The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-02-22
Failures of Newspapers.
From the Shreveport Times.


the suspension of that excellent
paper the Houston, (rexas) Tel
egraph. Why it is that such a
city as Houston cannot support
a good daily paper may seem
matter Of establishment to many
persons, but nothing in that line
could astonish us. There are
many fruitful sources of failure
in the newspaper business.
"Value received in the shape
of advertisements is not tangible
to the advertiser; not visible to
the naked eye, and hence there
isan unceasing warfare between
him and the publisher-the latter
striving for living rates and the
former beating him down to star
walton prices, which his necessi-
ties force him, too often, to ac>
cept. And this is not so much
because ofparsimony on the part
of the advertiser as it is from
lack of knowledge of the expense
of running newspaper. This
applies to strictly business ADJ
vertisements. When it comes
to editorial notices of this, that,
or the other enterprise, charita>
BILE or other, the publisher is sure
to go to the wall. There exists
in the minds of every living man
and woman, too, an idea that the
editor is constantly in want of
something to "fill up" and be
cause the erection of his little pig
pen interests him he thinks the
editor should be intensely thank.
full for an opportunity of "tilling
up" with a notice of it, which
must needs be read with eager
ness by the great public. While
religious, charitable, marriage
and obituary notices are inserts
ed gratuitously by most South>
ern publishers, at the North it is
all "business."
10 short, the Southern editor
or publisher, as the case may be,
is common pack horse. He is
expected to "write up" Jones as
a great statesman and a politi-
clan, eminently deserving what
ever office he may be a candi-
date for, and yet when Jones is
writ up the chances are as hun
dred to enc that he becomes sud-
denly oblivious of the means by
which he has been elevated, att
tributing his success solely to
bis own transcendant ability and
merit.
Again; the natural ambition of
the publisher prompts him to
print a much larger paper than
his patronage justities, and he is
thus compelled to be on the look
out for something with which to
"fill up" his advertising columns
for, little as may be suspected
by the uninitiated, every type
set up cost money and the amount
OF reading matter each day or
week must be regulated by re-
ceipts. The result of this is, that
advertisement are often taken at
prices that are simply farcical-
the publisher arguing that he
had better get something, how>
ever little, for his spare space
than fill it up with prospectuses.
We always prefer prospectuses.1
But he loses sight of the impor>
tant fact that he is thereby inhict-
ing vital injury on the newspaper
misunderstanding his fellow
craftsmen as we'll as himself.
There is another fruitful source
OF failure in Southern journalism
"a forced competition with
Northern journals. The chief ex-
pense OF the business is the type
setting. Every man of ordinary
intelligence can readily under
stand that after the paper is in
type hundred thousand copies
can be printed at the same ex-
pense so far as the cost of setting