Summary Information
Abstract
This collection contains records related to the career of Jason Rogers, a
journalist and publicist who contributed to the field of newspaper advertising. It
features correspondence between Rogers and many important figures in the industry during
the early twentieth century, and will be useful for researchers interested in journalism
and advertising from this period.
At a Glance
Bib ID: | 6340481 View CLIO record |
Creator(s): | Rogers, Jason, 1868-1932. |
Title: | Jason Rogers
Papers,
1825-1971.
|
Physical description: | 6 linear ft. (12 archival document boxes, 1 slide box, 1 small box).
|
Language(s): | In English
|
Access: |
Boxes 1-12 of this collection are located off-site. You will need to request this material at least
two business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library reading room. Boxes 13 and 14 contain glass slides and are shelved on-site
This collection has no restrictions.
More information » |
Arrangement
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in six series:
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Description
Scope and Content
Jason Rogers devoted his career to promoting journalism and professionalizing newspaper
advertising. This collection contains drafts and documents related specifically to his
work, as well as his research on the wider industry. It includes correspondence between
Rogers and scores of editors and publishers, advertisers, educators, and politicians
from cities and towns around the nation. Most of these letters were generated by Rogers
himself, who ceaselessly--relentlessly, his colleagues must have thought--shared his
latest ideas with the rest of the profession. From Adolph Ochs at the
Times
to the business manager at the
Spokane Spokesman-Review,
no one was safe from Rogers's broadside campaigns.
The collection also features documents from 1910-1923, when Rogers was the publisher of
the
Globe
in New York City. There are editions of the
newspaper, internal memoranda related to his formatting suggestions, as well as
clippings concerning the publication's eventual demise. Rogers launched most of his
largest campaigns during these years, since it was his position at the
Globe
that gave his ideas weight.
Rogers was the author of several books on newspaper publishing. They were all focused on
the same general topic--the proper way to run a profitable publication--and so it is not
surprising that their titles have a certain uniformity:
Newspaper
Building,
Newspaper Making,
Fundamentals of Newspaper Making,
Building Newspaper Advertising,
etc. The collection
includes many typescript and manuscript drafts of these, and other, works. It also
features shorter advertising materials written by Rogers, and some correspondence with
prospective publishers.
Rogers involved himself with many of the pressing publishing issues of his era. This
collection contains materials on some of these, including newsprint pricing, newspaper
associations, circulations auditing, and the Pressman's Strike of 1919. It also features
some advertising materials that Rogers himself acquired, including several advertising
maps from the 1920s.
There are some personal materials present, including family correspondence. Jason
Rogers's son, Walter Shillaber Rogers, maintained his father's papers after his death.
Several files contain records related to Walter Rogers's career as an engineer and naval
officer.
Series I: Correspondence, 1892-1958
Series I contains general correspondence between Jason Rogers and his enormous
circle of professional colleagues. These letters from journalists, educators,
advertisers, and politicians mostly relate to Rogers's various campaigns to
improve standards in newspaper marketing. One folder features correspondence from
Rogers's time at the
Kansas City Journal-Post.
This
series also includes some family letters, mainly between Jason Rogers and his son,
Walter. Most of the correspondence here was filed separately in the Rogers papers.
There are many more letters filed chronologically throughout the collection in
folders directly related to specific subjects. For instance, each of Rogers's
advertising campaigns contains its own documents, clippings, and correspondence.
Series II: Writings, 1915-1930
Series II features typescripts, manuscripts, and published works from Rogers's
career as an advertising writer and book author. Rogers's drafts tend to be
combinations of typewritten and handwritten pages, combined with note cards and
clippings.
Subseries II.1: Published Writings, 1915-1920
These files contain typescripts and manuscripts of Rogers's books and pamphlets
that were eventually published.
Subseries II.2: Unpublished Writings, 1925-1931
The manuscripts and typescripts in these folders were never published.
Subseries II.3: General Writings, 1916-1930
Rogers wrote most of these short pieces as advertising copy, or as marketing
materials for his various campaigns.
Series III: Advertising Campaigns, 1912-1930
Rogers may be little known today, but his contemporaries were all-too aware of his
activities. In the productive years of his career, he inundated his colleagues
with one campaign after another. Most of his ideas came from practices at the
Globe;
his extensive publicizing of his own
innovations no doubt added to his paper's reputation for creative marketing. He
launched each of these drives with a circular letter and some advertising
materials, and then reaped responses from editors around the nation. These
responses were then used to generate publicity for the next campaign. Rogers's
efforts ranged from supporting the League of Nations to fighting income-tax
evasion.
