeable Circumstances, as well as Trouble.”  He also prepared to address some of those “disagreeable Circumstances” with recalcitrant subscribers.  In another notice, he informed “ALL Persons in Charles-Town, who are in Arrears for this GAZETTE, to the first of January last, HAVE THIS PUBLIC NOTICE given them, that in the Course of this Month, they will be waited upon by my Apprentice, for Payment.”  Printers throughout the colonies often ran notices calling on delinquent subscribers to settle accounts, sometimes threatening legal action.  Few mentioned having their apprentices attempt to collect payment, but many likely tried that strategy as well.

In other advertisements, Crouch attempted to generate business at the printing office.  He advised that the “Printer of this Paper, being supplied with plenty of Hands, will undertake any Kind of Printing-Work, let it be ever so large.”  Prospective customers could depend on job printing orders “be[ing] correctly and expeditiously executed, and on reasonable terms.”  In another advertisement, the printer hawked “Shop and Waste PAPER, to be sold at Crouch’s Printing-Office, in Elliott-street.”  He also tried to generate interest in surplus copies of “THOMAS MORE’s ALMANACK, for the Year 1773.”  Though nearly half the year had passed, Crouch emphasized contents that readers could reference throughout the year, including “a List of Public Officers in this Province; a List of Justices for Charles-Town District; excellent Notes of Husbandry and Gardening, for each Month in the Year; [and] Descriptions of Roads throughout the Continent.”  At the end of that advertisement, Crouch appended a note that he also stocked copies of “BUCHAN’s Family Physician.”  In a final advertisement, the printer tended to the health of readers with products unrelated to the printing trade.  He announced that he just imported a variety of popular patent medicines, including a “Fresh Parcel of Dr. KEYSER’s genuine Pills,” “Dr. RYAN’s Incomparable Worm Destroying Sugar Plumbs,” and “Dr. JAMES’s Fever Powders.”  Like many other printers, Crouch sold patent medicines as an additional revenue stream.

An item that could be considered a seventh advertisement from the printer even found its way into the local news.  Immediately above the entries of vessels arriving and departing the busy port provided by the customs house, a short note stated, “Those GENTLEMEN who subscribed with the Printer hereof, for the AMERICAN EDITION of BLACKSTONE’s COMMENTARIES on the LAWS of ENGLAND, are requested to apply for the Fourth Volume, and the Appendix.”  Crouch served as a local agent on behalf of the publisher, Robert Bell in Philadelphia.

Crouch claimed that a “want of Room” prevented him from publishing all of the advertisements received in his printing office, yet he managed to include many of his own notices in the June 8, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  He exercised his prerogative as printer in shaping the contents of that issue, an act that potentially frustrated some advertisers who expected to see their notices in the public prints.  Given that just a few months earlier Crouch emphasized his “REAL Want of his Money,” he may have considered that a necessary gamble in his efforts to continue operations at his printing office on Elliott Street in Charleston.

February 9

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

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 9, 1773).

“ALL Persons indebted … for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. are requested to make immediate Payment.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, inserted a notice in the February 9, 1773, edition that called on his customers to pay their bills.  “ALL Persons indebted to the Printer hereof,” Crouch stated, “for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. are requested to make immediate Payment, as he is in REAL Want of his Money.”  Throughout the colonies, printers frequently ran similar advertisements in their newspapers, often going into much greater detail.  Some printers invoked significant dates when they asked subscribers and others to settle accounts, especially the anniversary of the founding of their publication.  When they commenced a new year of printing and distributing their newspapers, they considered it a good time for customers to catch up on their payments.  Many threatened to sue, giving recalcitrant customers a deadline for paying their bills before handing the matter over to an attorney.  Some outlined the significant expenses they incurred in publishing newspapers.  Others underscored the value that the entire community derived from access to the news, those “freshest Advices, both Foreign and Domestic” promoted in so many mastheads.

