Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-13
TO RUIZ 4 NEWSPAPER.
HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO ESTABLISH A
DAILY Or WEEKLY.

Enormous Expense of Starting and Run.
ming Daily in New York-some
Interesting Facts.
Most newspapers are started to fill 8
long-felt want" says Allan Forman, in the
Springfield Republic Times. Sometimes the
only man who really feels the want is the
man who starts the paper, and he does not
feel it very acutely until after he has been
running il for while.
The bright newspaper man is the editor
who starts newspaper to supply want
which is just beginning to be felt in other
words, one who is Just ahead of the times
not too far ahead-but Just far enough to
let his paper grow with the "want" and
increase it. After want" has been felt
for long time the people get used to it.
It is the newest "want" that is the first to
be satisfied.
Bat supposing the man who wants to
start paper has chosen an active, grow
ing town of say 5000 inhabitants, and
after carefully looking over the ground
has decided to establish weekly paper.
How much will it cost him for his plant
and running expenses? How much capt.
tai will be required?
He wants AN eight-page paper Of we
will say, six columns to the page, forty
eight columns in all. From twelve to
sixteen of these columns will be devoted
to advertising, the remainder to news and
miscellaneous reading matter. The first
point he must decide upon is whether he
will use patent inside" or ready print
or plate" or ready set matter. In the
one case he gets his paper half printed; in
the other he buys such matter as he may
select, in column stereotype plates. The
patent inside" is not so satisfactory in the
long run as the plates. 1t does not allow
him the same latitude in editing his own
paper.
The greatest objection is that the time
is likely to come when the editor would
like to throw out page or part of a page
of miscellany, in order to make room for
a local news item or an unexpected ad-
vertisement. The ready print is infex-
ible. There are four pages which he can
not touch. If, on the other hand, he is
using plates, he can leave out column, or
saw off paragraph, or, if for any reason
he so desires, set his whole paper at home,
though this, under ordinary circum-
stances and present conditions, is the
height of folly for the average country
weekly. A part of the paper must consist
of general news, stories, short paragraphs
and special articles. All except the pure
ly local news can be bought ready set
much more cheaply than it could be set in
the Office, and it leaves the editor time to
make his local page sparkle with all the
news he can gather and all the originality
that is in him.
Foreign matter always comes from
agencies in the case of cheap paper, ex-
cept that which is rewritten from the
larger afternoon papers. 1t is not uncom-
mon, however, to have foreign CORE
spondent who mails letter each week.
For this he may be paid anywhere from
$40 to 500 in the case of resident cor
respondent.
In the business Office the expenses would
be about as follows
Manager. s35 to SIS
Advertising olicitor.................. 80 to so
Bookkeeper 10 to 40
Two 30 to 50
A resume of the whole expense, outside
of the mechanical department, including
the rent, which may vary from the floor at
S25 week to building at $500, would
make the payroll of four-page daily foot
up to something between 81, 100 and $500
a week.
Thsi is leaving the Sunday,paper out of
the question, and making no allowance for
paper, ink, presswork, cost of plant or COM
position-items on which it is impossible
to make even approximate figures. The
paper may be printed on a single perfect
ing press costing about $4,000, or it may
require two or three $4,000 presses. The
paper may cost anywhere from S25 to 81, 500
day, according to the edition printed.
Rates of composition vary in every city in
the Union, and other expenses are larger
or smaller. as the methods of circulation,
the iberality or economy of the manage
ment and the style Of the paper may die
tate.
1t is impossible to give any exact figures
without knowing all about the city in which
a paper is to be published, its surroundings
and conditions. 1t would, no doubt, be pos
siblelto run daily paper in some sections
on $500 or $500 a week, and from that sum
to the Worlds $4,000 is a big jump
especially when pay day comes have
endeavored to present fair average, not
so much for the instruction of newspaper
men as for the great outside public, who
have very little idea of the details involved
in the publication of newspaper and tht
expenditure of hard cash required before
it is possible to put paper fairly on it:
feet.
If it makes single ambitious indIvid
ual pause to calculate the cost before hi
sinks his hard cash in this most uncertain
of businesses, or, better still, if it bring
home to the readers any idea of the ex
pense and labor to which the editor anC
publisher is put and makes the borrowe
a subscriber and the delinquent pay up
the object of this article will be accom-
plished.
He can buy his four pages of plates TO
about IS week, and can, if he uses goot
taste in the selection. give his readers ar
ticles by the very best writers, illustrated
| by leading newspaper artists, matte
which would cost him S25 or $50 col
umn if he had to buy it for himself Th'
fact that the same matter is used by an
other paper in another town does not in
terfere with its value to him in the least
and it enables the plate matter concern
to furnish it to him at a surprisingly lov
figure.
He will need type enough to set fou
pages, with fair margin for standin,
matter and emergencies of about 81
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