The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-04-24

A movement has been suggested by Il
+ Northern weekly press for convention
newspaper proprietOrs or representative
u with the view OF establishing q gener
system Of cash payments for subscription
The old weeklieS at the North, which hav
. widely extended circulation, and vel
r established reputation, it would appear I
us, can have no difficulty in establishin
the system. They might lose some sui
scribers at first, for some men are so ur
reasonable that they will met see the ad
vantage and necessity of punctuality
the payment of small debts, others ar
always disposed to postpone payment a
long as they can, while others again affec
to be angry at being asked two or tire
times for the small sum which they ough
not to have put the newspaper to the ex
pense of collecting, or at least ought t.
have paid when first asked for. But if al
the weekly press at the North would unit
on that point, and perseyere, they woul,
succeed in establishing system that woul.
be q grea@ economy of time, labor ant
money to them, and would save the sub
scribers any annoyance from collectors o.
collecting letters.
Some men seem to have strange idea,
about newspapers. When they subscrib.
to q newspaper they seem to think thai
they have conferred great favor upon it
that they have established a sort of claim
uponeit in regard to matters of opinion
and if any thing appears in it's columns
that does not accord with their way OF
thinking, that they have q right to COM
plain. They seem to forget that paper
is printed for great variety of readers,
who all differ more or less from each other
in matters of taste or way of thinking, and
that its matter must be made up to suit the
varied tastes of all, as far as that is pos
sible.
That the system contemplated would be
great advantage to q newspaper needs
scarcely any argument. 1t would be a
saving of time, labor and money, and re.
lieve the financial manager from the anxiety
and worry of having to wait SO long for
the innumerable small sums that are lying
idle in subscribers pockets, which in the
aggregate make serious deficiency in the
empty treasury of the newspaper. Indeed
the system under which newspapers are
printed render the adoption Of such sys-
tenn as referred to above almost n necessity
for success. Every thing required for the
printing of the paper, wheth, material or
work, has to be paid for in cash. The COM
positors who set the type have to be paid
at the end of each week, the paper that is
to be printed when bought has to be paid
for, and the press work when completed
has to be paid for, while most of the money
which ought to be on hand to enable the
paper to meet these expenses is lying in
the pockets of subscribers in sums too
small to be of any advantage to them.
Let us suppose an ordinary weekly paper,
having five thousand subscribers, at the
rate of three or four dollars year-that |
ls, fifteen or twenty thousand dollars q wear
In the aggregate. During the first quarter
perhaps one-third is paid, during the other
three perhaps another third, leaving at the
close of the year n third still due, to be
collected during the second year, half of |
which perhaps is never collected. And |
Turing that time, while the paper is kept
'ut of the means that would make it's work
Easy, its financial manager has to provide
means to meet regularly the weekly ex-
'enses absolutely necessary to carry it on.
Vow this is statement much more favor
bile than many weekly papers under the
resent system of dilatory payments &C
ually realize. Such a condition of things
ways cripples and embarrasses q paper.
t is always behind-hand, it cannot add to
Is stock, nor increase its facilities for i'm
rovement. Even the money that it does
eceive so slowly and so irregularly is re-
uced by the expenses of collection, SO
nat the want of punctuality ON the part of
ne subscriber, even when he does pay,
'vies ataS upon the small sum of his sub
'ription to pay the collector. A tolerably {
ood weekly paper affords more satisfac.
on, and is of more advantage during the |
ear to the subscriber than the three or {
'ur dollars that he pays for it are worth t
oent in any other way, SO that, in truth, |
3 cannot with propriety affect to be the c
atron of paper that returns, to say the 6
asst, qnid pro quo for the small sum he G
avs it. +
The advantages to those papers that :
ould adopt the system of cash payments
+ subscription, and we would also add =,
advertising, must be apparent to any +
linking business man. 1t would save the 9