Crouch was not nearly as elaborate as other printers. Beyond stating that he “is in REAL Want of his Money,” he did not offer other details.  His notice differed from many, but not all, others in another significant way.  He called on those who owed money “for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c.” rather than addressing subscribers.  Historians have often asserted that eighteenth-century printers extended generous credit to subscribers (which explains the frequency that similar notices appeared) while requiring advertisers to pay in advance.  Advertising thus represented an important revenue stream that allowed printers to continue publication, even when they did not follow through on threats of legal action against subscribers who neglected to pay.  As I have examined newspapers from the late 1760s and early 1770s for daily entries for the Adverts 250 Project, however, I have encountered notices in which various printers have named advertisers alongside subscribers when they called on customers to pay what they owed.  In some similar instances, they seemed to establish new policies, indicating that they previously allowed credit for advertising but planned to discontinue doing so.  Advertisers needed to submit payment along with their advertising copy.

In this instance, Crouch apparently allowed credit for newspapers, advertisements, and goods and services available at his printing office.  The “&c.” (an abbreviation for et cetera) likely included “all Manner of Printing Work” mentioned in the newspaper’s colophon.  That could range from handbills and broadsides to printed blanks and circular letters to other sorts of job printing.  It may have also included books, prints, and patent medicines since printers often created supplement revenue streams by peddling those items.  According to Crouch’s notice, he did not make some sort of exception when it came to advertisements and credit.  Instead, he allowed advertisers access to the public prints with promises to pay later.

November 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-London Gazette (November 27, 1772).

“Just Published, and to be Sold by TIMOTHY GREEN, Freebetter’s New-England ALMANACK.”

The “POETS CORNER,” a regular feature, appeared in the upper left corner of the final page of the New-London Gazetteon November 27, 1772.  Except for the colophon, advertising filled the remainder of the page.  Although some colonial printers interspersed news and advertising throughout their newspapers, Timothy Green, the printer of the New-London Gazette, tended to segregate advertisements from the news, running articles and editorials on the first several pages and then reserving the remainder for paid notices.  Such was the case in the November 27 edition.  Advertising began in the final column of the third page and filled the rest of the issue, except for the poem and colophon.

That description, however, does not take into account an advertisement for “Freebetter’s New-England ALMANACK, For the Year of Our Lord CHRIST 1773” that ran just below the masthead as the first item in the first column on the first page.  The news, starting with “An Act for preventing and punishing he stealing of Horses,” followed that advertisement.  Like many other advertisements for almanacs, it promoted a variety of “useful, entertaining, and instructive” contents “beside the usual astronomical Calculations,” including “a Table of the Weight and Value of Coins, as they pass in England, New-England, and New York,” an essay on “the mental and personal Qualifications of a Husband,” and a guide to “an infallible Method to preserve our Health, to secure and improve our Estates, to quiet our Minds, and to advance our Esteem and Reputation.”

Why did that advertisement merit such a privileged place in the newspaper?  It happened to be “Just Published, … and Sold by TIMOTHY GREEN.”  The printer took advantage of his access to the press to give his own advertisement a prime spot that increased the likelihood that prospective customers would see it.  Given that printers exchanged newspapers in order to reprint content for their own subscribers, Green may have seen John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, recently deploy the same strategy to hawk “The NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, Or Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY.”  On the other hand, Green did not need to see that example to take the initiative in placing an advertisement for the almanac he printed on the front page of his newspaper.  Colonial printers frequently gave their own notices priority over news, editorials, and paid advertisements.

October 24

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

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

Providence Gazette (October 24, 1772).

“WEST’s ALMANACK … is now in the Press.”

Where advertisements appeared in colonial newspapers varied from publication.  Some printers reserved advertising for the final pages, placing news items on the front and interior pages.  Others placed advertisements on the first and last pages since those were the first pages printed when producing a standard four-page edition.  Advertisements, which often repeated for multiple weeks, could be set in type and printed first, saving the second and third pages for the latest news that arrived in the printing office.  In some instances, printers distributed advertising throughout the newspaper, placing paid notices in the rightmost column on each page.

