Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-18
THE BLANKET NEWSPAPER.

The blanket newspaper has not come to
stay 1t viii have its lease of life. and
then retire to the obscurity it deserves.
Here IS one before us from an interior Cali
fornia town, that boasts of ten pages, eight
columns to the page; yet, of the eighty
columns, but twenty-one are devoted to
reading matter. Another of twelve pages,
seven columns to the page, has but twenty
seven columns of matter for the reader of
news. On the other hand, the eight pages
of the REcoRD-UNIoN on Saturdays en-
brace sixty-four columns, of which, on an
average, thirty-four are devoted to the in
terests Of the subscriber-for these take a
newspa per to read. Take the SUNDAY
UNION, about to be issued. 1t will consist
of four pages, thirty-two columns in ali,
but thirty of these will be devoted to news
and useful reading matter.
The blanket sheet in great number of
cases comes in parts, never less than two,
and oftener in three and four sections, each
of eight pages, and one at hand has sixteen
pages 10 part and four parts, or in all
sixty-four pages; yet not one-half the
pages are devoted to reading matter. OBJ
viously the small advertiser in such sheets
has no place. He is lost in an ocean of
poster type, and gaudy and glaring dis
play by more pretentious advertisers.
The reader is not much more benefited.
He has such a mass of paper to handle
that in most cases he abandons the task,
selects page or two and contents himself
with that, missing thereby, very often,
that which would be most to his profit. IF
he is searcher after given matter of
news he is very apt to lose his temper, and
he certainly does lose time in his effort to
discover the object of his search, for the
matter is SO distributed among pages, and
mixed up with advertisements and cuts
and sensational articles, that even the ex-
pert newspaper man often abandons the
task OF finding the record of particular
news.
There was time when readers preserved
their newspapers and kept "tiles." But who
in this day IS able to give the house room
necessary to merely keeping file of a
blanket sheet? Who has the hardihood
20 rob his family, by the necessary expend-
iture, If he resolves to bind these files? In
fact the blanket sheet seldom is bound, and
then only by the publishers and few IL
brary associations and advertising agents.
What the reader of the day wants is
newspaper of reasonable size, that has not
been struck by the craze for multiplicity
of pages and desert of reading matter.
Hewants the news in brief form, without
unusual sacrifice of detail. He wants to
he able to finish his newspaper at a sitting,
perhaps, and certainly to 60 through it in
telligently before the next days issue ar
riyes. He wants paper that he can
handle with comfort, and that will not call
for the exercise of greater patience than
common clay possesses. He wants paper
that Is a unit, that does not separate into
quarter sections as he opens it, and which
is not cause Of vexation, by reason of the
liability of some acres of paper to suffer
mispiacement. to the detriment of the con-
medicines and unity of the issue. The
fact Is, the hot competition that has led
newspaper men into issuing these extrava-
CANT and mammoth sheets has become
sort of insanity; it is not creditable to the
profession of journalism; it is, indeed,
lessenlng its influence as an exponent OF
public opinion, and is depreciating the
value Of the press as vehicle of news.
We agree with the Christian Leader,
which thus vigorously protests against
these bewildering examples of what print
ers and presses can do:
The World produced forty-psgc paper last
week More than half of 1t should have been
burned before any reader saw it. twas great
achievement but a wholly irrational aud use
less one. It belongs with jumping from bridges
and ..shooting Niagara" in cass. The lina-
lies who do the startling but absurd things
shorald an be put in menagerle together 80
far as newspapers are concerned. II would De
gain 10 the health. intelligence aud mora! sanity
5fthe people II they were reduced one-halt IN
size ana correspoudingly improved IN the worth
and tone of what is printed