The record-union., 1891-09-19
MEXICAN NEWSPAPERS.


-"Cholley' and T. a. r. L.
&Santa Rosa, September 18th.
MEXICAN NEWSPAPERS
How the Press is Subsidized by the
Mexican Government.
'Here's your daily paper of to-morrowi'
This is the cry l hear at o'clock every
afternoon in the streets Of Mexico City.
Dozens of newsboys are crying it.
| Ragged, dirty little fellows. they look out
under big hats and stick cheaply-p printed
newspapers under your nose while they
yell out in Spanish the names of their
papers and say that they contain all the
news of tomorrow. In the morning they
Will cry the same papers as just from the
press, and pretend that they contain all
the news of the day. Mexican daily
newspapers are always printed the after
noon before the date of publication. The
editors and reporters are too lazy to think
or night work, and they have no idea of
| the value OfneWS. Telegrams are lust as
likely to be printed three days after re-
ception, or TO be thrown out entirely, as
| to be used at once, and proSy three-col-
umn editorial often crowds out a bic. .ac-
cident or good news matter. The MeXi-
can reporters do not know what the word
scoop means, and many Of them will
not take kilograms because they say they
| have not the room for them. NeTerthe-
less, they are twenty nine dailies i'll Mex
leo City. The most Of these are subsi
dized by the Government All have
small circulatiOns, and the biggest jour
nal of the whole Mexican Republic runs
out only about 5000 copies daily. This
is Et Monitor Republican,, which is the
great independent daily of Mexico City,
which contains about 300 600 people. and
which is bigger than Cincinnati. Still,
EL Monitor RepUbj1cd7tO pays 40000
year, and it is the best newspaper prop
erty in Mexico. 1t gets no subsidy from
the Government, and it is supported by
| the Conservative party 1t is one of the
most independent of journals III its ad-
vertising methods. 1t will not take an
advertisement for any fixed time, but
only for as long as it is convenient to
publish it, and it will not make any re-
! duction in price for number of inSer-
tions. 1t has four pages, and sells for six
cents a copy.
The editor of the Repu5Rc01sO is now
and then too decided in his criticisms of
the Government, and, like all other edi-
tors in Mexico, he suddenly finds him
self arrested and given few months, or
a year or so imprisonment in the Peni-
tentiary. There is practically no free
dom Of the press in Mexico. The editor
of a newspaper who is obliged to sign his
name to his matter never feels certain as
to whether he will not be taken to Belem,
which is the name of the Mexican Peni-
tentiary. There is, In fact, corridor in
this prison which is devoted to newspa-
per editors, and which goes by the name
of Newspaper Row, The most of the ar
ticles in a Mexican newspaper are signed,
and the paper has to print in every issue
the name OF man who is responsible for
those which are not signed, and in case of
trouble as to the unsigned articles this
man goes to prison. In some of the
newspaper offices here the attaches as
sumo this responsibility turn about. EI
ItempO. or the Times, is the organ of the
Church party, and it often denounces the
Government. It's editors are frequently
imprisoned, but it makes about $4,000 a
year and it considers itself doing well.
The leading Government paper is EJ
Universal. This is subsidized by the
Government, and it gets 81 900 a month
from President Diaz. The editor has also
been made a Senator, and he gets Sena-
tors salary. The U1liUerSaL has about
fifteen editors to every one reporter, and
this is the proportion in most of the
offices. The editorials are chiefly essays.
The MeXicans do not know what the
racy paragraph means. The first page of
every Mexican newspaper is devoted to
long-winded critiques and commentaries
on current events or ancient history, and
the only live papers that the city has are
two dailies published in English, and
patronized by the English-speaking peo-
pie of Mexico. One OF these is the ItO0
Republics, which was established about
twenty-five years ago, and which makes
about $4,000 year. The other English
paper is known as the Anglo i ne5lca1.
1t has been only lately established, but
it is fast increasing in circulation and in
1luence.
All kinds of newspaper work in Mex
leo are poorly paid. Editors get from $40
to S25 q week in Mexican money, which
is only from s. so to SIS week in Ameri-
can money. The essay editors get the
highest salaries. AS TO telegraph news,
the papers seem TO think nothing Of
quoting from their contemporaries tele-
grams which have been used day or two
before, and an event three months cid
will be put in with as much assurance as
though it had just happened. Time, in
fact, IS OF no Importance in any affair of
Mexican life, and neither the people nor
the editors seem to care as to whether the
matter is new or old. [ found newSpa-
pers in every one of the big cities of Mex
leo l visited, and there is no perfacting
press in all Mexico. The presses in use
are of the old French style, made after
patterns which have long since been
abolished. The amount paid for tele-
graphic service in Mexico City ranges
from 81 to S25 per week per newspaper,
and only the leading newspapers pay
anything for kilograms. In contrast to
this the st. Louis Globe Democrat pays
So, 600 per week for kilograms. AS to
newspaper correspondents, these are paid
by getting copy of the paper free, and
the papers throughout are run on the
| economical ground. The printers get
from 28 to 50 cents per 1000 ems, and
good foreman receives a salary of $40
week. Such printers as are on salaries
get from So to $l2 week, and all of these
sums are in Mexican money, which is
worth only IS cents to the dollar.-Mex-
leo City correspondent of the st. Louis
| Globe-Democrat.