Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1884-12-13
yUrRN tTIsH


ing them as follows Newspaper Read
ers, Newspaper Writer'S, Newspaper
Matter, Newspaper Ethics Honolulu
Newspapers.
II Is tfitc to say that no newspaper
can exist without readers. The fact is
self evident The problem of how to
keep their readers is ono that the con-
ductors of newspapers find great diff
Guilty in solving A few do solve it.
and il they live in large and growing
community the solution means wealth,
power and prestige. II is maniestly
easier other things being equal to
succeed in large than in a small com
munity For II the man who controls
newspaper has a sufficiently strong in
dividuality he becomes leader OF men
and his following orytalliscs into a sup.
port, at once moral and pcouniary. In
n small community unless It be rap
idly growing one or unless there be
monopoly or but slight competition
the road To success is an uphill climb,
with the brow OF the hill diseourag
ingy near the distant horizon.
II is the newspaper readers Of small
communities that purpose to con
slider for manifest reasons. Although
in this paper | am not treating of news
paper men as writers, II is necessary TO
consider the person who is the response
bic head of the enterprise, who CON
ccivcs the central idea by which the
paper justifes It's right to exist, and
who either carries out that idea or sees
that it is carried out The responsible
head Of the paper may be writer
but quite often he is not; indeed, the
writing faculty is often quite as disad
yantagcous as beneficial The world
is redundant Of newspaper writers of
sufficient cleverness, education and
versatility to fill acceptably every news
paper position in Christendom is,
every position to which only ability
in writing is essential. But the man
who can think out and carly forward to
ultimate success that complex engine of
progress, the modern newspaper, has in
him the elements of greatness.
And why1
Because the successful newspaper
must be the intellectual product, the
incarnatc idea of aman who succeeds in
satisfying many men. And, in my
judgment, no human task is more diff
cult.
In great community a man may
be as much specialist in newspaper
dom as in any other department of he
worlds works. In small community
the newspaper specialist can never have
more than a mcagre following, For
the paper which succeeds in small
community must minister to the needs
and appeal TO the intelligence of every
class in tha, community. Il mean, o.
course, every class that is reached by
the language in which the newspaper
is published
Newspaper readers may not accu
rately be classified Their name is
legion and their variety is infinite. A
few of the more readily recognized
classes are all that shall ask my readers
to consider viz, three genera, each o
which has two well defined species
I. The exacting reader
a. The methodc.
b. The captious.
The intelligently methodic man is al
exacting reader Of newspapers as ;
necessity of his ruling trait. An erol
intypography, mistake in date, loos'
or ambiguous statement, annoys him
and justly. The chief fault Of th'
mcthodic reader is a lack of tolerance
His own habit makes him impatient Q
its absence in others and he too oitel
loses sight Of the compensation whic
make up for much that ofiends him an,
which he could not miss reading with
out loss
The captious man, though seldor
really methodical, is quite as exactin
and far less tolerant. He offsets thrc
fiawless pages with single blemish o
the fourth /; and inveighs against tn
general typography Of a paper becaus
Of few inconsequent errors beyon
controlofthe management lfapapero %
sometimes, an entire edition goes fort
blurred and indistinct, the captiol
reader classes the appearance as usu
and condemns the sheet with disprai.
by no means faint, though by all NEAR
unreasonable. There is no paper S
fortunate as to have no captiou
readers, and no publication so lette
perfect as to escape the carpers Gel
sure--unless he finds it more to his pu
pose to detract from the merit Of
home paper by cxtolling the eScellel
cies OF foreign one. But even II
rabidly captious reader, if he has Il
manly Courage to tell the managemel
Of a paper what he coneeives to be
faults, is less to be deplored than Il
faulf finder who Aattars newspaper M