March 1918 Signs of the Times Ad: The Billboard Magazine

The Billboard Magazine Connection

AN AD IN the March 1918 issue of Signs of the Times suggests reaching “showfolk” by using The Billboard. The forerunner of what is now billboard magazine had been co-founded by Col. William H. Donaldson in 1894 as Billboard Advertising, aptly named for the advertising and billposting industry it covered, albeit briefly. A disagreement with billposting-association leaders led to the other co-founder’s selling out to Donaldson at the turn of the century, and the magazine — having become The Billboard in 1897 — changing from covering actual billboards to outdoor entertainment such as fairs, circuses and more. See Signs of the Times issues dating from 1906 to 1921 at signsofthetimes.com/archive.

• The Dwight Schrute Route
  H.C. Menefee served as associate editor of The Billboard for three years before splitting his job duties with Donaldson’s new sign publication in 1906 as “Assistant to the Manager” F.C. McCarahan. By the following year, the 25-year-old Menefee was named ST editor.
• From One Colonel to Another
  In 1914 Donaldson wanted to suspend publishing Signs of the Times and transfer fellow Kentucky-born H.C. Menefee back to The Billboard but luckily for all of us, the enthusiastic editor offered to purchase ST and soon assumed ownership. Rescued from the brink more than a century ago, Signs of the Times has been the undisputed world leader in sign information ever since. Oh, and billboard has done okay, too.