BREWERS AND THE PRESS.

White Ribbon, Volume 41, Issue 482, 18 November 1935, Page 6

BREWERS AND THE PRESS.

“( oloxsal Impertinence" of Sir Edgar Sanders. Mr. Samuel Storey, M I*., I resident of die Newspaper Society, presiding at its half-yearly general meeting at the Waldorf Hotel, said that in a recent speech Sir Edgar Sanders (director of the brewers’ Society) outlined a campaign to attract and secure younger customers who would become the mainstay of the public-house, and to instil the l>eer drinking habit Into millions of young men who did not at present know the taste of beer. “Impertinence.” “In that speech,” continued Mr. Storey, “Sir Edgar declared that in any Press advertising campaign, they would see that the continuation of advertising was contingent upon the fact that they got editorial support in the same newsI apers. “I will say nothing to you al>out the (Vinca! aim of the campaign except to describe it a.® such, and 1 do so although I am no bigoted teetotaller. “Hut 1 have no hesitation in describing Sir Edgar’s thieat to the Press as the most colossal impertinence.

Editorial Ereedotn. “We are always ready to give in oiu news columns any genuine news about the doings of advertisers, and even support :n our editorial columns any actions which in themselves command out approval, hut the assumption that editorial opinion of the British Press c m be lx)ught, even b\ brewers, Is unwarranted. • “I feel that impudent threat will long l*» remembered by every right-minded editor in this country.” Mr. Storey added that he hoped that those who received advertisement orders would make it clear to the trade that the opinions of their' editors could not be bought even by the trade. The Resolution. The meeting confirmed a resolute i. which the Council of the Society hr I already passed, in the following terms. ‘That the Newspaper Society ha'iiu con side red a report of a speech made by Sir Edgar Sanders, Director of the Brewers’ Society, at a recent meeting, emphatically repudiates the suggestion that the editorial policy of the Pres.-; of this country cun be dictated or influenced by the purchase of advertising spare by any trade interest.’* We are glad to note that an important and Influential newspaper, the “News Chronicle,” has associated itself with this attitude in the following leaderette in its columns of November 16th, 1933: A Protest. “We draw the attention of our reader to the speech, reported on another pag*in which Mr. Samuel Storey repudiates emphatically the suggestion that the editorial support of British newspaper can l>e bought as a condition of benefiting in an extended advertising campaign. Mr. Storey speaks for the provincial Press; hut the British Press as a whole would undoubtedly endorse energetically his protest, and w< certainly associate ourselves with it without any qualification."