The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-10
THE NEWSPAPERS.
Facts and Opinions Presented by the Ed
TOR of The Journalist.

Facts and Opinions Presented by the Ed
TOR of The Journalist.
Newspapers are started for two reasons
either as a business enterprise, TO give the
people the news and to make money, or as au
organ 10 exploit the views Of man, clique
or party. A newspaper IS a business en-
! terprise frequently nla;;ss money; as an or
gan it IS usually al expensive luxury
do not mean by this to undervaus the
party paper; a newspaper without convlc-
lions is like man without bones, it cannot
make a very vigorous figure in our rushing
bustling, positive life. But a newspaper, as
a business enterprise, must represent the
views of the majority of its readers. A strong
ly Republican paper in a Democratic town
may please its edltor-untl pay day-but it
viii not be a glittering financial SUCCESS. In
other words, the man who starts q paper
should study the wants of the public he is 70
cater TO and choose his location with refer
ence to the kind of paper he intends to pub
Ish. This may seem commonplace advice,
but there are papers which would lead one TO
believe that there is another reason than those
mentioned which induces people to start
papers-because they do not know any
better.
paying piece of property than an intelligently
managed newspaper. There are hundreds of
papers in America which are paying all the
way from 10 to 200 per cent on their capital
every year. The editors are well-to-do and
respected, and the stockholders are happy IL
the consciousness of having made god in
vestment. This is more frequently the case
in the SNEAKER towns than in the large cities
D l.
establish a daily newspaper in New York
city, and then it would require exceptional
skill and good management to make it a sue
cess.
In the smaller towns where competition is
not so sharp and expenses not so heavy, the
outlay can be reduced to a very reasonable
figure, indeed; the chances of success are
much greater and the returns are larger in
proportion. Unless, indeed, the unfortunate
editor tries to run daily paper in a town
which viii only support a weekly, or chooses
a location too near to large city, where he
is brought into ruinous competition with the
metropolitan dailies, even then he has
chance if he will make his paper thoroughly
and actively local
The city newspaper man finds vast amuse-
ment in poking fun at the rural editors news
items concerning the palnting Of Deacon
Jones barn, and the size of Farmer Duzen-
berry's potatoes And what does the city
newspaper man do? He devotes column or
two TO en- imaginative description of Mrs.
Riverside Rive's ball or BERTHE Softpates lat
est escapade. To the unprecedented observer
the country editor is the more digniied OF
the two. They are both dealing in news, and
presumably they are both giving their read
ers what they want.
In the New York dailies. Sunday and daily,
the average amount of reading matter meas
ures sixty columns. Dividing this into six
parts. the proportion of each department
will be about as follows: Local matter,
twenty-five columns; telegraph, nineteen col
umns; Washington, five columns; foreign,
three columns; editorial, FIVE columns; clip
pings, three columns. This result was OBJ
tanned by measuring four Suns, four Heralds,
five Worlds, three Illnesses and one Tribune,
and fairly represents the average on the lead
ing papers, and it may be taken as an approx
imately correct proportion of the depart
ments to each other, exclusive of the adver-
Using. In other words, a well balanced
paper, whether of four or s~eHty-four pages,
should be divided up in about that ratio
Allan FOrman.