Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-11-10
REAL JOURNALISM.
The "GOOd VIII" Ofa Newspaper, and
How IL is Created.

To build Iup a business of any kind is
not the work of day, but to establish
newspaper which shall live and pros
per and do a good work in any COM
munity, is a task attended with the
greatest difficulty and expense. There
are many people who have an idea that
to make paper, all that is required lisa
press and type. Such persons may gain
some valuable information by reading
the following able and we'll written
article upon the Chicago press, from the
Louisville COlrier-JOundI, whose editor
is one of the most thorough journalists
in the country:
Though the newspaper people have lost
as much as their neighbors-thatis, their
offices, presses, type, and every material
thing belonging to the outfit of news
paper-they have yet saved to them
that mysterious and invisible piece of
property-which can not be burned up
and is of more value than all the rest
of their possessions combined-their
Good Will. 1t is this which is indie
structible, which needs not to be insur-
ed, which is at once a spiritual element
and commercial standard, which comes
slowly, and which does not go so easily,
being the gradual and grudging re-
sponse of the people to the patient,
toilsome, honest and useful work done
by the press in the service of the public.
Distrust of newspaper professions
seems to be a sort of inherent faculty
of the popular thought. And with rea-
son, too; for as there is charlatanism in
every profession, the newspaper charla-
tan is the most impudent, and, in a
manner the most slippery of charlatans
after the medical charlatan. The quack
doctor pursues his vocation in quasi con-
cealment, and has the fears of the peo-
pie and the lack of general scientific
knowledge to aid his unworthy devices.
He has, therefore, an obvious advant-
age, and sometimes goes undetected for
years. The legal quack is not so lucky.
There is a pretty general notion about
law and lawyers, and the jackleg soon
finds himself unable to cope with
the intricacies of practice and the
rough common sense of the spectators
who crowd our courts of justice
The commercial charlatan soon goes by
the board. But the newspaper bust
ness, with it's rare opportunities for
skillful hypocracv, is favorite and in
viting field for the charlatan, as we'll as
those who, not being charlatans them
selves, yet have local or temporary need
of charlatanism. Almost anything that
comes into existence by the aid of pa
per, ink and types, passes in courtesy
for newspaper; and though expert
ments of this sort almost universally
fail, they contrive, whilst they last, to
make prodigious splutter and often
take in the unwary. 1t is true that
they never obtain any circulation to
speak of, until years of faithful
service have inspired confidence in their
professions and in their stability
for circulation cannot spring VI
in day or month, but is the steady
growth of decades, and when it is OBJ,
tanned at the cost of vast outlays o.
money and enterprise, and an unbroker
record of usefulness and integrity, il
cannot be taken away. But in spite o.
this well understood principle, mush
room experiments every now and ther
try their luck, suck up few thousand
dollars or so, dupe a few mistaken capi
talists, chisel handful ,of subscribers
and amid prodigious flourish of trum
pets die in the very act OF proving them
selves the most popular and prosperous
institutions in the world.
Chicago has buried half hundred O
this species. So have all the grea
cities. The five or six journals tina
remain upon the lake shore may be de
scribed as the Survival of the fittest,
that is, after years of expenditure ant
labor after long and doubtful wrestle
with fortune, each has at last fitted it
self to certain place, built up certain
specific interest, and no one at tn
expense of another, for in joui
nalism, as in other pursuits, ever
tub stands upon its own bottom. Thu
fairly established, and upon tn
basis of popular confidence whicl
refuses to come except in its own selfsl
and leisurly way, the Chicago press
amid the wreck and ruin of Chicago, re
appears bold and strong, its materis
part thing of yesterday-mere rut
bish-but its Good Will thing of a
time, glittering before each journal lik
star let down out OF the heavens to il
radiate the gloom of the present and t
light its pathway in the future.
All the flames that plowed through
the burrows of marble, brick and iror
were not able to SINCE that Good Viii
1t has not so much as a smell of fir
upon it; and this is mercy, for with
out its newspapers-to inform it, t
correct it, to encourage it-wha
could Chicago do? 1t could better di
pense with its gas lamps than its dali
, Journals. They serve its needs at home
they carry its necessities abroad. An
this they do so ably and so honestly 1
, to reanimate the public spirit OF the
/ own people, and restore the confidenC
of all men.