Series IV:
The Globe,
1910-1924
While much of the collection features records dating from Rogers's time as
publisher of the Globe, this series deals specifically with his activities at the
paper. These files feature some business documents, and contain several issues of
the publication. Several folders are dedicated to the 125th anniversary edition,
which was published in 1918. The saga of the
Globe's
demise – and Rogers's unsuccessful attempt to replace it –
unfolds through clippings and correspondence in this series.
Series V: Newspaper Business, 1874-1948
This series holds materials collected by Rogers related to the wider newspaper
industry
Subseries V.1: Newspaper Associations, 1910-1948
Some of Rogers's greatest contributions came from his advocating wider
cooperation between journalists. This subseries contains files related to the
origins of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It also holds records from some
publishing conferences.
Subseries V.2: Newspaper Research, 1874-1932
This subseries holds a small selection of historical advertisements, as well as
clippings on journalism history. Subjects in these folders include Henry Ford
and Victor Lawson, founder of the
Chicago Daily
News.
There is some information on the Pressman's Strike of 1919,
and on the larger question of the price of newsprint.
Series VI: Personal, 1825-1971
This series holds documents related to the personal lives and business activities
of Jason Rogers and his son, Walter Shillaber Rogers.
Subseries VI.1: Jason Rogers, 1825-1951
This subseries holds business papers and clippings related to Rogers's career.
It also has some research Rogers conducted into the life of John Dillingham, a
nineteenth-century resident of Cape Cod. Dillingham's will of 1825 is also
here.
Subseries VI.2: Walter Rogers, 1919-1971
Walter Rogers was an engineer, an advertising executive, and a naval officer.
This subseries contains records from his education, business life, and
documents a decades-long conflict with the military over his pension.
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Using the Collection
Partially Offsite
Access Restrictions
Boxes 1-12 of this collection are located off-site. You will need to request this material at least
two business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library reading room. Boxes 13 and 14 contain glass slides and are shelved on-site
This collection has no restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material
from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University
Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to
publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission
rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Jason Rogers Papers; Box and Folder;
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Selectec Related Material-- at Other Repositories
Jason Rogers Papers
at the Kansas City Public Library
This collection is related to Jason Rogers's time as business manager at the
Kansas City Journal-Post.
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About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries. Rare Book and
Manuscript Library; machine readable finding aid created by Columbia University
Libraries Digital Library Program Division
Processing Information
Papers processed 2007 Thai Jones (GSAS 2013).
Finding Aid written by Thai Jones (GSAS 2013) October 2007.
Machine readable finding aid generated from MARC-AMC source via XSLT conversion
June 26, 2009
Finding aid written in English.
2009-06-26
xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
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Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.
Subjects
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History / Biographical Note
Biographical Note
An innovative journalist from print's heyday, Jason Rogers
made his greatest contributions to the field of newspaper advertising. He was best known
as the publisher of the
Globe,
a minor but venerable
daily in New York City. For more than a decade, starting in 1910, he made the
publication a success; maintaining its "clean and purposeful" reputation, while also
multiplying circulation more than tenfold. By 1923, even competitors recognized the
Globe
as "the finest afternoon paper in existence."
Nevertheless, that year he could do nothing to prevent a hostile buyout by a media
rival. The new owner fired the staff and discontinued the paper. Neither Rogers, nor his
career, ever fully recovered from this calamity.
An advocate for probity and transparency, Rogers dedicated
himself to sloughing off the advertising profession's snake-oil taint. He promised his
clients "steady returns" rather than miraculous windfalls. "The day is gone by," he
wrote, "when it is safe to count on a sucker being born every minute." But, it was a
hustling age in newspapers, and Rogers himself never fully shed his striver's skin. He
called his method "printed salesmanship," and it is difficult, at times, to
differentiate his efforts from the sort of Barnum-esque stunts that he despised. From
his desk at the
Globe,
Rogers inundated the industry with
enthusiastic campaigns. Month on month, year on year, colleagues received his circulars,
broadsides, novel ideas, stunning assertions, and confident projections. "Please Read
This Carefully," a typical letter began, "I Think it Means Dollars in Your Pocket."
Another offered to "Open the Door to Opportunity." A third predicted "the Biggest and
Most Profitable Advertising Season on Record."
Born on August 5, 1868, in Morrisania--now part of the
Bronx--Rogers had printer's ink in his veins. His grandfather, William Cauldwell, owned
and edited a local weekly called the
Sunday Mercury.
