Beyond stating that the foregoing declarations were made by the “President of one of the leading magazine publishing companies of New York city,” Mr. Hitchcock sayeth not, save as he quotes (see seventh paragraph of the Hitchcock letter), this President as saying what Mr. Hitchcock says he said. The Postmaster General does not name this “President.”
Regretting this oversight of our Postmaster General very much, I would like to know whether or not this “President” is the real, genuine article of president, or is merely one of these “phoney” presidents who laboriously support the honors of the corporate title and vote three shares of stock, usually given by the promoters of an organization for the “influence” of an honored name in starting the wheels to revolve.
I mean by this that it would be information to thousands of Mr. Hitchcock’s readers, as well as to thousands of publishers and printers, and numerous millions of American citizens, had he, Mr. Hitchcock, told them whether this “President” he quotes so liberally, likewise confidently and confidingly, is a real, live-wire president, active in the management of his periodical, and, therefore, fully informed as to its business, expenditures, profits, etc., etc., or, on the other hand, whether or not he is merely a corporation stool-bird for the promotion of a publication enterprise through selling the stock of the concern to the E. Z.-Mark investing public.
The quotations which our Postmaster General makes from this publisher “President” sound to me with quite a familiar tang. They read a good bit like a promotion circular, like an “annual statement” which corporations and companies as well as individuals print and distribute to call attention to the prosperous future they have in sight, incidentally inviting investment from savings banks accounts, stocking hoardings, etc.
Nothing wrong about that method of “public bubbling” at all. Even banking institutions, national and state, sometimes resort to it. Occasionally, commercial houses have used it. So, also, has the Steel Corporation, when it wished its employes to chip in a few millions for “a personal interest.” Our friend, “Bet-You-a-Million-Gates,” used it to advantage in reorganizing the Louisville and Nashville system, and it is a practice now and again indulged in among our Napoleons of finance, as well as great captains in the industrial realm.
For this reason I cannot—until our Postmaster General further enlightens us regarding this publisher-president as to his personality, individuality and general business activity in and knowledge of, his own publication business,—say anything in adverse criticism of this “President” Mr Hitchcock quotes so liberally, likewise unctuously.
However, having been a periodical publisher myself, in a small way, I shall presume here to present a few figures approximately applicable to larger periodical enterprises. Mr. Hitchcock has much to say about gross receipts, gross revenues, and other gross. I shall present my estimate of net profits. For this purpose, I shall take a monthly periodical reputedly issuing 650,000 copies a month, each number weighing about one pound.
Now, let it be here distinctly understood by the reader that my figures, mostly estimates, are those of a man with experience only as a small periodical publisher, say of 50,000 a month, not 650,000.
Estimated income of the publisher of a standard monthly periodical distributing 650,000 copies monthly of average weight of one pound each, Mr. Hitchcock figures to be (see his letter), about $6,000,000. The gross annual receipts from subscriptions on a periodical issuing 650,000 copies per month, and retailing at 15 cents per copy, is less than $750,000. Such periodicals realize about 12½ cents each for subscribed copies and 8 cents net for copies delivered in bulk to newsdealers and agencies. The first item of expense the publisher incurs, therefore, is in the issue cost of production over what he receives for the copies issued. It is knowledge common to every periodical publisher, newspaper as well as magazine, that every subscriber as well as news-stand buyer of his periodical is a subsidized reader. Do you catch the import of that statement?
Did you ever think of that, Mr. Reader? Frankly I confess that I did not, until quite recently, when a large producer of trade journals and edition books, and likewise one of our largest manufacturing printers, pointed out the facts to me. His varied business interests are such that he must necessarily buy at the lowest market cost, must know to the fraction of a cent what those costs are—the cost of composition, of presswork, of ink, of color work, of covers, of binding, of cartage, of rail haulage, of distribution, etc., etc.