Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-20
Interesting Facts Newspaper Sta
fiSficg

We have received a copy of Geo. P.
Rowell & Co.'S Newspaper Directory for
1881. This 0ade nsecum of newspapers
and advertisers has become invaluable to
all who have anything to do with the
press, and the issue before us is evidence
that the publishers feel the responsibility
of their position, and are determined TO
make each successive issue more perfect,
if possible, than its predecessors. The
following extract from the preface of the
book will be read with interest by all
who study the progress of this great and
ever growing republic:
''In 1861 less than eighty pages of an
almost miniature volume sufficed to con.
tain catalogue doubtless adequate in
its plan to the demands of the time) OF
all newspapers and periodicals then pub
lished in the United States and Terrific.
ries. With a population of 81, 443. 321,
there were 5 253 publications of all kinds,
or one to ), 9S5 inhabitants The dailies
numbered $50; the weeklies 4 .273; the
semi-monthlles and monthlies together
1856; the tri,weeklies "a; the semi-Week-
| lies 60: and the quarterlies 3S.
elm the present and thirteenth annual
| edition of the american Newspaper d.
rectOry, the names of 10 846 newspapers
and periodicals in the United States, the
| Territories and Canada are given. Elk.
Guiding Canada, 10,267 are issued in the
| United States and the Territories; being
an increase of 544 over the correspond.
ing 9.723 mentioned in the edition of the
Directory for 1880. and an increase OF
5 OLA over the 1888 issued just twenty
years ago The American republic,
among all nations, is the first of which
it may be said that it possesses more
than ten thousand papers. 1t is note.
worthy that while the increase in popu.
| lation since 1861 reaches little more than
go per cent, the growth in the number
of papers is over 50 per cent; so that
there is now one paper to 1883 inhabi
tants. The dailies have more than
doubled in number, and the weeklies
exhibit great ratio of increase; while
the comparatively few monthlies exist
ing in 1861 have arrived at the hand
some total of $50. This great addition
to monthlies is due mainly to the estab.
llshment, during later years, of trade and
other class publications, which, while
they are thought more or less indispensa-
BILE to their respective constituencies, are
yet able to fulfill their missions in twelve
issues year. Some of the towns that
boosted of newspapers two decades since
cannot now be found on the map, while
others that did not then exist now issue
first class journals. In the Territories
there was then then not single daily,
though 80 weeklies were printed; at the
present time the proportion of daiies tc
weeklies in the Territories and adjoining
States is more than one TO five. In thus
contrasting the past with the present, il
is interesting to observe, as an instance
of the growth in the appreciation and
support accorded by newspaper pub
fishers to an enterprise which aims to be
a creditable record of the American
press, that while the spirit of 1851 con
tented itself with an array of twenty
eight pages of space advertisements ir
the little work referred to above there
are in the american Newspaper DIRECTORY
for 1881 no less than two thousand two
hundred of such advertisements, requir
ing, with the catalogue, a massive
volume of over twelve hundred pages.