Illinois newspaper directory. History of the Illinois press association

Illinois Newspaper Directory and Historymethods, and the idea was advanced that local press organizations might find it helpfulto co-operate in this matter and each editor furnish copy of news items in his localityto the others in return for the same courtesy.John L. Eyrse, newly appointed field secretary was introduced. Reports of theLegislative Committee and the Committee on Education were heard and approved. Therecommendation of the Committee on Education held over from the last meeting waspresented and approved by unanimous vote. It provided:That the Illinois Press Association, through the Committee on Education,issue to competent newspaper men of Illinois a professional certificate under conditionsto be determined by the Illinois Press Association.The final business session was then turned over to Mr. Heir for his school of instruction.He went into the history of the cost-finding movement. Twenty years earlier theGrand Rapids printers organized and launched an investigation conducted over a periodof one year showed that during that time the membership had done business at a loss of$312,000, he said. They had been paying compositors sixty cents an hour and sellingcomposition at seventy-five cents an hour. The result of this revelation was that theymore than trebled the price of hand composition. The next year's survey showed thatnot only had they made up the deficiency of the previous year, but they showed aprofit for that year of $232,000.He pointed out that it is this lack of knowledge of the actual cost to him of turningout work that causes the average job printer to set his price so low as to underbid acompetitor. This condition brings about the lack of standardization in prices that is thebane of the job printing industry today."This condition can be rectified only by the adoption of a uniform system of costsbased on the productive process on every type of machine used in the modern printingplant," said Mr. Heir. Results of the survey for 1926 were scheduled to appear in theJune issue of Mr. Heir's publication, the Inland Printer, and the whole subject, withcomplete cost tables, was announced for book publication in July.That many job printers do not take into consideration all elements of cost inquoting job prices was demonstrated by the speaker in taking up the example suggestedto him by Mr. Williamson, secretary of the Association, of a customer who orders 1,000Hammermill letter heads, 2 0-pound stock. By using figures compiled by the standardcost system the following estimate was made.Stock $ 1.5040 per cent for breaking ream .60Stock spoilage by feeder .18Composition 3.40Lock-up .68Make-ready .6 8Press-run (10x15 press) 1.70Ink .15Jogging -10Total $ 8.99Profit, 25 per cent 2.25Price to customer SI 1.24A warm discussion followed the presentation of these figures.All agreed that competitiveprice cutting was wrong in this as in any other line of business, but the question247