John Carter, printer of the Providence Gazette, consistently placed advertising at the end of the newspaper.  Paid notices usually filled the final page, though sometimes news items ran in the upper left corner.  The third page often had advertising that appeared to the right of the news.  In general, Carter printed news and editorials in the first two pages.

That made the placement of an announcement about “WEST’s ALMANACK, for the Year of our Lord 1773, with some valuable Improvements and Additions” all the more noteworthy for its placement in the October 24, 1772, edition of the Providence Gazette.  Rather than appearing among the advertisements or even as the first of the advertisements, the notice ran on the third page, immediately below local news from Providence and above shipping news from the customs house, a regular news feature.  The first advertisements in the issue appeared lower in the column.  The notice about the almanac, authored by Benjamin West in an annual collaboration with the printer of the Providence Gazette, declared that it was “now in the Press, and will be speedily published by the Printer hereof.”  The notice appeared in larger type than the news above and below it, helping to draw attention to it.

Given his interest in the success of the almanac, Carter treated the notice about its publication as a news item.  In so doing, he exercised his prerogative as the printer of the newspaper to give the notice a privileged place, separate from other advertisements.  The following week, Carter inserted an advertisement to inform prospective customers that he “Just PUBLISHED” the almanac, placing it first among the advertisement in that issue.  In both his initial effort to incite interest and his subsequent attempt to market the almanac, Carter took advantage of his access to the press to increase the likelihood that consumers saw his notices.

September 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (September 2, 1772).

“All kinds of office and other blanks, hand-bills, &c. &c.”

When James Humphrey, Jr., opened a printing shop in Philadelphia in the summer of 1772, he placed advertisements in the Pennsylvania Journal to inform the public that he sought orders for “PRINTING, In all its VARIOUS and DIFFERENT BRANCHES.”  Perhaps he received a discount for notices he placed in that newspaper, despite being a competitor for job printing, having apprenticed to William Bradford, one of the partners who printed the Pennsylvania Journal.  Humphreys stated that he “earnestly requests the favour and encouragement of the Public in general, and of his friends and acquaintance in particular.”  That encouragement likely commenced with a mentor who had a thriving business and could afford to help his former apprentice establish his own printing office.  Humphreys eventually published the Pennsylvania Ledger from January 1775 through November 1776 with a brief revival when the British occupied Philadelphia, but he focused on books and job printing when he first entered the business.

In particular, he solicited orders for “All kinds of office and other blanks, [and] hand-bills.”  Throughout the colonies, printers produced and sold a variety of blanks, printed forms that facilitated common commercial and legal transactions.  Humphreys listed some of the blanks available at his printing office, including “arbitration bonds, bonds and judgments, common bonds, powers of attorney, bills of lading, bills of sale, [and] apprentices and servants indentures.”  Concluding the list with “&c.” (an abbreviation for et cetera) signaled that he had others on hand to sell “either by the ream, quire, or single sheet.”  Some colonizers purchased blanks in volume, making them an even more lucrative revenue stream for printers.  Humphreys also declared that he printed handbills “in the neatest and most speedy manner.”  When they advertised, printers often included handbills among the items they produced, suggesting that many more advertisements circulated in eighteenth-century America, especially in urban centers, than survive in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections.  Such ephemera may have been much more numerous and visible than bibliographies of early American imprints suggest.  Newspaper advertisements like the one that Humphreys inserted in the Pennsylvania Journal in 1772 hint at a vibrant culture of advertising during the era of the American Revolution.

April 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (April 2, 1772).

“Be very punctual in their Publications … and be particularly careful in circulating the Papers.”

