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From The New International, Vol. 13 No. 2, February 1947, p. 34.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Here is an accounting of how the Cleveland Branch of the Workers Party conducted its recent campaign on behalf of The New International. We believe it will be of interest to our agents as a description of how even a small branch can work toward building The New International.
At the outset of the campaign the Literature Agent listed the 69 Labor Action subscribers who have renewed at least once. These were then broken down into neighborhood groups in so far as possible. Six comrades were assigned to contact the major portion of these Labor Action readers for New International subs. Every two weeks they were given two or three more names. The other four, because of other pressing party assignments, were given only a minimum number. (Our eleventh comrade was given no assignment, but did contribute two new subs to the drive.) The comrades were given old copies of The New International to use as samples, to sell if possible (five were sold), to give away if not, but in any case to give the prospective subscriber a chance to acquaint himself with the magazine. (The bundle of ten November and October issues you sent us for this purpose we put to good use.)
Almost every assignment meant at least two calls. The first call introduced the magazine, explained the drive, the special rates, the importance of supplementing the weekly Labor Action with the more analytical New International; the second call .was to find out if the reader had become convinced, and if not, to convince him. In many cases, the canvasser found the prospective subscriber not home on one of the two calls, necessitating another one. Therefore, the total number of calls made doesn’t equal the total assignments, but more than doubles them. Several of the assignments had to be changed when the original canvasser found the assignee working on a late shift.
As these names were reported on and the list eventually exhausted, the expiring New International subscribers were assigned. There were fifteen of these. We expected a higher percentage of sales, and got it. They were a known quantity, having read the magazine six months or a year. As they knew the magazine and knew their minds, one trip was all that was necessary except for those that weren’t home or didn’t have the money on the first call.
There was still another field of activity which we entered for the drive, but encountered no success whatever. This was the placing of the magazine on new stands. We continued to sell four or five magazines a month at Wheatman’s and our branch bundle of nine continued to sell out, but attempts to place the magazine on new stands failed. We tried five stands and have a promise on only one.
This sums up the activity of the Cleveland branch: 138 calls to Labor Action subscribers, 20 calls to expiring subs; five newsstand calls; 22 subs.
As for the individual efforts of the Cleveland comrades, almost everyone is to be commended. We got off to a slow start, but that was to be expected from the type of campaign we conducted. For instance, none of the subs were obtained from our own members – we prefer buying ours from a bundle. However, I think you’ll agree we ended up with a bang. For the second straight year we surpassed our quota by a substantial amount.
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Last updated on 21 April 2017