Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-11-09
SUGGESTIONS 10 CoRREspONDENTs.


Every newspaper publisher has expert
onced annoyance from q class Of men who
are prolific in communications upon every
subject brought before the public. They
feel that they are just the men to deal with
/ it., and know just what to say. They,
therefore, write up long communications,
/ sign some fictitious name and send them
to their newspaper They frequently find
/ that their articles do not appear, and they
almost always feel offended, take the failure
to publish rs a personal aflront and, with
out stopping to think, charge the publish
ers or editors with personal hatred or jeal-
ousy, or some other foolish whim. \ few
words upon this subject may not now
prove out of place, as we have had a good
deal of this kind of experience in the short
time we have been connected with the
CHRONICLE.
Publishing newspaper is with Us a
matter of business. We have invested our
capital in it, and by hard work we hopo to
make living out of it. One great item of
ourexpense is our composition bills. Every
column of reading matter costs a certain
| sum of money. At the end Of every week
we find this item alone a heavy burden.
| We mustpublish matter of public interest,
in order to gain subscribers Most Of our
readers are mon of business, and want their
news arranged conveniently, SO that they
can yet il in a few moments time. They
have not the time nor the inclination to
read communications q column long, on a
subject that is perhaps of interest to but a
few. They want short, pointed, newsy
! articles As our success and livelihood de-
ponds upon the number of our subscribers
we must accommodate the length of our
articles TO their wishes As we are limit
| ed as to the amount OF our reading matter,
! it follows we must make the most of our
! space. We want to get the mostnews pos
| siblc i'm this given space We cannot do
this by publishing long communism
tious. We have refused to publish many
| of this kind, for this reason, al
| though there were some very good
| things in them. We receive but few
long.artlcles that would not be improved
and rcad by ten times as many persons if
cut down one-half or one-third. Short,
pointed, racy articles, will stand a much
better chance to bepublished and read than
| long one. We trust correspondents will
| bear this in mind.
There is another class of.corresponden
! who annoy us more than any other, for
they are generally more unreasonable and
foolish We allude 90 Jhay class who want
to make us, a- publishers and editors, the
medium of making public their attacks
( upon public men and private citizens, and
make us responsible therefor. They always
| write over 0aoDyaous .igHui,Tcy. We
have occasionally refused to publish such
unless they would sign their full names.
| This ,hey of course refuse to do, and give
a. reasons that they don't care to get into
| a controversy" or lit would make Us enc
mics" OF ait would interfere with our
business; :" or 1--WE don't want to have our
names known in the NATTER &c.
It never occurs to such men the mean
ness of their effort to force upon us "a re-
sponsibility which they shirk We, too
have our business to protect and our per-
sonal friendships to respect, and our pri-
waite interests TO consider. It is true, we
are publishing a newspaper to give the
public news, and it is our business and our
duty to do so. This we intend to do, and
always have done. We discuss fearlessly
public measures, and criticise act. and say
ings of public men. But in doing so We
0iwuya intend to bc fair and honorable.
We do not believe there is anything gained
by abuse, or misrepresentation, or low cum
ming. We have our character and business
prospects depending upon the success of
the CHRONICLE, and we propose to guard
these just as business or professional men
dOtheirinterests. If correspondents under
anonymous signatures want to a--ail
public men or their acts in "a way we do
not think proper, they must do it through
other columns or do 80 over their own
name. We DO not intend to permit them
to make their attacks over our shoulders
Again, we have heavy expenses 10 pro-
vide for. Our income is from subscriptions
and from advertisements. We advertise
anything not vulgar or Objectionable upon
personal grounds. Men who are candi-
dates for Office announce that fact i'm news
papers, without regard to their politics.
We further make known their views i'm
, the press. Our columns are open for all
such purposes, and being personal to the