The first page of the April 2, 1772, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette consisted almost entirely of the masthead and advertisements placed by colonizers.  At the top of the first column, however, Peter Timothy, the printer, inserted his own notice before the “New Advertisements” placed by his customers.  In it, he announced that “my present State of Health will not admit of my continuing the PRINTING BUSINESS any longer.”  Effective on May 1, “Thomas Powell, Edward Hughes, & Co.” would “conduct and continue the Publication of this GAZETTE.”  Wishing for the success of his successors, Timothy assured readers that they could expect the same quality from the publication under new management that he had delivered “during the Course of Thirty-three Years.”  Picking up where he left off, the partners “will have the Advantage of an extensive and well established Correspondence” with printers and others who provided news.  In addition, Timothy declared that they would “be very punctual in their Publications—regular and exact in inserting the Prices Current—continue my Marine List—and be particularly careful in circulating the Papers.”

Timothy addressed subscribers and other readers when he mentioned the “Charles-Town Price Current” and “Timothy’s Marine List,” as the printer called his version of the shipping news obtained from the customs house.  In making promises about the punctually publishing newspapers and attending to their circulation, however, he addressed both readers and advertisers.  Colonizers who paid to insert notices wanted their information disseminated as quickly and as widely as possible, whether they encouraged consumers to purchase goods and services, invited bidders to attend auctions and estate sales, or offered rewards for the capture and return of enslaved people who liberated themselves.  Certainly subscribers wanted their newspapers to arrive quickly and efficiently, but Timothy understood the importance of advertising when it came to generating revenues.  After all, he devoted only five of the twelve columns in the April 2 edition to news (including the “Charles-Town Price Current” and “Timothy’s Marine List”) and the other seven to advertising.  In addition, he distributed a half sheet supplement, another six columns, that consisted entirely of advertising.  Paid notices accounted for just over two-thirds of the content Timothy disseminated on April 2, even taking his “extensive and well established Correspondence” into consideration.

As he prepared to pass the torch to Powell and Hughes, Timothy did not address advertisers directly, but he certainly addressed concerns that would have been important to them.  The South-Carolina Gazette competed with two other newspapers published in Charleston at the time.  Timothy sought to keep both subscribers and advertisers loyal to the publication he would soon hand over to new partners.

February 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (February 1, 1772).

“He does not receive a Sufficiency from his Subscribers to defray even the Expence of Paper on which the Gazette is printed.”

It was a familiar refrain.  John Carter, printer of the Providence Gazette, called on subscribers to pay their bills, echoing notices that printers throughout the colonies regularly inserted in their own newspapers.  He appealed to reason, but also threatened legal action.  In the process, he provided an overview of his persistent attempts to convince subscribers to settle their accounts.

Carter reported that the “Ninth of November closed the Year with most of the Subscribers to this Gazette.”  That milestone made it a good time to make payments, but nearly three months later “Numbers of them are now greatly in Arrear.”  Carter had already attempted to collect, noting that he “repeatedly called on” subscribers “by Advertisements,” but they “still neglect settling their Accounts, to the great Disadvantage of the Printer.”  He suggested that continuing to publish the Providence Gazette depended on subscribers paying what they owed.  So many of them were so delinquent that Carter claimed that he “does not receive a Sufficiency from his Subscribers to defray even the Expence of Paper on which the Gazette is printed.”  Subscriptions, however, were not the only source of revenue for Carter or any other printer.  Advertising also generated revenues, often making newspapers profitable (or at least viable) ventures.

The printer hoped that subscribers would feel some sympathy about the costs he incurred, but he also determined, “reluctantly … and with the utmost Pain,” to sue those who still refused to pay.  Carter lamented that “he finds himself compelled to acquaint ALL such, that their Accounts must and will be put in Suit, if not very speedily discharged.” Despite his exasperation and emphasizing that he felt “compelled” to pursue such a course, Carter likely never initiated any suits.  Printers frequently made such threats, but rarely alienated subscribers by following through on them.  After all, selling advertising depended in part on circulation numbers.  Printers realized they had the potential to come out ahead on advertisements even if they took a loss on subscriptions.