The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1875-02-18
The Newspaper Qaestion.

--tho SouecS OF Qally anu country newspapers.
Il Is a question that much concerns the publish
ers of country papers, for they are gradually
finding themselves crowded out, and one source
of patronage after another being Topped off. The
trOnble is not so much from the daily papers.
They have become public necessity, and fill
want that the country papers cannot supply.
If country papers had free access to the adrant-
ages of the Associated Press, they could make no
use of it with a weekly paper. The great troub
4e is with the city weekly papers issued from
daily offices. The reading matter, having ap-
peaFed in the daily, and been paid for in that
way, is then placed in the weekly, without cost
except for paper, press work and mailing, and
thus can be offered to country subscribers at very
little more than the original cost of the white
paper upon which It is printed. How many
hundreds of tieses is the country publisher met
by actCseNiealiDg subscriber with the assertion:
~Wby, / can get the St. Louis Globe (or some
other city mammoth weekly for dollar or a
dollar and half year, and that has four times
.as much reading as yoursf' Those papers, being
circulated eKery where, receive the city adver-
tisines patronage that should go to the country
press
But there is one need that the city papers can
not fll, and to which the country papers must
especially devote themselves. That is local
County news. The man who takes an interest
in his own County affairs, and which are of more
immediate importance TO him than anything
else, must take his own County paper, and no
fair-minded man will grumble because the price
is greater than that of city papers that have al
ready been paid two or three times for their
reading matter before 1t gets to the country
Taxes, Court proceedings, doings of County
Commissioners real estate transfers, legal MOTTO
-es, and neighborhood items, can be found only
in the County paper. Those things the intelli-
sgent citizen of the County must 5e Informed of.
Country newspaper publishers are in great
measure to blame for the position in which they
find themselves placed. We acknowledge that
we have committed the error, and almost every
other country paper has done the same thing.
We have advertised these city weeklies to our
readers aud induced them to subscribe. large
majority of the country publishers are even
offering the city paper to their readers at club
bing rates-knocking off part of the regular
price of their own papers, in order to give both
sat a reduced rate. This once indulged in, it is
difficult to get back to first principles again.
large proportion of readers are apt to drop their
home paper, and continue the city paper that
The greatest curse to the country press lies in
the fact that every Ope-horse politician or polit
ical clique must have an "organ." If paper
endeavors to be fair and independent, and do a
legitimate living business the first thing he
knows another paper is started. Then follows
a scramble for the pupblic printing, and game
of cut-throat, to see which paper shall have the
honor of being the "official paper of the County"
The price is renduced so low, that the one who
gets the printing is worse off than if he did not
have it. That which should contribute largely
toward sustaining good paper, does nobody any
good, but becomes means of running the busi-
ness. Even within few weeks past, three or
four papers in Kansas, partly from this species
of rivalry, and partly to pander to the furore of
Hreform," have raised the cry that the prices of
County printing are too high, and should be re-
duced. Yet scarcely one of these papers but car
ries at the head of its columns table of adver-
tisiug rates. which higher than the prices
fixed by law for County printing. If prices are
too high, as they say, why do they charge their
regular customers those exorbitant ratesf Why
make merchants, mechanics, and professional
men pay prices that the publisher acknowledges
are too high and ask for reduction on the price
of work done for the public at Target Does the
State or the County abate anything on the print
er's taxes, that he should beg to work for them
at less wages than he charges an individualf
The truth is, the legal prices for printing were
established by those who knew, from practical
experience, what were fair living rates; and the
man who would seek to undermine the prices, and
thus ruin his own profession in order to damage |
a rival, does not deserve to be recognized as an |
honorable member of the profession. With |
batch of secondhand material from some city |
Office, and "patent outside" it is not hard to
start an opposition newspaper; and when the
irresponsible "dead-beat" who usually embarks
in this business has ruined the trade, he is no
loser by 1.-THE loss falls upon the merchant who
has credited him, the subscriber who has paid
for the paper in advance, or the printer who is
sndeavoring to do a legitimate business.
In another thing country newspapers are at
fault. They pitch in and so their full length in
favor for men for the Legislature or for County
Offices who, in order to make q record for re-
trenchment and reform, make their very first
bulge against printers wages, and are found vot-
ing for any bill that proposes to cut down the
prices of printing, without knowing or caring
whether it is just not The farmer will not
support man for Office, unles he believes that
man will labor for the interests of farmers; so
with the business or laboring man. Is it not
about time that printers made it rule to be
sure of their man before turning wheel in their
favori !
We saw an item in q Kansas paper, last Fall,
which illustrated the tendency of politicians and
the self-constituted "leadersn of the press 1t ,
has heretofore been the custom, in State elec- !
tions, to pay out of the funds raised for cam
paigning purposes, a certain amount to each
Of the party, to help pay for printing
tickets, announcing meetings, and similar work !
But last year, this fund was divided up among 6
the city paPers-but very few, If any, of the h
country papers receiving any thing. Yet the g
country papers elected the ticket. The few that I
bolted, damaged the ticket immensely; had Y
majority Of them done so, the defeat would have g
been overwhelming. Party principle is go cd
thing; but those who get the gravy, sh ould pay
for it.
Still another matter: A certain number of
papers in each State are given Government ad-
vertising such as publishing the la VS. post-efce
etc. The members of Congress des- o
gnate the papers. Please look and see where C