The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-01-22
THE PRICE OF NEWSPAPERS.
Important Facts Little Understood by
the General Public.
Hartford Courant.l

Hartford Courant.l
A friend asks why it is that the price of
the daily newspaper does not drop with the
price of clothing and provisions. 1t is a rea-
sonable question: and shall have frank an
swer. The newspapers of the first class are
better now than they were few years ago.
and the cost of producing them is more
while their receipts for advertising are much
less than formerly. The newspapers have
shared to the full the hardness of the times
Few OF them have made much..money since
1873; many Of the most important newspa-
pers have been published without profit,
some at loss Every daily paper in the
country so far as we know, is sold at much
below cost-it depends wholly upon the
advertising for making up the deficit. When
business Is poor the newspaper Is the first to
feel it.
But for the fact that the price of white pa
per has fallen since the war, many newspa-
pers would be compelled to suspend or
greatly increase their subscription price.
There has been fall in paper, and the rates
these reductions the newspapers would
hardly have survived. For in most other
respects the cost OF producing the newspaper
has increased. More is demanded of it
The cost of collecting news increases every
day, the telegraph bills are higher than ever,
and would have seemed enormous a few
years ago; correspondence IN journals OF the
first class is better and better paid; the ex-
pense of the editorial department is greater,
and the labor on it is better and more varied
If we were to go through all tho items from
telegraph down TO gas bills, the reader
would see why the newspaper can not afford
much if any reduction below present rates;
especially when it is considered that it
takes it's full share of bad debts and loss of
business.
As rule the first class morning newSpa-
pers IN the large cities are $40 year; those
with Sunday editions, $12 Some of them that
have no Sunday issue, like the Boston Ad-
vertiser and the New York Journal of Com
merce, are $12. The expense attending a
morning paper is considerably higher than
that of the evening paper; this difference
arises from less rates for composition IN the
daytime than in the night, less incidental bills
as for gas, ETC., and less for telegraphic news.
The morning journals are assessed twice as
much for kilograms as the evening, in the
regular bills of the Associated Press for
news. First class evening journals, like the
New York Post and the Albany Journal, are
| 50 year. One of the cheapest morning
newspapers of the first class is the Spring
| field Republican, which is sold at 50 year,
or Sill, including the Sunday edition.
| The price of the Courant before and in the
first year of the war was S. 1t was then a
small sheet, and contained not half the read
| ing matter of to day, and cost nothing like
SO much to produce as it costs TO day. Our
! telegraphic bills are at least eight times what
/ they were In 1901, ana the COurantS eQ1tOr
| ial labors cost more than ten times what it
cost then-to say nothing of its regular cor
respondence. The size of the sheet is about
half OF the New York Herald and World. In
all its departments, telegraphic, local, edi-
| torial and correspondence, it is not only a
greatly improved paper, but it is a cheaper
paper, considering its quantity and quality;
and its subscription price is now IS year
only
The fact is that the cheapest thing that a
man buys or takes into his house is good
1 lily newspaper. The modern journal, with
the news of all the world freshly gathered
every morning, is a marvel of cheapness.
Eight dollars or twelve dollars will not, ex
pended in any other way, bring so much en-
| tertainment, instruction and positive addi-
ton to the interest of daily life. In the
newspaper of the frst-class there is from q
half hours to an hours reading, daily, for
each member of the family, and the cost is
only between two and three cents day.
| And this can be afforded only by a reason OF
improved processes, association of news
gathering extending the world over, and a
rigid and systematic attention to details.
The failures in newspapers much exceed the
successes. At the low rates of subscription,
profits must depend upon the general pros
perity, and it is just when business is dull,
no matter what the price of other articles may
be, that the journal feels the pinch.