Rogers, Jason, 1868-1932

An innovative journalist from print's heyday, Jason Rogers made his greatest contributions to the field of newspaper advertising. He was best known as the publisher of the Globe, a minor but venerable daily in New York City. For more than a decade, starting in 1910, he made the publication a success; maintaining its "clean and purposeful" reputation, while also multiplying circulation more than tenfold. By 1923, even competitors recognized the Globe as "the finest afternoon paper in existence." Nevertheless, that year he could do nothing to prevent a hostile buyout by a media rival. The new owner fired the staff and discontinued the paper. Neither Rogers, nor his career, ever fully recovered from this calamity.

An advocate for probity and transparency, Rogers dedicated himself to sloughing off the advertising profession's snake-oil taint. He promised his clients "steady returns" rather than miraculous windfalls. "The day is gone by," he wrote, "when it is safe to count on a sucker being born every minute." But, it was a hustling age in newspapers, and Rogers himself never fully shed his striver's skin. He called his method "printed salesmanship," and it is difficult, at times, to differentiate his efforts from the sort of Barnum-esque stunts that he despised. From his desk at the Globe, Rogers inundated the industry with enthusiastic campaigns. Month on month, year on year, colleagues received his circulars, broadsides, novel ideas, stunning assertions, and confident projections. "Please Read This Carefully," a typical letter began, "I Think it Means Dollars in Your Pocket." Another offered to "Open the Door to Opportunity." A third predicted "the Biggest and Most Profitable Advertising Season on Record."

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