Life, 1910-03-03 · page 8 of 80
Life — March 3, 1910 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an advertisement and appeal to newsstand dealers, not a political cartoon. Life magazine is urging newsdealors to promote subscriptions rather than relying on single-copy sales. The key argument: regular subscribers increase a publication's value and circulation numbers. Life claims "Every week Five Hundred Thousand People read Life" and appeals to dealers to convert casual buyers into subscriptions at $5.00 (Canadian $5.52, Foreign $6.04). The small cartoon at top shows figures encouraging action, while the bottom illustration depicts a sign reading "Life and a happy one"—a visual pun about the magazine's name. This reflects early-twentieth-century publishing economics where subscription lists were crucial business metrics for magazines.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
This is just a little re- minder—that our GREAT TELEGRAM CONTEST closes next week — March 10. Get your answer in before that day. See con- ditions on another page. To Our Friends, the Newsdealers The Publisher and Retailer, which is usually the sprightly and fearless but in this case the cuncta- tive representative of the newsdealers of this country, recently quoted from this page one of our paragraphs which dealt with the extreme ad- visability of Obeying that Impulse and becoming a regular subscriber and, under the head, “Where Does the Dealer Come In?” asked: What your Publisher and Retailer would like to know is, Where does the newsdealer get off in such a case? We know that he made two-and-one-half cents, or nearly that, on the copy he sold to the gentleman who sent Life $5.00 —but is that Life's idea of a square deal? Our reply is this: Has any newsdealer in the country noticed a falling off in the demand for Life during the past year? Isn’t it true that every newsdealer is now selling from one-half to twice as many Lifes as he did before we began our humble efforts to get everybody to Obey that Impulse? That’s the answer, and the reason is equally plain. Every regular subscriber added to a paper's list means all the way from one to three copies sold on the news stands. This is the law. When the circulation of a periodical is rising, the newsstand sale helps the subscription list and the subscription list helps the newsstand sale. They work together. The more regular subscribers we have the more our friends, the newsdealers, should rejoice. If they should begin to notice a falling off in Life Subscription $5.00 Canadian $5.52 (which they won't) they should then know that the subscription list was falling also. Every week Five Hundred Thousand People read Life. If we get those Five Hundred Thou- sand to become regular subscribers we should have, in the natural course of things, a news stand circulation of several million. The reason for this is that every reader who be- comes a regular subscriber is, unconsciously, help- ing the sale of the paper in various directions. The paper lies on his library table. It is seen by his friends, who secretly admire him for his good taste and discrimination. They see something in it that they want, and the next time they pass their newsdealers they buy it. We therefore urge our friends, the newsdealers, to influence as many readers as possible to Obey that Impulse and become regular subscribers. It will pay them to do it. That town which has the greatest number of regular subscribers has the largest news stand sale. Think this over, friends, and you will see how it works. We shall be glad to have our friends co-operate with us. All regular newsdealers who sell Life are author- ized to receive yearly subscriptions. Our readers who wish to avail themselves of the privilege of becoming regular subscribers can sub- scribe direct or have their newsdealer forward the order. Premium picture, PLAYING BRIDGE, sent to all yearly subscribers whose names are on our mailing list. Foreign $6.04 comicbooks.com