Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-13

L but kOOu OtuBOoklOlc Cdu &c ndQ dL lIOm
S12 to SIS week. A weekly will require
two or three, a daily eight or nine. On a
| weekly the editor is frequently practical
printer, and can take hand at the case or
the makeup; he is also his own editor,
business manager and reporter, or he may
| have one assistant at an average salary Of
| SIS week.
The salary list of country weekly in
small town should not go above $40
week. 1t frequently does not go above
| SIS. A daily cannot be run for much less
than $3.50 a week expended in salaries
alone. The service Of one of the press
associations will cost about $40 or $50
month, and about $25 a week extra for
Geographic tolls, varying according to the
location of the paper. This expense can
be avoided by the use Of news plates" if
the location of the paper will admit of
such an arrangement.
In the establishment of either small
daily or country weekly the arrangements
are very inexpensive and simple in COM
parison to those necessary for the estab-
Gshment of daily in one of the larger
cities. There we have to take into caleu-
lation the cost of correspondents in various
points, large force of compositors,
editors, prootreaders and the like. The
New York World has, for example, over
600 regular employees ON its salary list, and
the weekly pay roll amounts to upwards
of $4,000.
In addition to those who are regularly
engaged by the papers there are nearly
1000 more correspondents scattered all
over the world who are paid for what they
send in. There are papers in New York
which have been losing anywhere from
$3.50 to $500 a week for the last six or
seven years, and which are merely kept
alive to CRAFTY the ambition of the own
ers or to serve the ends of party The
presses alone on which the Wor{d is
printed cost an aggregate of 100000, and
the money it spends every week for paper
and ink would keep many country
weekly going for a year.
With less than a quarter of million
dollars capital it would be worse than
folly to attempt to start daily morning
paper in New York. The idea that there
is ''no room" for one is the veriest nom
sense. There is always room for a news
paper which is better-which will please
the public better--than those which now
exist. What is needed to start one is
plenty Of money TO spend and plenty of
nerve and brains to direct the expendi-
ture.
In calculating on a four-page paper the
proportion of space occupied by the several
departments varies, because the second
page rarely has more than two columns of
news and the editorial therefore takes up
a heavier per cent. Surprising the four
page paper to be seven columns to page
and to contain ten columns of advertise
ments, the space occupied by news will be
about as follows:
Local, 6 columns; Washington, l column;
telegraph, columns; foreign, column;
editorial, columns-l7 columns. The re-
naming column would probably be given
up to local, as small papers always are
strongly local in character
These figures are for a live daily paper
in city not so large as New York or Chi
cage, but still of city Of considerable size
and Importance. Such a paper should
have from $4,000 to $4,000 circulation. In
every city of the Union conditions vary so
that it is almost impossible to make an
absolutely accurate list of the staff which
which would be required. Along the Mis-
sissippi the "river editor" is a very i'm
portant parsonage, in other cities the $50
ciety editor" in the far West the mining
editor" and in some places the labor edi-
tor" takes the place of some one of those
mentioned in the following schedule,
which is calculated on the basis of New
York. The salaried staff would be: