Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 01:46:49 EST

From: Bapopik Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: ADS & ANS--the "hits" numbers



O. K., I said that AMERICAN POPULAR SPEECH ONLINE would have

50,000-100,000 hits if properly produced and advertised.

The goals are to increase membership and to create a better product,

without losing too much money. Would 5,000 hits and 100 new members be

successful? To be honest, no one really knows how many new members we'll get

until we try.

As an example of what has to change, here are the news "hits" using

Newspaper Abstracts, Periodical Abstracts, and the New York Times.



AMERICAN NAME SOCIETY

(Periodical Abstracts)

1986-1989 0

1990-1991 0

1992 0

1993 0

1994 0

1995 0

1996 0

1997 (-Oct) 0 TOTAL=0 hits

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1994 0

1995 0

1996-Jul97 0 TOTAL=0 hits

(New York Times)

1993 1

1994 1

1995 0

1996 0

1997 (-Oct) 0 TOTAL=2 hits

The two hits were a Leonard Ashley quote on African-American naming and

Margaret Bryant's obituary. That's all!



AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY

(Periodical Abstracts)

1986-1989 0

1990-1991 1

1992 0

1993 3

1994 0

1995 0

1996 0

1997 (-Oct) 0 TOTAL=4 hits

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1994 0

1995 0

1996-Jul97 0 TOTAL=0 hits

(New York Times)

1993 0

1994 1

1995 1

1996 0

1997 (-Oct) 1 TOTAL=3 hits

William Safire's "On Language" column was responsible for the three hits

over these five years.



GRAND TOTAL OF HITS for "American Name Society" and "American Dialect

Society" searching Periodical Abstracts, Newspaper Abstracts, and the New York

Times from 1986-1997====9.



NINE HITS! Think about that!!

Let's try some other organizations. The word is mightier than the sword,

right?



NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

(Periodical Abstracts)

1986-1997 823 hits

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1994-1997 497 hits

(New York Times)

1993-1997 628 hits



Trying two other organizations:



AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

(Periodical Abstracts)

1986-1997 15,812 hits

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1994-1997 627 hits

(New York Times)

1993-1997 1,016 hits



AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

(Periodical Abstracts)

1986-1997 933 hits

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1994-1997 127 hits

(New York Times)

1993-1997 336 hits



Let's look at what we cover:



SLANG

(Periodical Abstracts)

1986-1997 374 hits (0 ADS hits during this period)

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1994-1997 195 hits (0 ADS hits during this period)

(New York Times)

1993-1997 628 hits (3 ADS hits during this period)



EBONICS

(Periodical Abstracts)

1996-1997 65 hits (0 ADS hits during this period)

(Newspaper Abstracts)

1996-1997 138 hits (0 ADS hits during this period)

(New York Times)

1996-1997 60 hits (1 unrelated ADS hit during this period)



The results are tragic.

If we had had AMERICAN POPULAR SPEECH ONLINE, the press would have quoted

maybe Dennis Baron on "Ebonics" and David Shulman on "paparazzi."

One thing's for sure--they're not turning to AMERICAN SPEECH.

And the 50-year-old American Name Society is not even on the radar

screen!