He
encouraged young Jason to produce his own broadsheet, and the child took to the work,
setting type and cranking a printing press by hand. After that experience, Rogers
recalled, "I looked forward to the day when I should be able to work on a real
newspaper." He did not wait patiently, but pestered his family for the freedom to launch
his career. His parents held out until he was twelve. Then, though he had not yet
completed grammar school, they permitted him to take a position in his grandfather's
plant, at a salary of two dollars a week.
"Once started at the newspaper office," he wrote, "during a
period of fifteen years I worked in practically every department of the shop, enjoying
every phase of activity, just because I was so keenly filled with a desire to master
every detail and eventually rise to the top."
The Mercury
office was on Park Row in lower Manhattan. Also known as Newspaper Row, this street was
the center of the publishing universe, housing such legendary enterprises as the
Times,
the
World,
and the
Tribune. When awake, Rogers learned his business; at night he sometimes slept between
stored newsprint rolls. On weekends, he returned to his parents' house in Morrisania. In
1893, his grandfather promoted him to publisher of the
Mercury.
When the paper failed two years later, Rogers circulated from the
Providence
News,
to the Chicago
Inter-Ocean,
the
Chicago Journal,
and then
the New York
Sun.
During this apprenticeship he learned
the trade from header to footer. "I had been through the business office from office boy
to assistant cashier and bookkeeper," he recalled. "I had been through all the
mechanical departments, had traveled over all outlying newspaper territory on
circulation work, and had considerable experience in selling advertising."
In 1904, he signed on as a manager at the
Commercial Advertiser,
an irrelevant evening paper in New
York. Founded by Noah Webster in 1793, it was the oldest daily in the city. By the
twentieth century, the journal had little but longevity to boast of. Quaint and
old-fashioned, it could not even think to compete with the mammoths of the industry. At
a time when the
World
claimed a circulation of 600,000
and the
Journal
boasted an astounding 950,000, the
Commercial Advertiser's hovered around 12,000. This changed on February 1, 1904. That
morning, tens of thousands of New Yorkers received miniature globes in the mail. Rogers
had transformed his old journal into the new
Globe.
He
also halved the price, to one penny. The first issue sold 100,000 copies.
"My boy," a mentor once confided to Rogers, "don't let the
other fellow make your newspaper. Make your own newspaper, and as long as it is marching
forward don't waste any time watching what the other fellows are doing." In May 1910,
Rogers was promoted to publisher, and the
Globe
became
his newspaper. Finally, he had the "opportunity of trying out and applying plans and
ideas picked up in thirty years' work." His position made him a public figure, and he
did not hesitate to weigh-in on questions of national importance. A member of the
ocean-liner set, he traveled the world, writing home on stationery from whichever grand
hotel at which he happened to be staying. Yet, he never lost interest in the most
picayune questions of picas and points. On the same day, he might wire the President
with a foreign-policy suggestion, and also rebuke a typesetter for wasting a line of
print on the back page of the night edition.
Concerning himself with every detail of the
Globe's
production, he demanded high-minded and independent
reporting. "A real newspaper maker," he believed, was "a man who recognizes that in his
daily task he must be both a student and a teacher." His paper ran guides to purchasing
pure food, offered home study courses, and printed bedtime stories for children. Rogers
was a despot when it came to typography. A sloppy header was shabby as "a soiled white
tie on a man.” A worn-out piece of type was “like a weather-beaten silk hat.” He wanted
his publication to be neither garish nor fussy, but suited both to "a Bowery bar where
the pugs study the sport stuff" and "the boudoir of the refined lady interested in the
musical or dramatic departments." When the printers finally applied his suggestions, he
exulted: the
Globe
is beginning to look like a real
newspaper!”
Perhaps Rogers's most important contribution to
professionalizing the advertising business was his drafting of the plan for the Audit
Bureau of Circulations, an organization that still exists. Since the nineteenth century,
newspapers had set advertising rates based on circulation figures, but had rarely kept
accurate--or honest--records.
The Sun
boasted on its
masthead of "over 1,000,000" a week, but did not specify if this number referred to
copies printed or those that actually sold. Where the
New York
Times
displays its motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print," Joseph
Pulitzer's
World
promised "Books Open to All." Yet there
was no standard method of accounting, and advertisers knew they were being overcharged.
In Rogers's first year at the
Globe,
he kept exact
records based on copies sold. Against the advice of colleagues, he published the
results, and challenged competitors to do the same. In 1913, he promoted a scheme for a
national organization to objectively measure newspaper circulation. Such a group would
take the guesswork out of setting advertising rates. A year later, the Audit Bureau of
Circulations was founded on Rogers's principles. Today, circulation auditing is a
universal practice.
