Stripper's Guide

 In Part 8 of this series we looked at Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's promise, published in an Editor & Publisher full page ad, of a new and improved blanket service to start in July 1926. But that's not all we learned about his service in that E&P Syndicate Directory. In addition to a full page ad, the syndicate also submitted a list of the specific features to be offered, which were detailed  in the E&P syndicate listings. And what a whopper of a list it was! The syndicate advertised a total of sixty features, a roster which puts them in pretty heady company. 

To give you an idea of how serious a contender this would make them, here are the total features offered by a selection of the major syndicates, showing that Wheeler-Nicholson was gearing up to become a very major player:

 These major syndicates shown above all offered their wares for individual purchase; the blanket services generally did not list all their features in the syndicate listings. But the blanket service ads sometimes offer us an idea; Editors Feature Service, for instance, listed 33 named or described features in their ad. NEA, the market leader, would have offered more than that, but purely comparing numbers, they probably didn't offer much more than Wheeler-Nicholson. 

Here are the features offered by Wheeler-Nicholson in the 1926 E&P Syndicate Directory, along with credits and frequencies. You'll see a few familiar features from 1925, along with lots of new ones:

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We'll talk lots more about the new features in coming posts, but at the moment we need to backtrack a little. I said in a previous episode that I did not have any information about the investors who increased the Major's capitalization to $200,000. That turned out to be the case only because I've been doing lots of searching but not much reading. Luckily I have brilliant readers who come to my rescue. Blog reader Jim Davidson was kind enough to point out to me that there was more information right under my nose, in the same issue of Editor & Publisher I've been discussing for the last two days. For some reason my searches of E&P have not been finding this short item that appeared in that issue:

Maj. Malcom Wheeler-Nicholson this week announced that the capital stock of Wheeler-Nicholson, Inc. has been increased to $200,000. He also announced completion of agreements with the Advertisers' Photo-Engraving Company, the Craft Off-Set Printing Company, and the Shaefer Stereotyping Company, all of New York City, which have merged their services into working arrangements with the Wheeler-Nicholson syndicate and have become minority stockholders.

 While not out-and-out stating that these printing companies are responsible for the increase in capital stock, another reader, E.O. Costello, tells me that it would not be terribly unusual for investors to trade services for stock, and that the issuance of the stock can be considered essentially the same as capital, as long as it is being accepted by a third party as having some worth, which these three companies apparently did. 

Therefore, we are chipping away at Wheeler-Nicholson's financial mystery. It seems now that the Major was probably not actually awash in cash, but rather was relieved of the need for a bunch of cash by convincing a cadre of printing companies to exchange their needed services for stock certificates.  

With all or at least some of his printing needs taken care of, the only other big drain on Wheeler-Nicholson's cash reserves would be to pay his editorial and creative staff. Given the Major's obvious ability to convince people to invest in his new blanket service, could he have paid the creative personnel in the same way, with stock certificates and dreams of riches?

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 6:00 AM