Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-04
JOURNALIST III PARIS.
Interesting Facts Which Contain
Lessons for American
Contemporaries.
New York SUM-

In Paris there are published about 100 peri
odical publications, daily or weekly newspa-
pers or reviews treating on politics and social
economy; in the provinces the number of
similar publications amounts to about 500
that is to say, in all, 800. The political jour
nal that has the largest circulation is a one
sou journal, Le Petit Journal, which prints
between 620, 900 and 65o,00 copies. The polit-
ical journal that has the smallest circulation
is LeVigilant, Republican journal pub
lished at Sedan, which publishes less
than hundred copies. a day. At
the present moment nearly seventy
daily political journals appear at Paris, some
sixteen of which are small 5-centime jour-
mails of the type of The Petit Journal; the rest
are four-page papers like The Figaro, vary
ing i'll price from to IS centimes, the usual
price being Is confines. No eight-page
journal has ever succeeded in France. The
last attempt to found one was made in 1879,
in LIE Globe, which endeavored to be a regu-
lar newspaper full OF news and reading mat
ter of a serious description. LIE Globe
proved an utter failure, and at the end of a
year it was transformed into four-page
Journal of the approved type.
The average daily circulation of all the
der two millions of copies. Next to LIE Petit
journal, the journal that has the larg-
est circulation, is La Petite Republique Fran
caise, with 10000 to 10000 copies. The
Figaro has circulation Of about $4,000
copies; LeTemps, 5000 to 80 eco; LInTansi-
geant an average of 35, 600; the old Constitu-
tionnel, which before and after 1880 had the
then enormous circulation of 10000 copies, has
sunk now to about 1900 and is still con-
Quoted on the old principle for the benefit of
few aged and faithful abonnes. OF the
provincial journals The Petit Lyonnais has
the largest circulation, with daily average
OF $4,000 copies; then follow The Petit Mar
sellais with 81, 900, and The Lyon Republican,
with SO 900.
The regu'a ar staff Of The Figaro, the most
numerous, is composed OF twenty-five per-
sons. The pay of the celebrities of the
chronique, like Albert Wolff, Schon and
Monselet, is 800 francs month for one Or
two articles week. The leading reporter Of
The Figaro receives the same sum, together
with handsome travelling expenses. In short,
the small fry of journalists earn from 200 to
500 francs month"; while the leading writers
say, at the outside, twenty men-win make
an average of b, 900 francs q year out of
their pen.
Some half dozen of the Paris journals keep
one or two reporters rAnnericaine," with
staff of subalterns under them. The ere
porter pAnericaine" has a speciality of in
terviewing the celebrity of the hour, OF
wrestling secrets from diplomatists and
statesmen, and of bribing the Wallets of kings
en- voyage to tell him what the mona1 chs cal
for breakfast. The reporter rAmeri-
came" doubtless arrives at certain mum.
Der of interesting facts, but his prose is ut
terly Enthusiastically and too full Of his OWL
personality to be practical. The whole sys
tenn Of reporting and gathering is
trivial. There is not single Partisan jour
nal that gives en- adequate and thoroughly
unbiased report Of political meeting. as
for rapidity in publishing news, it is out OF
the question.
The French reader seeks two things in Q
aper-a1nusement and news-and hs
perhaps prefers the former to the latter In
his eyes the journalist is sort of mounte
bank of the zen, and the stranger his antic.
the more droll he deems him.