By 1923, the
Globe's
readership
was well above 200,000 per day. The paper was renowned for its innovative features and
serious reporting; it could "be counted on to take a courageous stand on all public
questions." What's more, it was profitable. In May, however, news started spreading that
the
Globe's
ownership wanted to sell. Several buyers
showed interest. One was Frank Munsey, who owned the evening
Sun.
He wanted to buy out the
Globe
in order
to eliminate a competitor. A notorious media tycoon, Munsey's critics said he lacked
“the slightest recognition that there are such things as journalistic ideals, or public
service, or the nobility of a great profession;” he was a “dealer in dailies--little
else and little more.” In New York alone, he had already purchased the
Daily News,
the
Sun,
the
Press,
the
Herald,
the
Telegram,
and the
Daily
Continent.
These, as well as many other papers and magazines, had passed
through his control. Once in his grasp, a newspaper faced merger, decline, or demise. If
a property disappointed him, he gave a simple order: “Kill it.”
Rogers had no financial interest in his newspaper, and thus no
say in its fate. "My plans are rather jumbled right now," he wrote to his son. "If
anyone unsatisfactory to me buys the paper I will gracefully drop out." In late May,
Munsey, the most unsatisfactory buyer possible, purchased the
Globe
for $2.3 million. He incorporated its most popular features and
franchises into the
Sun,
and dismissed almost the entire
staff with two weeks' pay. On the evening of June 2, solemn workers at the doomed paper
gathered in the basement of the printing plant to watch the last edition blur through
the presses. Everyone signed the final copy and presented it to Rogers as a gift. The
next evening, the city paused for a moment of mourning. “Today in New York a
considerable number of newspaper readers find themselves without a usual companion,” a
sentimental writer noted. “An axe has once more been swung. Where once was a tree is now
not even a stump.”
The sale, Rogers later wrote, "was a tragedy to me and my
co-workers." None could have suffered more than he, who had dedicated himself to the
paper's improvement over the previous twenty years. Rogers worried for his staff, but
tried to seem confident about his own future; "it will be a matter of weeks or months to
catch hold again," he wrote his son. "I have no fears but one can never tell." Instead
of taking a job at a different publication, he tried to replace what he had lost. He had
launched many campaigns in his career, but now he organized his greatest yet. On the
morning of June 10, 1924--almost a year to the day after his paper's demise--Rogers
placed an ad in the
New York Times.
"Do You Want a Clean
and Purposeful Newspaper Like the Old
Globe?
" it asked.
He was inserting the notice to ascertain "the extent of the interest in a clean and
uncontrolled new evening newspaper" like the one that had been destroyed. "If you want
such a newspaper, please write to me," Rogers concluded. As a final enticement, he
offered to let the readers themselves vote on the name for the new publication.
At first, the venture looked promising. Letters and cards
tided in. Rogers drafted a business plan and filed papers of incorporation. A week after
his first ad, he ran a second notice, to the "several thousand" responders. "On behalf
of my co-workers," he wrote, "I thank you sincerely for your interest in our effort to
restore journalism to freedom from purely commercial domination." Soon after this, he
announced that 12,000 people had replied to his challenge. The new paper was supposed to
begin publication in the fall or winter. But eager responses apparently did not add up
to interested investors. Rogers's vision of a "newspaper organized and operated by
newspapermen of sound experience and unselfish purpose for the benefit of the people"
was not to be.
He was 56 years old at the time of this second disappointment,
and would never again hold a position commensurate with the one he had lost at the
Globe.
From 1924 to 1926, he edited and published
Advertisers' Weekly,
an industry newsletter. Then he
worked as general manager of the
Kansas City
Journal-Post,
leaving this job after two years. Always a prolific writer,
Rogers had authored several books on newspapers and advertising. His manuals, filled
with peppy exhortations, were widely used in the nation's journalism schools. In his
later life, though, he found it increasingly difficult to find publishers for his work.
Rogers had married Marian Shillaber in 1894. Their son,
Walter, was born during 1901 in New Rochelle, New York. As a child, Rogers had
vacationed on Cape Cod. During his time at the
Globe,
he
had summered there with his family. In 1929, he moved to North Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Even in retirement, he continued his advertising drives; perhaps his last, the New
England campaign, was inspired by his new home. According to the
Falmouth Enterprise,
he was "a familiar figure on Main Street where he liked
to drop in and chat with the merchants on their local problems." During his final
illness, he still assembled figures and crafted plans for municipal improvements. Jason
Rogers died on April 26, 1932. He was 63 years old.
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