Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
LYMAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY -SATURDAY
3 East 14th St.. New York
. SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, siagle column, p«r
Insertion. On q uarterly or yearly contracts a special dia-
count i« allowed.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
%• made payable to Edward Lyman Bilt
Bnttrtdaith*
N*m Yvrk Post Offic*as Second-Oass Mmttm.
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 6, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. - EIGHTEENTH STREET.
IN WHAT CLASS?
NNOUNCEMENT is made in another
part of this paper of the incorpora-
tion of The Keynote with The Review.
The importance of the move will be realized
when the figures are studied which are in-
dicative of the strength of each paper. The
subscribers of both publications will re-
ceive increased value, while the gain to ad-
vertisers must of necessity be materially
augmented.
Read the figures, they tell more than
pages of self-laudation.
One thing, however, which we desire to
emphasize, and that, we propose that the
present year shall be a memorable one in
The Review annals. The consolidation of
The Keynote and Review is one of the
many plans which we have well under way
for the further strengthening of this news-
paper property. We can cast a retrospec-
tive glance over a period of newspaper
work, covering a decade, in which we have
steadily made progress, and have exerted
some influence toward the betterment of
trade conditions.
We have always adhered strictly to lines
of decency in the conduct of our affairs,
believing that even if our moral instincts
were sufficiently dulled not to have a pang
of conscience, that simply because we
were publishing a trade paper that
it gave us no license to club a non-
advertiser into line. Our policy has been
to produce a paper of sufficient value to
attract advertisers, and once under our
banner we have endeavored to give them
such value for their investment that their
own business intelligence would cause them
not only to remain but to increase their
patronage with the years. Beyond the
news functions of the paper we have pur-
posely avoided giving undue prominence
A
to those firms who have failed to appre-
ciate clean journalism by supporting it.
Sentiment neither pays salaries nor
printers. Again, the editorial utterances
of The Review have been impartial and in-
dependent of every influence whatsoever.
Time and again we have expressed our
opinions upon the passing of events in such
a way that the actions of some of the best
patrons of the paper have been criticised.
That sincerity of expression has made
friends, for back of every successful news-
paper property must be character. That
essential added to journalistic independ-
ence makes a paper respected and influ-
ential.
Again, we have never made ridiculous
statements regarding the circulation of
the paper. If we said we should publish
ten thousand copies of a certain issue of
the paper it was done; if we stated five
thousand copies the proofs were ready for
trade inspection.
It has been our aim to give good value
alike to subscriber and advertiser. We
have held, too, that it was not what we said
about ourselves, but the result of our ef-
forts to produce a paper, that would decide
our rise or fall.
At all times we have been willing to
abide by the decision of the intelligent
members of the trade. If we failed to pro-
duce a paper of sufficient value to be
patronized or read we should have quickly
dropped out of the race. After all, we are
all of us sustained by trade opinion. If
the weight is against us we sink. Just so
soon as we deem our position impregnable,
from that hour dates our fall. Years ago
we saw the necessity of travel, and at once
inaugurated a system of extensive tours
among the trade in all parts of North
America. Travel, aside from being an
educator in the broadest sense, has brought
us in close touch with trade everywhere,
and to a certain extent we have anticipated
the needs of our constituency. Again
these extended trips have resulted in direct
benefit to our patrons because there are
other functions for a conductor of a trade
paper than those which appertain directly
to the news service.
Take it on the basis of circulation alone,
and the rates asked by trade publications
are the highest charged for any newspaper
service in the world.
But let us see the service that trade pub-
lications give.
First, the advertisement, which is sup-
plemented by editorial service. Then
personal work, which may be divided, first,
into a tremendous amount of correspond-
ence which never appears to the outsider.
Second, a personal service, which in a paper
like The Review, extends through its
traveling representative to all parts of
America. All these factors, taken together
with the statement that the trade paper
reaches exclusively an interested class,
makes its advertising rates the lowest in
the world. And no matter what amount
of money, within reason, of course, a con-
cern may place with a trade publication, it
is pretty sure of getting good value for its
money, provided, of course, it has confi-
dence in the conductors of the paper.
Unfortunately in music trade journalism
there is little harmony, and everywhere
may be heard jarring and discordant notes.
It has been our custom to eschew every-
thing of a personal nature, criticising a
principle rather than an individual. There
has been too much of this snapping, snarl-
ing disposition rampant in trade journal-
ism. One would think at times that the
men were hungry for each other's blocd
and that modern civilization was only a
thin veneer over savagery.
Jealous mouthings and abuse of a com-
petitor never drove him out of the field so
long as he proved himself worthy of the
esteem of his fellow man.
It is so in journalism, if a man fails to
produce a newspaper enterprise which
meets with popular approval, its term of
life becomes dependent upon the resources
which it possesses.
We know nothing of the circulation of
our contemporaries. It is possible that
they may one and all overtop us. We have
shown in what class The Review belongs
with The Keynote consolidation, and it
might not be deemed inappropriate for us
to interject the remark, that an expression
from our contemporaries unsupported
counts for naught.
We claim that The Review is exceeded
by no paper in this trade in point of influ-
ence, and as far as circulation goes, well,
an opportunity is now afforded for anyone
who is in our class.
Not words but deeds, messieurs.
#
#
ALFRED DOLGE'S ADDRESS.
That Alfred Dolge is a keen and per-
sistent student of those great questions
which are the cornerstones of national se-
curity and prosperity is clearly evident
from his interesting remarks elsewhere in
this paper concerning the financial and
commercial affairs of this country.
The word student, however, is not ex-
actly applicable, for Mr. Dolge not only
studies and observes, but he originates.
In a former address he suggested the na-
tionalizing of the labor and insurance