STARTED WITH THREE HALFPENCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19512, 10 June 1933, Page 20

STARTED WITH THREE HALFPENCE

ROMANCE OF LIFE OF PUBLISHER . DIES WORTH MILLIONS, United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright WASHINGTON, June 7. Mr Cyrus H. K. Curtis, publisher of the “Saturday Evening Post,” died In Philadelphia to-day, aged 83. Cyrus H. K. Curtis, owner of the “Philadelphia Ledger,” “Ladies Home Journal” and “Saturday Evening Post,” was bom in Portland, Maine, in June, 1850. Beginning with a lid, he became a multi-millionaire. When he was 12, he asked his mother for money to buy fireworks. She told him that, if he wanted money, he must earn it. He had lid and bought three newspapers which he sold. At the end of the day he had 4!d. Soon he took a big batch to a town across the river, thus opening up a new market, and made 10/- a week. Next year he started a boys’ weekly, “Young America," which had a net sale of 100. He had got a hand press for 12/- and was doing well when a fire burnt him out. Then for six years he worked in a drapery store. At twenty, however, he went back the Press, canvassing for advertisements for a half-dead paper in Boston. Finally the owner offered it to him for nothing. For five years he struggled with it, but in 1876 he gave it up, got married and went to Philadelphia, where he started a weekly, the “Tribune and Farmer.” One day his wife drew his attention to the so-called “woman’s page.” “Who wrote that?” she asked. “I did,” replied Curtis. “It’s utterly ridiculous," she said. “Well,” he answered, “perhaps it is. Will you write a page for me?” Her page became the best feature.

This suggested the idea of a really good woman’s paper. In 1883 he founded the “Ladies’ Home Journal,” which became tremendously popular. Meanwhile his business had outgrown his capital and an advertising agent, N. W. Ayer, who knew his man, not only lent him £50,000, but guaranteed him with a paper firm for £25,000. In eighteen months Curtis had paid it all back. He never forgot a kindness and as the result of this action the N. W. Ayer Co. is now one of the biggest advertising firms in the world. One great secret of Curtis's progress was that he let his successes alone. Having got the “Ladies’ Home Journal” going, he bought In 1897 the copyright title of the “Saturday Evening Post,” all that was left of a paper founded by Franklin. Three hundred thousand pounds were lost on it before it turned the comer, but it became one of the most profitable publications in existence. In a single issue it has carried £200,000 in advertising, its annual revenue from that source being £7.000,000, while its circulation is 2,500,000 a week. That of the “Ladies’ Home Journal” is over 2,000,000. The “Country Gentleman” was purchased in 1911 and soon attained a circulation of 600,000 a week. Then in 1913 he bought the “Philadelphia Public Ledger” which he further improved. In 1925 it absorbed the “North American.” In December, 1923, Curtis also acquired the “New York Evening Post.” Although his advertisement income ran to over £13,000,000 he was as particular about the class of advertisement he accepted as he was about the standard of his reading matter, and he thus wielded a great power for good.