Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-08-29
nlegitimate "Newspapers."

From the Chicago News
The influence possessed bya success
full and legitimately conducted newspa'
per is we'll known. Such newspaper
commands wealth its opinions have
weight and its managers the respect
of the public. This is so to-day, but
it is much less so, as a whole, than il
was twenty years ago. The vast for,
tunes made by many Of the newspa'
pers during the war, and soon after
the commanding position which the
press exercised on the colossal contest
between the Ttates' rights advocates
and the nationalist the great per-
sonal influence of the directors of the
press-all these conspired to awaken
an emulation on the part of the
public, or a certain portion of it, to
establish a connection with the pre-
vading energy, to enjoy its honors,
and to reap share of its financial re-
wards.
The result has been that newspaper
enterprises have multiplied like To-
Gusts they cover, and in many cases
it can be said of them that they de-
your. the land. Thousands of men.
surveying the results attained by the
legitimate press during the last de-
cade, have gone into the publishing
of a newspaper as a mere business,
just as they would open notion store,
or an ice-cream saloon not for the
purpose of satisfying a want, or of
educating the public, or of gratifying
a conviction that they have a capacity
for the work, but solely to make
money. There are others who have
gone into the business because they
wished to enjoy some of the honors
which appertain to the profession of
journalism. They became newspaper
owners solely to crafty their vanity.
There are other innumerable rea-
sons why this class of newspapers has
sprung into existence. Some attache
of journal, offended by the manage
ment, inflated with selfimportance,
inspired by the concentrations of a
few fattering friends, secedes for the
purpose of starting an opposition
journal of his own. There are little
political cliques, shut out from the
support of the party journals, which
club together for a few hundred or
thousand dollars, and start newspa-
per, so-called, for the purpose of re-
venge. in fine, the motives are as
various and numerous as the newspa-
pers which thus come into existence.
The result is so well known that it
scarcely needs mention as a matter of
information. One result has been to
degrade to some extent the entire
press. The public, disguised with the
opportunities and insolence of these
newcomers, has learned to dislike the
very name Of reporter, so that men
who were once received with honor in
the drawing-room now find it difficult
to secure an entrance by way of the
pack yard into the kitchen. But the
most disastrous consequence is that
the word press" is getting to be syn
onymous in the comprehension of
many people with the ugly term
"blackmail." The swarms of new en-
terprises in the field are not demand
ed, and hence there is neither circula-
ton nor advertising to be had in the
ordinary way. To obtain these resort
is had to terrorism. Business men
are informed that they must patron
lie the new concern or they twill hear
from it." Men are approached, and
are told that certain things in their
lives are known, and that they are
about to get in the papers, that will
be kept out for a consideration. In
short, the public is importuned, built
ed, threatened, denounced, until the