houses or land to be lett or sold , persons removing from one place to another , things lost or stole , physitians’ advertisements , or inquiries for houses or lands to be lett or sold , for places or for servants , &c., may bring or send them to the Publisher, Tho. Howkins , in George Yard , in Lombard Street, London, who will carefully insert them at reasonable rates.
- That this way of publishing is much more advantageous than giving away Bills in the street, is certain, for where there is one of them read, there’s twenty is not; and a thousand of these cannot be supposed to be read by less than twenty times the number of persons; and done for at least the twentieth part of the charge, and with much less trouble and greater success; as has been experienced by many persons that have things inserted in it.
This paper lived but a short time; though the fact that the proprietor undertook to furnish above a thousand copies per week to booksellers, shops, inns, and coffee-houses in London, and that it was sent to “most of the cities and principal towns in England,” clearly indicates that the trade began to be aware of the advantages to be derived from publicity. Soon afterwards a paper of the same denomination, but published by another speculator, was commenced. Its appearance and purposes were told to the public in the autumn of 1675 by circulars or handbills, one of which has fortunately been stored up in the British Museum. As this curious document gives a comprehensive outline of the system of newspaper advertising, as it appeared to the most advanced thinkers in the reign of Charles II., we reprint it here in extenso:—
ADVERTISEMENT.
*WHEREAS divers people are