PRESTO
ESSENTIALS TO
EFFICIENT SERVICE
A Publication Devoted to the Needs of Adver-
tisers Gives Sensible Review of What Is
Demanded of a Trade Paper,
to Win Success.
OLD PAPER COMPLIMENTS NEW
Is There Any Doubt Concerning Value of Subscrip-
tion Renewals in Estimating Editorial Worth
and Publicity.
It has become largely customary to refer to what
have always been denominated as "trade papers" as
"service papers." It is a case of any name being a
good name if the paper is good. As a "service"
paper which has been in the music field for forty
years, Presto feels that it knows a useful article in
its line when it sees one. And of late there has
sprung up, in a part of the country least expected, a
"service" paper in which good ideas are sprouting.
The paper is called "The Service Field," and from
its snug little pages we extract the following, and
find the extracting easy, even pleasant, because it
meets our views so perfectly. Of course the subject
is advertising, although the article, from which the
extract is made, is headed, "How to Make a Service
Paper Successful." But read on—from "The Service
Field" of Santa Ana, California:
What Space Buyers Demand.
Space buyers who buy space in business papers
are placing less stress on circulation figures nowa-
days and more on editorial appeal.
This is the statement of an executive of one of
the prominent advertising agencies who has been
talking recently before bodies of editors, advertis-
ing men and publishers on "Editorial Value."
"If the paper is intelligently and humanly edited,"
said this advertising- agent, "we know that it will
be read by the right people."
In other words, the exacting advertiser is now
doing what he should have done years ago—study-
ing the publication's appeal. Instead, therefore, of
being a necessary evil, the text matter becomes, as
it should, the real heart of the paper.
Subscription Renewals.
The careful advertiser looks, too, for the percen-
tage of subscription renewal. He does this because
it, alone, is the answer to the value of the editor's
work.
We talk continually to our customers about using
BRINKERHOFF
Grands
- Reproducing Grands
Player-Pianos
and Pianos
The Line That Sells Easily
and Satisfies Always
BRINKERHOFF PIANO CO.
OFFICES, REPUBLIC BLDG.
209 State Street
CHICAGO
space continuously on the theory that the more often
a person hears a thing the stronger he will believe in
it. But of what value is this continuity from year
to year if the percentage of subscription renewal is
less than fifty per cent?
A subscription renewal of fifty per cent or less
means that half of the subscribers reading the adver-
tiser's copy the second year will be new people who
didn't see his advertising the first year.
A high subscription renewal percentage is the best
possible indication that the paper's subscribers are
reading the paper and being influenced by it. If
they didn't read it and didn't like it, they wouldn't
renew their subscriptions.
Here to Stay.
That is about half the article in "The Service
Field." But it tells the story—true story—as far as
present purposes go. For what Presto is especially
interested in, is the fact that more than the propor-
tion of subscription renewals, referred to as essential,
is maintained by this paper. There are hundreds of
subscribers on the mailing lists of Presto who have
been there from twenty to forty years, and at least
a thousand others who have been there for ten years
or more.
And it requires but a glance through the advertis-
ing pages to show that the manufacturers there
represented are the kind that "came to stay." Many
of them began with the second issue of this paper,
and have remained there ever since. We do not be-
lieve that any other music paper, in any department
of the industry or art, can show so large a proportion
of continuous advertisers for anything like the same
period of time.
Facts Well "Put."
Perhaps modesty is not the shining virtue of this
old trade paper. But we hope, and believe, that the
habit of truthfulness is not denied to Presto, and
the evidence is always ready when a statement of
editorial nature is made in these columns. But the
only reason for repeating what is said in "The Serv-
ice Field," and the only purpose in complimenting
that new publication, by reproducing from its pages,
with indorsement, is that what was printed strikes
us as so true, and so new in its manner of statement,
that every reader, especially all who are advertisers,
must be impressed.
Nevertheless, Presto believes also in new sub-
scribers. It works for them. It plugs for them. It
holds them. And if Presto's editorial conduct were
not sufficiently good, and sufficiently authoritative—
as the result of experience—to perform the service
most required of a "service paper" we do not believe
that what has here been said could be said truth-
fully—as it now certainly is truthful.
NEW SAN ANTONIO STORE
FOR THOS. GOGGAN & BROS.
HEPPE PIANO COMPANY
are the only pianos in the world with
Three Sounding Boards.
Scented In the United States, Great Britain.
