Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-09-22
Dailu 3srnnrbrf sournal.
RuNyING A NEWSPAPER.

How few people seem to know what 1t
costs to run newspaper. This is an eJacu-
lation often heard in newspaper counting
rooms after the departure of somebody
who has tried to contiscate paper, or get
in puff of somebody on the strength OF
old friendship or some imaginary reason
equally as strong. BY some unaccounta-
Bile misapprehension of facts, there is
large class of people in the world VINO
think that it costs little or nothing to run
newspaper, and that if they buy copy
from a newsboy, when too far from the
office to come and beg one, they are regu-
lar patrons, and entitled to unlimited
tayors. Men call every day at newspaper
offices to get copy of the daily paper,
inst from press, for nothing, who would
never dream of begging a pocket hand
kerchief from dry goods store, an apple
from a fruit stand, or piece OF candy
from confectioner, even upon the plea
of an old acquaintance or having bought
something once before. One paper is not
much, but hundred day amounts to
something in the course of time. But
this is small drain compared with the
free advertising a newspaper is expected
to do. Some men who have paid two
dollars at an early period in life for an adj
vertisment worth four or five, appear to
think they are stockholders in the estab-
lishment for eternity. They demand the
publication of all marriage and funeral
notices, obituaries, and family episodes
for the next forty years gratis. Speak OF
pay and they grow indignant. Don't l
patronize your paper?n Yes; but you
receive the worth of your money for what
Won paid.n But says the patron, lit
will not cost you anything to put this in, p"
which is Just as ridiculous rs to ask a man
ito grind your AK on his grindstone, and
graciously tell him that it won't cost him
a cent. 1t takes money to run news
paper. as well as any other business, and
no paper will succeed financially that car
ries a dead-head system. Any mention of
the peoples affairs that they are anxious
to see in print is worth paying for, and
when printed is generally as any other in
yestment of the same amount.
The newspaper business is very exact
ing on all connected with it, and the pay
is comparatively small; the proprietors
risk more money for smaller profits. ant
the editors and reporters and printers
work harder and cheaper than the same
number Of men in any other profession
requiring the given amount of intelligence
and training and drudgery. The life has
its charms and its pleasant associations
scarcely known by the outside world; bul
it has its earnest work and anxieties and
hours of exhaustion, which likewise, are
not known to those who think the bust
ness all fun. The idea that newspaperdom
. is charmed circle where the favored
members live a life of ease and free from
care, and go to the circus at night on Il
free ticket and to the springs on free
pass in the summer, is an idea which we
desire to explode practically and theor-
etically. Business is business, and the
journal that succeeds is the one that is run
on square business footing, the same as
banking or building bridges, keeping hotel
or running livery stable-Memaphis Aca-
lanche.