New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-10-02
THE ENGLISH CHEAP PRESS.

OF the multitude OF cheap JouIuais "nA0H
,prang into existence over Eogland on the ex-
tinctiOn of the stamp, very many were h'PPed
in their first bloom, and but few now linger on
the scene. This early dissolution has given &C.
casion TO several of the old snd dear papers ID
sing a pfesn over The grave of their young COM
petitors, and to pronounce cheap Journalism in
Epeand failure. Bat this p1anis premature.
The failure is more apparent than real, aud
arose from mistakes which q little ripper wis
dom and experience will rectify.
The chief cause Of failure lay in the attempt
of the newborn papers to form themselves
after the model and supply the place of their
elder brethren, instead of creating and minister
ing to the appetite Of that numerous class con-
prising the bulk of the English people, which
journalism had not yet touched. The readers
of papers in England hitherto were the few, not
the many. Nearly all the public journals, with
the exception of The Times, which represents
itself as huge political windmill directing its
giant sail by the gales Of public opinion, were
started ard maintained more as particular party
organs than vehicles of news aud opinions look
ing to the people for support. Nearly all have
been subsidized at different periods, and some
main :ained at a considerable loss. The Morn
ing Chronicle, for instance, purchased as a
Peeite organ, could not have entailed on
it's chief pIopretors Mr. Sidney Herbert
and Mr.. Beresford Hope, less annual
loss than four or FIVE thousand year.
and now that it has passed into the hands of
some wealthy Roman Catholics, and become the
italian organ, its financial circumstance csn
hardly be more bright. This special character,
and the high price, placed the daily newspapers
beyond both the tastes and means of tie multi
.tude, who were left unproyided for, but who,
wherever wisely supplied as in the cases of
Cham5trs's Journal Household Words, The Nens Of
the Void, The Weekly Times, and Lloyd's Weekly
Nrspoper, have amply rewarded their propre
tors. The circulation of The Ners Of the
Horld is, We believe, considerably over one hun.
bred thousand a week. This class have been
habituated hitherto to taking in their news
with their washing, once week, and Win
an Epelisbman habit is difficult to overcome.
They have little desire, as here, to catch all that
is new, swift as the lightning.wire can carry it,
Even where telegraphs exist, and they are confined
in England to the main trunk lines ofrailroad, they
are little used by the press. Except brief SEN
tence from Paris or rec ntly from the seat of
war; where even in The London Times do you find
intelligence, often of much moment, conveyed by
telegraph and even then it is never given in de-
tall Had the seat of war been Mexico instead Of
the Crimea, We would have had Russelrs battle
pictures on our page almost as fast as be could
drop them from his brain. In order to succeed
the cheap press of England must find its model in
America. 1t must create an appetite for papers
by presenting news in simple and condensed
form, avoiding, at all events for the present,
the high essay style in its leading columns, and
mixing with the news general and agreeable in
formation of miscellaneous character, and Occa-
sionalIy even giving an interesting story 1t is an
attention to these last few features which has given
such success to the three London weekly papers
we have mentioned Neither, if success is to be
accomplished, should business details be neglected
The old fogy practice of entering all subscribers
names in book and delivering their papers d.
rectly from the office, was adhered to in the ex-
periments that have recently proved unsuccessful,
and we feel confident was leading element OF fail
ure. People who had never been fed on papers
naturally felt no appetite The appetite must be
created. The papers should be sold as here in
bulk at a discount, at first even tempting dis
count, to the newsmen, who, urged by the keen
spur of interest. will soon procure customers Men
finding that they can for a cent or two have
panorama of tie world for that day and feel the
throbbings Of its pulse in every direction, will be-
gin TO esteem as a necessity the mornings or even
ipgs paper instead of looking on it as luxury.
There are few things more wonder striking to
stranger coming to our shores than the desc
Grating csrelessness with which an American
treats bis paper, and after he has devoured it
with kssty swallow, leaves it on the bench Of
some ferry boat or rail car, OF tears of some
glowing article to light his cigar. In England
the paper ia looked on as a sacred thing; is
dantily cut, read calmly and with reverent
feeling and transmitted to a cousin who trans
mits it TO another and so on through genev
alton. In g short time, however, if our sugges.
tions are followed, these notions will pass away
with many venerable relatives Of the same kind.
Instesd Of making their market with the multi
tude, and creating new class OF readers, the
majority Of the cheap papers copied the form,
the style, and the news Of the old established
journals, in the hope that the cheapness would
lure away to their pensa number of readers
frem tie accustomed fold. But in this they
failed. The class who read The Times will
continue and can afford to read it. And even
hsd they succeeded, the number taken off from