France, Germany and Canada.
Liberal arrangements to responsible agents only.
Main Office, 1117 Chestnut St.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
BRIEF RECORDS OF PIANO
DEALERS ACTIVITIES
Incidents in the Energetic Pursuit of the Prospec-
tive Buyer Told in Short Sentences.
The G. F. Johnson Piano Co, Portland, Ore.,
moved February 28 into its new quarters, which are
considered the most attractive establishments in the
city.
The F. C. Howard Piano Co., of 618 South Salina
street, Syracuse, N. Y., has an attractive booth at the
radio show in the armory, which opened this week.
A special department has been arranged, with several
radio experts in charge, to advise clients as to the
best type of receiver to purchase.
A petition in bankruptcy has been filed in the Dis-
trict Court of New York by the Leaders Music Store,
Liberty, N. Y. The bankruptcy follows a fire, which
demolished the Leader store, located in the Arcade
Building.
The Fort Wayne Radio Trades Association was
recently organized, and the membership list is grow-
ing very rapidly. An aggressive campaign is being
planned.
The formal opening of the Blanton-Walker Music
Shop, Little Rock, Ark., took place recently.
James Denney, for many years with the Fitzgerald
Melody Shop, Sedalia, Mo., has purchased control of
the business from C. L. Fitzgerald.
A new store has been leased by Lockwood's Music
House, Saratoga Springs, N. Y. The new store will
be occupied about the middle of April.
A general music store has been opened by J. E.
Bennett and E. I. Simmons in Cordell, Okla. The
company handles pianos, phonographs and small
goods.
A Baldwin piano, supplied by the A. M. Hume
Music Co., Boston, was used in a concert in Jordan
Hall, March 17, by Alfredo Oswald,
ILLINOIS STORE ENLARGED.
William Fowler, Taylorville, 111., is proprietor of
the Busy Music Store, 313 West Market street,
which is now being enlarged. The improvement
consists of a thirty-foot extension on the rear of the
main building, making it eighty feet long.
•- Jfc Onduring*
Notable Line of Music Goods Handled in Fine Show-
rooms at Broadway and Travis Street.
The formal opening of Thos. Goggin & Bros.' new
store in San. Antonio, Tex., took place last we.ek, and
the local newspapers marked the occasion with the
issue of special supplements relating the interesting
history of the house. The company, now in its fifty-
ninth year, will celebrate the anniversary of its
formation later this year.
Thos. Goggan is president of the company; Thos.
F. Logan, vice-president; E. C. Diggans, manager of
the piano department; E. L. Ginsberg, manager of
the phonograph and radio departments; F. A. Brink-
man, manager of the sheet music department, and
Fred de Arredondo, manager of the band instrument
and small goods department.
The line of instruments handled is a notable one
and includes the Steinway, Weber and Steck pianos,
with the Duo-Art, the Emerson, Estey, Schumann,
Brambach, Vose, Premier, Lester and other makes.
C. G. Conn line of band instruments, Ludwig drums,
Victor and Brunswick phonographs and Brunswick
Radiola are also carried.
GULBRANSEN FOR CHURCH.
The Heppe. Marcellus and Bdouard Jfules PtaOO
manufactured by the
March 21, 1925.
A White House Model Gulbransen Registering
Piano was used by the Christ Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Oak Park, 111., recently in connection with
the opening of its fine new $60,000 school building.
The new school is located at Harvard and East
avenue, Oak Park, and at the opening services, March
15, more than 1,000 persons were present, crowding
the gymnasium and the balcony. The Gulbransen
was used as a registering piano and for hand playing
in sacred numbers, and for furnishing an accompani-
ment for the choir.
OPENS IN HIGH POINT, N. C.
A new music store has been opened at 215 North
Main street, High Point, N. C, by R. R. Bland, for-
merly in the music business in Troy, N. C. Mr.
Bland will be assisted in the management of the
music business by Roy Cagle and J. O. Harris.
™*£Hardman
The FHardman J^ine
is a complete line
It comprises a range of artisti-
cally worthy instruments to
please practically every purse:
The Hardman, official piano of
the Metropolitan Opera House;
the Harrington and the Hensel
Pianos in which is found that in-
builtdurabilitythatcharacterizes
all Hardman-made instruments;
the wonderful Hardman Repro-
ducing Piano; the Hardman
Autotone (the perfect player-
piano); and the popular Playo-
tone.
ffimlmanjpeck &Co.
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