The Republican., 1889-02-02
SALARIES OF EDITORS.
Some of the Men Who Have Drawn Prize
in the Journalistic Lottery.

journalism"
/ The speaker was one Of the best
known managing editors in New York
city, and he passed his hand over his
troubled brow as he spoke.
81 get about forty applications pei
day from men and women who want tc
become journalists and the proprietor
of this paper gets twice as many more.
; A young man whom l know to be
making 800 week in the dry goods
business came to me this morning and
. offered to work for $25 per week as a
reporter. 1t makes me a trifle weary.
If these young men and women knew
how many blanks there are in this lot
terry and how few prizes drawn they
would quit"
This managing editor was in bad
humor, but he was all right as to facts.
There isn't a newspaper office in town
that isn't flooded with applications for
work. The prizes in New York jour-
nalism are few. You are reasonably
sure of drawing a blank pretty nearly
every time. There are more than 1000
Woodworking newspaper men in New
York City. Outside of their own Offices
I and the New York Press Club, not a
Ndozen OF them are known to the general
Ipublic. Those who are known outside
# New York could almost be counted
u)on the fingers OF a single hand.
The men who have drawn prizes can
notthemselves tell how they did it.
All taey know is that they started at
the bottom and got there somehow.
Ihreeof the brightest working news
paper men in New York to-day-and,
singulrly enough, their proper names
begin With the same letter "C'-John
A. Cocterill, Amos Cummings, and
roster Coates, started from the printers S
case. lfe latter, just about the time
when his t'ade was learned, and while
still boy, vas iusulted by superior,
and In an unconscious but happy mo-
ment, threw about a pound of lead typo
in his face. de was discharged, be-
came reporter, and is now leading
managing editor.
When asked The other day how he
came to succeed he said laughingly:
81 hardly know, but think that hand
full of type did it."
This is not intended to encourage
printers devils to throw type around,
but as an illustration.
Charles A. Dana is perhaps the most
famous of the men who have drawn
prizes. As editor of the Sun he draws
a salary of $4,000 per year and from
other sources his income is swelled to
about $l50,000 per year, upon which
/ he manages to live very comfortably,
aided by French cook whose income
is bigger than that of a Congressman.
Dana began on the New York Tribune
at salary of $l2 per week. He started
| in small way from town in the inte-
rior of Ohio.
Joseph Pulitzer, of the World, is said
to clear $4,000 per day. He is not a
working journalist now, but not many
years ago he was an ordinary reporter
III Ot. Louio, duo tASy Sht AC nao d
| hustler, too.
Whitelaw Reid, as matter of form,
draws salary Of some $4,000 per
year from the Tribune, but his income
from his stock in the paper is several
times this amount. and he is the SON
in-law of d. o. Mills. These are about
the only editors-in-chief who are
known outside of New York. There
are three or four more who draw good
salaries, but they are not known to the
general public.
John A. Cockerillis is one of the work.
ing managing editors and newspaper
men and draws salary of $4,000 per
year from the World and has an inter-
est in it besides. Cockerill was typo
and fought his way up from the ranks.
Amos Cummings is said to have an
income of $4,000 per year. He was
a compositor and private in the
Union army during the rebellion. and
he, too, came from the bottom up 10
where he is now.
| Chester A. Lord, the managing editor
of the Sun, has a salary of $500 per
year. He started on a small paper in
the interior of the State and had to
work hard for success. But he is little
known outside of New York.
| George F. Spinney, as managing
editor of the New York Times, has a
salary of about $1,000 per year. But
he has been hard-working journalist
all his life and the salary is not so
much. He, too, is little known outside
of New York. ......
l Foster Coates. of the Mail aud Ex-
| press is one of the youngest but best
known of New York newspaper men,
| and as has been before stated, he
started as printers devil. He gets
about the same salary THAI the other
| managing editors do. There are prob
ably fifty or sixty men who are simply
writer's like Blakely Hall and Julian
Ralph, who earn anywhere from $50 to
j $3.50 per week, but with the exception
i of the men named and four or five moro
they are never heard or spoken of, ex-
cept in their own homes and circles
W W.