The Chronicles of a Gay GordonGordon, J. M. (Joseph Maria)
History
The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon
Gordon, J. M. (Joseph Maria)
Generals -- England -- Biography; Gordon, J. M. (Joseph Maria), 1856-1929
Difficulties began early. I found that it was by no means so easy to
collect advertisements, knowing, of course, nothing about it, and I
tackled the job badly. Those who took up advertising space stipulated for
an actual distribution of ten thousand copies of the _Tissue_ each day,
which had to be guaranteed and be carried out before they paid for the
advertisements. I could see no other way out of the difficulty than to
consent to their terms. Next came how to print the _Tissue_. We had no
printing plant of our own, so we had to find what I think they called "a
job printer" to pull us through. This was by no means easy, as I was
unable to find one who would promise that the paper would actually be
printed each day and be ready for issue at the stipulated time. Besides,
the price to be charged seemed to me to be nearly ruinous. Yet if our
venture was worth trying it was worth paying for at first. The _Turf
Tissue_ was to become a genuine daily newspaper. There would be more than
ample profits by and by.
The time was near when the first issue was to take place, namely, the
Thursday of the week before the day on which the Melbourne Cup was to be
run, the first Tuesday in November. We decided that the first issue was
to be given free to the newsvendors and sellers by way of advertisement,
and notices were put up inviting all such who were willing to sell the
_Turf Tissue_ to assemble outside the offices of the paper on the
Thursday morning by 10 A.M. That morning came and so did the crowds of
would-be sellers to obtain their free issue for which they were to charge
2d. each. In such numbers were they that the traffic was interfered with,
and the police took the matter in hand. I found out that a mistake had
undoubtedly been made in fixing the main thoroughfare as a place of
distribution, and that the mistake was entirely due to my inexperience as
an editor and newspaper proprietor. For such I was. In a short time the
first ten thousand copies of the first number of the newly-fledged
sporting paper were being sold throughout Melbourne town. Looking out of
the window of my office I could hear the loud cries of "Buy a _Turf
Tissue_," "All the tips," "Latest gallops," "Only twopence." All was
going well, and the firm adjourned to Scott's Hotel. A couple of bottles
of "bubbly" christened the very first sheet out of the printing press,
which I have still.
To avoid the scenes in the street of that morning, I arranged for light
carts to proceed next morning to convenient localities, where, under
proper supervision, the regular distribution to sellers would take place,
and these localities were duly and largely advertised that afternoon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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