Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-12
SUCCESSFUL JOURNALISM.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING
1.-THE FOURTH ESTATE"
Proper Training for the Profession-Edi.
torial Writing and Reporting-The
Value of Acquaintance.

of poker; of third he is no less confident
his critical judgment of how news
paper should be conducted. The Ameri-
can who does not consider that he would
make greater success as an editor than
any man in the business does not live. He
may admit that in other vocations apti-
tude and training, if not essential, are at
least conducive to eminence; that they
are of any benefit in journalism he cannot,
or will not, perceive.
The successful journalist is both born
and made, says Rhodes Macknight in the
New York Star. A man who comes into
the world without that instinct techni-
cally known as a "nose for news" will
never make great journalist, however
largely he be endowed with brains or with
what grace he may WELD pen. Born
simply with the news instinct, he must be
| trained in the use thereof, and in the pre-
pairing of his news for the reading public.
| This news instinct is the prime factor in
| the making Of journalist with it success
| is merely matter of time; without it,
journalism is drudgery and comparative
or utter failure.
In the greatest journalists America has
known this instinct was largely developed.
| The elder Bennett, Horace Greeley, Henry
J. Raymond, Charles A. Dana and Wilbur
| F. Storey could not help being great
journalists, because they were born with
the instinct and were trained in its use.
The men who write editorials often are
| ha f,11l Of ba
word. Many of them are merely essayists,
and in the conduct of the new, columns of
a paper they would be as great failures as
the merest tyro. Where the editorial
writer is graduate of the news depart
ment, however, it is manifestly otherwise.
1t is often the case that an editorial
writer has not 'nose for news" yet may
be profound in learning and a valuable
member of the papers staff; in the news
department, on the contrary, man must
know how to get news and to put it into
readable shape afterward.
The profession of journalism has become,
| in the past few years, more crowded than
that of law or that of medicine. This
may be ascribed to various causes The
great increase in the number Of daily
papers, the increased output of the col
leges, and the fact that, while a special
course of instruction is necessary before a
young man can become a lawyer or
physician, the doors of journalism are
open to receive him in embryo. AS
secondary impetus the itch of writing
which has seized upon men and women
alike in the past few years has doubtless
been influential.
The best news-gathering writers for the
press come from the ranks of young men
who have seen much of the world, and
whose powers of observation have become
trained by travel. 1t is not necessary that
they be profoundly learned. On the con-
trary, a studious habit of mind is often
disadvantage, and it has been more than
once asserted by successful editors that the
best reporters are those who have gen.
eral smattering of all sorts of knowledge,
instead of those deeply grounded in one
subject. Upon metropolitan dailies there
are men who have specialties, in respect
| to whom the reverse is naturally the case.
The best "copy readers" or sub editors,
I again, have generally been graduated from
the composing-room. Their experience in
setting up ''copy" in type has prepared
them in what is perhaps the best school.
/ The lack of proper preparatory training
| is doubtless, the greatest reason for the in
competency of the majority of applicants
for situations upon the staff of newspa-
per- But there are other considerations
fully as potent. Newspaper work is more
arduous than that of any other profession.
1t is physical labor, as well as mental, and
the long and irregular hours of service,
the constant exposure and vicissitudes of
news gathering are menaces to the strong
est constitution. The reporter must
obediently answer the call for news at all
hours, in all kinds of weather and from all
quarters. The question of competency is
! involved to no slight extent in the ability
of the applicant to withstand constant
draughts upon his vitality.
| Granting that he be mentally and
physically capable, alertness, the quick
| perception of news and the outwitting of
reporters from rival papers are further
qualifications determining his value to the
paper which employs him. No paper can
afford to have upon its staff a man who is
dilatory, negligent, lazy or superficial and
perfunctory in gathering.
| The compensation of newspaper men is
in most cases commensurate with the serv-
ices rendered. The minimum salary for
reporter is SIS week; from that figure
it rises to as much as S100, and the aver
age does not fall much below $50. Sub
editors receive from $50 to 800 in the
East, and as low as $50 in Western cities.
Special writers usually write at "space"
rates, which, upon metropolitan dailies
are usually S. to IS per column, and in
smaller cities from 50 to Sc.
Many reporters are able to command
higher salaries than they would otherwise
receive, simply because they have certain
kinds of knowledge which is indispensable
in certain classes of work. Thus a police
reporter, who has the acquaintance of
large number of policemen, men-about-
town and criminal lawyers, has an oppor-
tunity of gaining inside points" upon
news items which is Immediately recog-
nized in the counting-room. An exhaust
i've acquaintance with the highways and
byways of the city, of its tough" pur-
lieus, of the gangs" and of the thousand
and one sidelights seldom exposed to the
public view, is further determination of
his usefulness and value. So with a re-
porter who knows politicians; with a
sporting editor who includes in his
acquaintance pugilists, jockeys and train
ers; with financial reporter well known
in ''the street"-every branch of reporter
ial work is furthered by an extensive ac-
quaintance with men, places and things.
The character of the newspaper man of
to-day is largely different from that of his
prototype Of even decade ago. Bo-
hemianism is upon its last legs, and the
modern journalist has little to distinguish
him from his fellow-men. This may be
due largely to the recruiting of the ranks
from college-bred men. Whatever the
cause, the change is notable one, and
| with it comes a new estimation of the
craft upon the part of the public.
To the young men of intelligence. fxity
of purpose and progressiveness the field Of
journalism offers great opportunities the
rewards are above the ordinary, and the
training is veritably school of life But
the requirements are correspondingly high,
and it is the one profession of all others in
which mediocrity is never successful.
| China's Menace to the World.
! Outside of China, beyond all question,
the Chinese must find room for themselves.
4 =. Il. m