The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1888-08-04

political and social idea. largely from the news
paper he reads. notable illustration of this
has been given within the past SIX months by e
Chicago newspaper which took il upon itself to-
procure by sheer dint of Newspaper advertising.
the nomination OF worthy citizen OF a neigh
boring state for the presidency. Day after day,
week i'll and week oIt, Susday and Monday. il
labored increasingly 10 convince the public that
Its candidate possessed all the virtue, necessary
in presidential candidate, that he was
the only man in the United States who
posst ssed these yirues in exactly the right pro-
portions ont OF which president ought 10 be
constructed. snd that II he were not selected al
the presidential nominee, this great and glorious
country would go straight to perdition. Given
| three columns of advertising matter. always top
OF column next TO reading matter, fol-
lowed by reading matter best page in
the paper, reading matter type, changed every
day, daily every day and weekly six months,
supplements allowed if next TO reading matter
| should not advertising OF this kind accomplish
something And II did accomplish It's Work,
Draw lire around The territory of which Chics'
go is the center ana IN which this Chicago paper
| IS the recognized leader ard within this line the
delegates 10 the nominating convention favored
the newspapers candidate Rui nos or,y the dele
| gates but the people themselves somehow cHrlS
TO believe that lie about the only Iiaa fitted
| for the nomination. venture 10 say that there
are thousand men in the United States who
would make equally a. good q president. The
difference lies in the fact that this one mans
good Guslities were thoroughly advertised,
V
nine like 'mue iuglOrious Milton" were
allowed TO blush unsec1' and coniue their,
merits a. home.
OF course the subjeetos the iuHuence of the
press lis trite one and was well worn before any
of US we're born but nevertheless are allliable
10 forget that we are morally responsible for She
| exercises Of this function of the newspaper. We
lose sight OF the H9blesss obhge, II may so term
IL. II we furnish speCtacles for the public we
should be careful that our glasses re clean and
pure and magnify only slightly BY all
klUuld ar
color. II the newspaper is fountain
from which the thirsty public satisfies is
wants, the water IL sends out sh0uld be whole
some and free from impurity. 1t win not do to-
give your pa ttons skim milk, OF sour milk, OF
vinegar, or moasscs. or mush, although snF of
these commodities /, good enough in its vsy
and for certain purposes are Invaluable. Yet
when Farmer Jones approaches your weekly
fountain for q drink of good, simple, honest,
heslthful, invigOrating, inspiring cold watsy
how disappointed be must be to drink either
skim milk, or sour milk, or vinegar, or mesasSes,
or mush.
The other function OF the country Journalist Is
| to so manage business which theoretically is
more for the public, and practically the public
| thinks 1t runs, that the owner may get from 1t
sufficient bread and butter for himself ana fam
| lily. To many of Us this Is harder prOblem than
| the GoTdIan knot the Egyptian labyrinth Ug
| the 1il5 puzzle. l often think Il requires the
economy OF John Jacob Astor or an A. i,
Stewart, combined with the business sagacitv os
Gould or Vanderbilt the herolsm OF Jean Val
Jean, the humanity of John Howard, the cour-
| age of Alexander the Great or Napoleon Bona
parte, the humility OF Uriab Heap, ihe charity of
st. John, the ambition of Cesar, the wisdom Of
Solomon and the patience of Job, all combined iF
one And yet, after comparing our kind OF
business and our methods of doing business
with other kinds of business and other methods
of doing business, l am sorrowfully compelled
TO admit that much OF our poor success rs bust
ness men is due TO ourselves. The same rules of
business which other men of less average intellt'
gence learned long ago put In practice in print
ing Office would result in more profit and less de
| linQuencies. As publishers simply man
ufacturers. To manufacture good article, ana
sell IL for what Ii is worth, 10 develop our mar
ket extend our business. and keep the limit of
necessary expense as far as possible below the
line of average income-this is the problem ip
| q nutshell. II looks simple enough, bui IN prsG-
| tice il is not so easy.
| Probably the most important event to us ae
newspaper publishers in the past SIX monthsis the
| remarkable decline in the price of Chicago
newspapers. Until this decline the regular price
| for a new wspaper was five cents and the public
could not complain because The public had
value received every time. The New York pa
| pers, spurred on by vigorous competition had
| made the eut TO two cents some four years ago
| aud 40 sooner vas II made than the discovery
followed that the price was too low. The chi
cssO papers held out some of them at five cents
and others at three cents until now the Tribune
| and Times are reduced TO two cents and the News
| TO one cent. The effect of this reduction will be
| felt materially In Wisconsin and must result,
fit, in an increase Of circulation for the Chca-
| 60 papers and, second, in stronger competitors
| against Wisconsin newspapers. Our on
ly remedy is in strengthening our de-
| feuses by doing better work aud If
possible by reducing prices so s- 20 meet our op-
ponents common ground. OF course 1t is d
| hopeless task for Wisconsin daily newspaper to
expect to excel or even equal a Chicago Ysper,
| because Chicago papers are unquestlonably me
best in the world, but in our distinctive field,
that of the local per there is almost limit to-
| the Improvements we can make, and in this field
we cen hold our own against any opposition.
This is true of the weekly as well as the daily
| press, and every publisher should understand
| that the general aud unlimited circulation OF
cheap chicago papers na IN 5h locally afy IN
isfy his customers. Like all other contests, the
| strongest will survive and the best way TO meet
competition Is to boldly p oceed 20 foruiy your
| self by turning ont better and stronger work.
| You have the advantage with your patrons and
| you eau hold it only by constant development
| and Improvement.
While cents is probably cheap for copy o.
almost any newspa per, there is no reason why IL
| should be held at that In England, scotland
and Ireland the provincial newspapers are < Der-
| ally sold AT penny or cents OF our M ncy,
| aud IN time this will undoubtedly becor hy
| custom the standard price Of American 81 ers
| also. Those Of us who see this now should take
| advantage of il, because In the newspaper field
| as in every other, the low price wins, other
| things being equal Better sell your paper at 2
cents and work up q little transient trade for It
| than hold il at aud not sell any
There is one more improvement which the
| ChiCaso pa peTs should adopt 10 MAKE them more
nearly perfect aud that is they should be reduced
| in size. They have not yet learned the art OF
| editing newspaper in the sense That Mr.. Dams
1
| opinions carefully editei for him. bat the news
tastes the best and suits the digestion best which
| is laid before him in the daintest possible man
| ner The Chicago papers as r1le eDdeGYOT to
| satiPfy the demand for quantity, apparently re-
| gardiess almost o. the quality. Said Chicago
| business man to me- Il take all the Chicago
| papers, but the only ones read are the Herald
| In the morning and the News at night. have
| no time iOr the others Work bestowed upon
,he preparation OF your paper generally tells in
| the appreciation OF your readers.
| We all of us have q sufficiently good opinion
of ourselves so il IL not necessary for me 10 say
| anything more in praise of our work. We oil
| believe firmly that the newspaper is one OF the
pillars in which ST the whole abric OF society.
we all know these things and nothing but our
natural mOdesty prevents us from saying them,
| The difficulty seems to be with most Of us THAI
| we are unable to transmit a sufficient amount OF
| tafy into greenbsCks or soft words into cash at
ten cents per liBe.
| After few words of pcroration, Pres
| ident Hicks closed with the words OF
| "Tiny Tim - "C;od bless ms. every one"