Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-12-08
JOURNALISM.
Astonishing Things About the Berlin
Berlin Correspondence N. Y. Tribune.


Berlin Correspondence n Y. Tribune
] The Berlin press is not at all metro
poitan in character, and even behind Al
American inland town like Chicago
Even the present war did not break it
slumber. By royal authority, there j
only one reporter at the Kings head
quarters, who writes for all the paper
of this city; his letters, under the sig
nature of K. (Kaysler), are published
by all of them. Only very few hav
their own reporters; here and there al
occasional contributor sends an accoun
of some important event, but / do no
remember having seen q single tele
graphic dispatch of more thar
ten lines beside the official ones
I've cannot help, it." say thu
meagemess and sameness of their news
sit would not pay to procure informa
tion at the enormous expense which tn,
American and English papers go to fol
satisfying the Unsuitable appetite of theil
readers" But these gentlemen have
never tried whether it will pay or not
and prefer their old method of copyine
from foreign, especially English, papers
Imagine that the capture of Napoleon
was not published any earlier at Berlin
than at New York and San Francisco
The first news of this momentous event
addressed to the Queen, arrived here on
Friday night, September I'd, at II
o'clock, and another account reached
the Minister of the Interior at IL o'clock
The latter, instead of sending it at once
to the press, kept it for himself and his
friends. Thus the morning papers oi
Saturday, Sd, did not contain o word
about the glorious success, and it was
only at $50 q. m. of that morn
ing that extras we're published. ]
have not seen single paper which com.
planned of this utter want of propriety,
of this gross stupidity, on the part OF
the Government. The city items OF
Berlin are about all the same, and the
papers seem to have but one common
reporter. The editors have no idea OF
the great importance of this department,
which forms the basis of the local circu-
lation, and slowly but surely works on
the minds of the readers. True, there
are many good articles in the Berlin
journals, but on the whole they are too
heavy, too essay-like, so that they
would be more fit to be printed in a
weekly or monthly than in q daily pa
per. The Volks Zeitung, cheap dem
ocratic sheet, has about 10000 sub
scribers and the largest circulation; the
Vossiche Zeitung, Of the same political
tendency, some 10, 900 subscribers; and
she Zukanft, a radical organ, has the
tmallest circulation, with not more than
1,500 to 1000 subscribers. The average
circulation of all the Berlin papers, at
a high estimate, amounts to about
5000 subscribers. The Kladdera-
datsch, by the way, the best satirical
and comic paper of Europe, sells 40, 600
copies. Would it have been successful
it had been dull and tamei often show
the Tribune to public men and newspa-
per editors of this city. / never shall
forget the sturialy incredulous air
which vne of them exhibited when / ex-
planned to him that you paid more than
S5, ZOO for your telegraphic dispatches
of September 3. Not once, a dozen
times, had to show a copy of the Tri-
bune, of September 4. 1t went from
hand to hand, and was returned to me
in rather dilapidated state. did not
calculate upon the curiosity which the
paper necessarily caused, but wished to
see the effect which it made on newspa-
per editors. "Well, that's grand, that's
extraordinary, that's quite American" /
heard them exclaim, "but here such a
feat is out of the question" But
why2 interrupted. Because
we are too poor; we have
not readers enough" All my remon-
strances were in vain, in vain all my
protests that paper like the Tribune
had its time when it, too, could not af-
ford such heavy expenses; that by in
dustry, thrift and sagacity, step by step,
it had reached its present prosperity;
but that to win, man must risk and
avail himself Of his opportunities, and
that the only secret of a successful
newspaper was to undo all its competi-
tors in enterprising spirit and in keen
perception of the political needs and
tastes of its public.
1t is to be hoped that with the prog
ress of Berlin the press too will lose its
provincial character, and assume larger
proportions A newspaper established
with 100, 900 thalers, on the American
system, would be AN excellent invest
ment, and a great political benefit to
Germany.