Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-05-20
THE NEWSPAPERS.

Faets and Opinions Presented by the Edl-
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 an
organ TO exploit the views OF man, clique
or party. A newspaper as o business en-
terprise frequently makes money; as an or
gan IL Is usually an expensive luxury.
! do not mean by this to undervalue the
party paper; newspaper without convic-
tions Is like o man without bones, it cannot
make very vigorous figure in our rushing,
bustling, positive life. But newspaper, as
a business enterprise, must represent the
views OF the majority Of its readers. strong
ly Republican paper In Democratic town
may please Its edltOr-until pay day-but 10
will not be a gllttering financial success, In
other words, the man who starts paper
should study the wants of the public he is to
cater to and choose bis location with refer
ence to the kind Of paper he intends to pub
Iish. 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
newspapers because they do not know any
better.
For the capital invested there is no 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 In
the consciousness Of having made good IN
Vestment This is more frequently the case
In tho smaller towns than in the large cities.
Roughly speaking, 1t would cost $2500O0 to
establish a daily newspaper in New York
city, and then it would require exceptional
skill and good management to make 1t 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 town
which will only support u weekly, or chooses
q location too near to IA large city, where he
Is brought into ruinous competition with the
metropolitan dailies, even then he has a
chance II 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 painting of Deacon
Jones' barn, and the size of Farmer Duzen-
berry's potatoes. And what does the city
newspaper man dol He devotes column or
two to an imaginative description of Mrs
Riverside Rive's ball or BERTHE Softpate's lat
est escapade. To the unprecedented observer
the country editor is the more dignifed 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 dailes, 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 Suus, four Heralds,
Ave 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, well balanced
paper, whether of four or twenty -four pages,
should be divided up In about that ratio
Allan Forman