Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
LUG ON THEATRE ADVERTISING<br />
SHOWS SIGNS OF DIMINISHING<br />
By NATHAN COHEN<br />
The appeal last week by Ernest Emerling,<br />
advertising chief of Loew's Theatres,<br />
for recognition of the motion picture theatre<br />
as a "legitimate retail establishment"<br />
on equal footing with all other advertisers<br />
served once again to spotlight a practice<br />
which for decades has put a lug on<br />
film industry advertising in the daily<br />
press. Emerling made his appeal before<br />
the sixth biennial advertising, selling and<br />
merchandising conference in Springfield,<br />
Mass.<br />
ASKS FOR EQUITABLE RATES<br />
He labeled as "mysterious and Inexplicable"<br />
the refusal to give theatres the local retail<br />
rate for comparable lineage. "Give the<br />
theatres the retail rates for space," he<br />
urged, "and make it plain they are buying<br />
display space and no so-called tieups for<br />
free publicity. Let the editorial departments<br />
run their movie pages on the same high<br />
editorial plane as other departments and<br />
pages in the papers."<br />
An examination of rate cards of more than<br />
100 representative daily newspapers by BOX-<br />
OFFICE—as a follow-up to Emerling's remarks—reveals<br />
that the practice of hiking<br />
rates for theatre advertising—on the longheld<br />
theory that the added lug compensates<br />
for reviews and other publicity—remains<br />
prevalent; and that the penalty payment<br />
in some instances doubles the rates<br />
paid by retail establishments and general<br />
advertising accounts.<br />
The survey surprisingly also reveals that<br />
not all newspapers are following the decadesold<br />
practice. A good number of important<br />
newspapers have dropped the practice altogether<br />
and, if there is a trend, it is toward<br />
the goal projected by Emerling. In a few<br />
scattered spots, the amusement rate actually<br />
is lower than the retail rate. Yet, the overall<br />
picture is still one that requires the<br />
theatre advertiser to contribute his penalty<br />
payments. The practice varies from city to<br />
city, from paper to paper. Even within<br />
the great newspaper chains there is no apparent<br />
plan by which it is determined<br />
whether theatres should pay the lug, and<br />
if are, they how much.<br />
HEARST CHAIN VARIATIONS<br />
In the Hearst chain, for example, the daily<br />
open rate on the Los Angeles Examiner is 65<br />
cents a line. The theatre rate is $1.15 a line.<br />
On the San Francisco Examiner, the open<br />
rate of 65 cents a Une is increased to $1.07 for<br />
film advertising. Yet on the Chicago Herald-<br />
American, the rate card makes no differential<br />
between retail and theatre advertising except<br />
that -national advertisers, when mentioning<br />
the name of the local exhibitor, must<br />
pay 15 cents a line extra.<br />
The Scripps-Howard chain likewise follows<br />
no set pattern for penalty payments.<br />
In San Francisco, where the chain's paper<br />
is the News, the general pattern of the community<br />
is followed. The lug is high—90 cents<br />
a line compared to the general flat rate of<br />
45 cents. Yet, the theatre rate is unchanged<br />
Comparative Rates<br />
10
Change language