By this time my interest was so heightened that I told my personal
friend, the publisher, about the inartistic and incoherent mendacity
of his subordinates, whereupon he laughingly showed me his circulation
book, which clearly, and I have no doubt truthfully, exhibited an
average of 88,000. The wicked partner is nearly always ready to show
the actual record of the counting machines on the presses, and
"figures never lie" but the truth-telling machines which record actual
work of the impression cylinders make no mention of damaged copies
thrown aside, of sample copies, files, exchanges, copies kept against
possible future need, copies unsold, copies nominally sold but sooner
or later returned and finally sold to the junk shop, and all that sort
of thing. One prints a large extra issue on a certain day for some
business corporation which has its own purpose to serve by publication
of an article in its own interest, whereby many thousands of copies
are added to that day's normal output, and he makes the exceptional
number for that day serve as the exponent of his circulation until
good fortune brings him a similar and possibly larger order, and his
circulation is reported as "still increasing." Another struck a
"high-water mark" of "190,500" the day after Mr. Cleveland was
elected, and that has been the implied measure of circulation for the
last six years. Another, during a heated political campaign, or a
great financial crisis, or some other dominant factor in public
interest, makes a large and genuine temporary increase, but the
highest mark gained does enforced duty in the eyes of the marines
until another flood tide sweeps him to a greater transient height.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37