Ford as a Publisher

For 18-odd years the Dearborn Independent had been a small town weekly. In November, 1918, Henry Ford published it with the resolve to apply to it his much-discussed ideas of quantity production.

The problem of securing circulation for the publication was attacked with Ford's habitual energy. When he purchased it, its subscribers numbered only a few hundred. After some of his sensational views on various topics appeared, quite a number of readers bought it for a time out of mere curiosity. But the bulk of its subscriptions were obtained by Ford agents or employees on liberal commissions of from 30 to 50%. Many Ford plants subscribed to the weekly 100%. Yet its circulation has spread considerably beyond Mr. Ford's own business following. There are 125,000 immediately employed by the Ford Motor Co., and about as many more employees of Ford agencies. But the Dearborn Independent's circulation is now stated to be 701,000 copies weekly. Evidently Mr. Ford has ambitions for his magazine. A new $1,400,000 building at Dearborn is nearing completion; it is equipped with new presses able to turn out 1,000,000 copies of 68 pages each week. Yet, unlike most of Mr. Ford's other ventures, the Dearborn Independent has not paid expenses, although this must be largely attributed to its policy of not accepting advertisements.

Undoubtedly Mr. Ford's fondness for his paper is due to his ability to say in it just what he thinks about Jews, moneylenders, international bankers, currency, who started the War and why, and other favorite topics. As a subtitle, the weekly bears the slogan, "Chronicler of the Neglected Truth."