The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-26
THE COUNTY PRESS AGAIN,

PIopHccS VI INC metropolitan anu county
press takes issue with it in one re-
spect. The claim was that the county press
occupied a field peculiarly its own, and one
that nc city paper could hope to fill. Disput-
ing this, without clearly experimenting the
real situation, the Indianian says: s'Why,
then, we wish to know, does the city publisher
cheaper only his weekly-the special issue of
his establishment that does come in direct
competition with the county journalY We
beg to reply that the Weekly journal, for ex-
ample, is sold at lower rate than the daily
for tAe very good reason that it can be pub
lished more cheaply, for reasons evident to the
editor Of the Indianian. And we wish to re-
peat that it in no wise is competitor with the
county press. No effort is made in any way
to make it a rival Of the papers published in
smaller towns. The editor of county paper
deals with news that the city paper cannot
pretend to publish. For city paper to at
tempt to publish all the local news Of Indiana,
in the able manner in which it is now done by
the county press, would require paper of
not less than two hundred pages, not counting
advertisements; and the result would be-
well, there could be no result, for there could
be no beginning of such stupendous folly.
Taking the Weekly Journal as the exponent
of it's kind, the reader will find that it, like
the daily edition, makes no attempt to sup
plant the local paper. It is simply care
fully prepared compendium of the news con-
tanned in the seven daily issues of the week. It
aims to give such people as cannot afford to take
the daily all the news Of the world at large
the facilities for such collection being practi-
cally out Of reach Of the county press. In
short, it is the supplement of the county
press, whereby the patrons of the latter can
be provided with such news as the local paper
cannot command.
The county paper that is managed by ac
tive and enterprising men, aims to give all
the county news-columns and pages of it
every week. The editor who knows his bust
ness-and the average Indiana editor knows
it about as we'll as the next one-keeps on
terms Of intimate relationship with all the
people within range of his circulation. Their
affairs are his affairs. Points of interest be-
tween neighbor and neighbor; the buying and
selling of farms; accidents deaths, marriages
and births; crimes; social, religioussandrpolit
cal events are subjects that must be dealt
Add to these the well-nigh innumerable sub
jects Of local interest with which the city
press cannot possibly deal, and it is APP
parent that there is vast field
for the county paper that no one
can usurp Suppose question Of county, or
township, or corporation comes up; or the
election Of a trustee, commissioner, clerk,
treasurer, mayor or road supervisor; suppose
the removal of a county seat is at issue, or the
building of pike, a new courthouse, or the
establishment Of mandatory is being
agitated; suppose railroad tax, water-works
fore the people, who but the local editor is to
deal with all these questions of such vast in
terest to those involved Can the city weekly in
any sense be regarded as the competitor of the
county paper? To make it a practical ques-
ton, how many people in Kosciusko county
take the Indianapolis or Chicago weeklies and
do not at the same time take one or more
Warsaw papers? From these facts it will be
seen that the low price of metropolitan week
county press; and this view is sustained by
the fact that very many county papers club
with these same weeklies, thereby giving their
patrons not only local news, but the events of
the world at large. The benefit is mutual
and one hand washes the other.
The county editor is the pioneer, the
educator Of the masses. They come to him
first hand, and every time he finds
patron he helps make one for us. The reader
of the county paper naturally wants more,
and of different kind. The low price Of the
city weekly furnishes it, and still enables him
to take the county paper that has already be-
come indispensable. The two travel hand in
hand, and no one more than the
publishers Of the city papers rejoice
over the prosperity and excellence of the
county press, let it be daily or weekly. The
appetite for reading grows with what it feeds
on. The proprietors Of county papers should
demand fair compensation for their products,
without regard to the price demanded for city
weeklies, which are totally unlike their own
The man who has yard of linen may want
yard Of cotton. That he gets the latter at
lorrar fio1ara need not cr1rnr;so him FL