New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-06-20


opments compelled the use of large capital,
and thus the modern metropolitan newspaper
| became a great business enterprise, as legitl-
| mate as railroad or a line of steamships,
and as rigidly demanding the best business
management.
Thus stimulated, its growth again outran ITS
| facilities. No prlnting-pTess ever devised
could print in the required time as many
| newspapers as there were eager buyers. Inc
| discovery of way to stereotype the WnOe
| paper in half an hour, and thus put as many
| presses as you needed at work on me same
| paper at the same time, solved tnat dlincuID,
| and the business underwent another change,
| amounting to revolution. Then came the
| enormous extension of telegraph lines ana
| ocean cables. The Od-fashlOned lettcr-wrlter
was almost abolished. The Washington cor
respondence came by telegraph. he account
| of n great battle fought yesterday east OF
! Paris Was read in detail tins morning in New
York. The journalist, at one leap, TOOK tne
| whole world for his province every morning.
THE JOURNAL OF TODAY
With each of these revolutions the sphere OF
! the daiIy newspaper has DrOadened. 1T has
commanded wider and more varied ability. 1t
has been able to draft talent from any quar-
ter. TO command the best business sagaclty,
unlimited capital, the widest enterprise. As
! the result oil ali this We see to-day
! Daily papers that sell You every morning,
| for three or tour pennies, matter equalllDg the
| contents of u thick book, often procured ~ u
cost tenfold, a hundred-tOld what the BOOKS
! contents cost -
! Papers that add to this mass of lnioIma-
| ton as many, sometimes twice or three tllhes
! as many, pages OF advertisements, ON every
! conceivable subject, CLASSIFIED ana lpueAed :
| Papers that give you Yesterday news, from
! every quarter OF the haDltane giODe, ahG Oh
! every conceivable subject, the downfall OF an
! Empire, the conclusions OF European con
! ierence the result OF u hOrse-race the NeIdlcO
| OF a PTesDytery, the secret proceedings Oh
| heImc UicalIy scaled caucus, the tODDihS Oh
! PatFCk ODOnOVanS TIL, the game OF DIsc-
! bail some college boys have played, what Ed
}, isOn THINKS he Is going to discover, what Inc
| LeadyIile enthusiasts say they nave dIscoN-
! cred, and a veto message from the ffeSiuchG
an infinite variety of Things worthy ana
! worthless : 81,
And, finally, daily papers that give you all
this with sucn multiplicity oil uetah, anu
III sucn masses that unless from morn til
! dewy eve you give your WnOie tune 10 IL
! you cannot read them through.
| 70 that complexion nave these successive
ana rapid revolutions iii journalism brought
! us WHAT is To be the next great Change
| Win the growth IN the size OF our papers
| continue, SO as 10 make room tor increasing
! advertisements and yet wider and fuller neWsf
| Or snail we presently find the greatest news
| papers too Dig already and too crowded WIN
| news 90 admit any advertisements AT al
| snail we have cheaper papeTsi Shall we IN
! crease the quantity OF the variety Oi news we
prInt IN anything like the raUO OF the last
Oecadel
TIE QUESTION OF ADVERTISING.
Certainly there must be great changes in
the matter Of advertising. l doubt H. Ill
most cases, the volume Is to be much IN
creased, and in some it is pretty sure to be
diminished. The business OF Issuing supple
mental sheets to carry off the surplus OF adj
| Vertlslng Is sell-lmted, and IN some eases III
| is already carried on at loss. You Issue
/ of
| cents and you so adjust your scale OF eGpch-
dlture that your receipts on the circulation Oh
30 many copies vii! about balance ~,
| leaving the advertisements to Iurhlsh
! the profit. But you fill the paper with news
| and crowd these advertisements INTO an extra
sheet. Here now enJers another element IN
| your problem. Your advertisements can no
| longer be counted as pIO1ts, because OUT Oh
them must first be pad the cost for the extra
paper on which they are printed. Your CIR
| culatl0n is necessarily large, or you could not
| depend on 1t to pay the expenses OF pr0cur-
my the news and making the, paper.
! But the larger it Is, the larger becomes
the drain for the extra paper on when
| YOU now pint your advertisements. WIN
| circulation of $4,000, the cost OF this paper
might be taken from the gross receipts Tor
advertising and stlI leave you handsome
margin for profits. Double the circulation,
and you have doubled tine cost OF your extra
paper for printing the same number oil adYGr-
tiscments yet you sell the two sheets NJ the
| same cents for which you once SOFA me
one. Tins may leave the margin on the
wrong side.
A few actual figures may make it palmer.
! You undertake to furnish an elght-page news
paper for cents. As the circulation ID
! cTcasrs and the business management learns
TO take advantage of 1t, the advertisements
flow in and crowd out the news. our readers
would resent this, and your rivals would
have you at disadvantage. Either you
must raise the puce OF the advertising
90 nc In Unt
AMOUNT Of If, and exclude the rest, or you
must carry II of IN an extra sheet Tor which
YOU will receive no extra pay, ana the entire
cost OF which must be deducted from the
profit YOU rightfully expect on your advertise
ments. With the present system OF fast PRINT
ing presses, You can make this sheet one
! quarter, One-half or the whole size OF the
regular issue, but one OF these three 1t must
be- Suppose you content yourself with a sup
plement one-iOurth the size of the regular
issue. This gives yOu two pages, and,
at iOw but safe estimate, 1000 pay
ing lines OF advertising to the page.
Now say you punt and give away
with the regular issue 100000 of this
supplemental sheet. Your white paper for 1t
costs yOu $3.50. Your agate composition for
it costs You $50 more. You have made an
outlay Of $500 in order to print 1000 lines
of advertising. How much must You get for
that advertising to repay you the actual out
Law A moments figuring brings you the
approximate price of fifteen cents per
line. RcCOlect TINS involves no proht.
1t does not even meet the expenses for
have counted the bare cost of the white paper,
the composition and the proOf-reading. There
are "a thousand and one lncidentals, the re-
ceving of the advertisements, tie transmits
SION collections, waste paper, extra post
ace. extra press-work extra cost in
mailing, etc, etc. Does 1t take much
study to show that these advertisements
must bring u good price or the publication of
them must be continued for purely ,phlan-
/ Dt "A A.
newspapers which print them for nothing, and
there are others, of great circulation, too,