Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1871-09-02
From the Cincinnati Commercially
THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS.
Some Bits of Useful Information
AbOuIIt.

Mr.. Erastus Brooks, of the New
York Express, says his paper is not
among the oldest of the living jour
nails of New York, but since its es.
| tablisnment, in 1886, more than sixty
daily papers have been started and
have died there, after losing at least
twenty millions of dollars.
There are few more difficult enter
prises than the establishment of a
daily paper in any large American
city. 1t is not only capital that is
needed, but brains also are necessary,
and a "good many of them"-tO
which must be added courage and
patience, enterprise and industry,
ideas, convictions, intellectual iber-
ality, the constant activity of the
five senses, and a fair share Of COM
mon sense. Where it is possible to
bring these fundamental forces to a
newspaper venture, there IS more
chance of its success than if they
were all absent.
It's a frightful thing to contem-
plate an editor who is an ignora-
mus, bigot, an imbecile, charla-
tan, a loUt, or a malignant. He
draSs down, oorrupts and d0nans his
miserable readers.
1t is very much more difficult to
start a successful daily paper now
than it was fifteen or twenty years
ago. There has been a great devel-
opment of the journalistic sphere
worldly and moral, within a few
years. The newspaper nowadays
publishes news with the utmost
promptitude from all parts of the
globe, and assumes to discuss every
conceivable subject with at least
the pretense of authority and intelli-
gence. "The Associated Press" is
an important agency for the collec-
ton of news throughout the country
and the world, and its active mana
gers and correspondents are always
to be found at every place where
great events are in progress. To
establish an effective rivalry with
this organization, would require
machinery not less extensive and
pervasive than that which it has
been able to put in working order,
at great coast and with many years
experience.
There is nothing in which it is
easier to lose large amount of cap
itol, and to lose it more rapidly, and
to lose it with less advantage or re-
suit, than in attempting to start a
great daily newspaper.
If a news paper enterprise be in
tended 10 compete with the lead
ing daily papers already in exis-
tence, it must not only, to begin
with, be possessed of large capital
and editorial brains, but must be
able to organize effectively the COM
plex machinery of journalistic pow
er, without which there is hardly
a chance of success, and almost a
certainty Of failure. If, on the 9TH
er hand, the new paper do not pro-
pose to enter into rivalry with the
ability and enterprise of existing pa
pers, il cannot very well amount to
enough TO be either profitable or in
fluential. a daily paper without
the news of the world furnished
promptly in every issue-a daily pa
per without the history of the day,
the thoughts of the day, and the
spirit of the day-iD which the pulse
of the world does not beat, the fea-
lures of the world are not reflected,
and the life of the world is not re-
prOduced-can possess neither pow
er, consequence, nor vitality.
The protector of a paper should
always be sure there is place for
such a paper as he means TO start; in
other words, he should be sure il is
needed to supply want in the COM
munity. We imagine that if news
paper projectors would always take
the the trouble to satisfy themselves
thoroughly on this point before in
vesting their capital and brains there
would believer TO lament their loss