Receipts must
be increased and the most promising way was an increase in the advertising
business.
Howard noted on the chart nineteen cities and large towns near New York in
each of which the daily circulation of the _News-Record_ was equal to
that of any paper published there and far exceeded the combined
circulations of all the home dailies on Sunday. This suggested a system of
local advertising pages, and for its working out he engaged one of the most
capable newspaper advertising men in the city. Within three months the idea
had "caught on" and, instead of sending useless columns of New York
"want-ads" and the like to places where they could not be useful, the
_News-Record_ was presenting to its readers in twelve cities and towns
the advertisements of their local merchants.
A year of this work, with Howard giving many hours of each day personally
to tiresome details, brought the natural results. The profits of the
_News-Record_ had risen to five hundred and forty thousand, of which
Howard's share was nearly three hundred thousand. The next year the profits
were seven hundred and fifty thousand, and Howard had reduced his debt to
eight hundred thousand.
"We shall be free and clear in less than three years," he said to Marian.
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