Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1891-03-27
TIE LOCAL PAGE.

La taking exceptions to the Globe S
claim that it islands head and should
ers above any other Ford county paper
the Bellefont Ensign observes that
''street gossip l. C. local news, is be-
reath the dignity of country papers.
From this view, We are forced to the
conclusion that Brother Cline has fall
ed to make a study of the desires Of
his readers. Street gossip, and plenty
of it, is the whole secret of success in
country journalism. 1t is the heart,
heaG and life, the all IN all, that makes
a country paper interesting and at
tractive. An EDITOR may be Aowery
editorial writer, with clear ideas ele-
gantly expressed, he may expend time
and care in the preparation of his ar
ticles, may select the most interesting
topics to write about, and yet if he
neglects his local page, his paper will
be called stale and uninteresting. IF
another man, even though an ignora-
mus, be employed on the same paper
and devotes his energies to gathering
news, he will have FIVE readers to the
other writer's one.
The local matter is what distingu-
ishes your country paper from the
dai!ies, and it is through your home
news that you can compete would the
latter and the big weeklies issued bv
them. There are some readers, who,
when they find country editor capa-
bic of writing an interesting and origl
nal editorial, will peruse his thoughts
from week to week. They are gener-
ally farmers who have plenty of time
of evenings and some from the differ
ent classes in the town. But town
people have access to dailies, and dali
les, besides touching each days hap
penings editorially, also employ the
best talent obtainable City newsra
per readers have access to news of the
world the day following its occurrence,
and when the weekly comes out its
news and editorials seem old and stale.
But in the local column-there We get
respectful and even eager hearing
There what we have t. say is read BY
cid aud young Il is original. NJ
dali can compete with rs there dc
spite their facilities for news gatheiing
The local colnmn may contain mer
ton of themselves; it Is sure 10 say
something If some of some of their
friends aud it is certain that general
news of the city will be given 1t is
interesting because the readers arc di-
rectly interested in the things written
about. If. however, an occasion ars..s
where a timely editorial ou some lccJi
topic is called for, the country papers
readers are sure to give il attention il
their notice is called to it. This is IL
Illustrated in campaigns, when the edi-
torial page is almost as widely read as
the local, and right here occurs the
thought that if country editors would
devote more of their editorial page to
their towns welfare, their thoughts
would be more widely read. Probably
the most striking illustration of the
high regard in which the local page is
held, is given by readers of the paper
who have removed from the place in
which it is published to another home
Very few families remove without
leaving orders for their home paper to
follow them-not on account Of edito-
rails, miscellaneous matter, or foreign
news, but in order to keep. posted in
this street gossip. As to the merits
of the different work, there is but lit
tie question. Many men can write in
teresting local items who arc at sea in
writing an editorial, and vice versa. As
to the labor involed in the two, sup
posing a man has talent for both, there
are very few who do not prefer edito-
rial writing to chasing locals One
is produtt created from his own re-
sources, and the other is more in line
with the work Of a machine, though
not entirely SO. II is generally re-
cognized fact that the best country pa
pers are those giving the most local
news, and this decree Is undoubtedly !
founded on the demands Of readers.