Atlanta Don'ts

Bane of all honest city editors and newshawks are "Business Office Musts." These are free stories about advertisers, which in many a paper take up so much space that legitimate news has to be whittled down or omitted entirely.

Many publishers, although they realize that this unpaid advertising is nothing less than a racket which cheapens the value of their paid advertising columns, have been afraid to interfere lest potent space-buyers be offended.

In Atlanta last week 1,200 advertisers were learning by experience what it was like to get along without B. O. M. blurbs. In a drastic step to make news columns safe for news stories Inman Gray's Journal, Clark Howell's Constitution, and William Randolph Hearst's Georgian had just entered an agreement to forbid almost every conceivable method of getting free space. Newshawks grinned as they read instructions which explained in detail just what sort of stories could not be passed by the copy desk. Outlawed were:

P: Fashion shows, cooking and garden schools with any commercial connections.

P: Beauty specialists.

P: Pictures of salesmen who change jobs.

P: Receptions for authors in book stores.

P: Promotion stunts in which Junior Leaguers or other socialite groups participate.

P: Travel & resort publicity.

P: Advance stories more than three inches long on wrestling matches.

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