Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1891-01-21
Starting Papsrs


? Ole OF our contemporaries b'ishiDg 'ho
iist of me embsrs OF oampeay orgsnTzsd to
start daily newspaper in Virginia town
Of eix thousand Inhabitants ssys: "Gocd
business men. but not one prGctios! pews-
paper man in thu lot Z" This -a1ark is
made because tbs company ia Incorporates
with capital Of ten thousscd dollars to es
tablish the plant and run daily. The news
paper man need not be told ihetth is not p
practical newspaper msn in the Iot." The
proposition 20 establish daily with that
amount of capital proves this. In the frat
place there is DO town of 5000 inhabitants
IN Virginia or lhe Sou,b that will support
daily paper. Such papsr hae TO look !or
lis reyenUe from circulation and advertise.
ments. 1t cannot get enough Of either in
town Of six Thousand to give il life. Fur
thermoie, e population ot Six thonsand In
the South mesCs about thrae thousand in
the North when looksd 81 fsom the Bows
pAper standpoint. tor be negroes dc not
cad papers aor 90 southsrn people read
them es much So northern people. s daily
paper wss started in neighboring towu 10
rei&hhoring southern State about 8 year
ago. TIE casb CT pitsi Vas tTentg-hos tGcu-
sand dollars. Otclurse lbs slen who start
cd il were "ieadag bus!ne9s. men," alG
the paper has gone lnGe-. The pep
ulation of tho town ls twe0ty-eight
thousand, whIch represents 8 DewaraDer
population OF e5c1t fourteen thoushad d
compared With the MOTT. Nov osre-
fully statistics OF The american Journalist
show that sight huadr$d readers 20
population o: ten thousand a sp!ecdd
asersge, and very TGrs.y obtained The
projectors Of the defunct esspap0r. not
! beiug newspaper meu, cid net know this
but they have learned tle leescn. Au
instance in one of the Ca-olinas a!so IL
illustrates this. & company of tba usua!
lyps YVES organized with capital Of twenty
thousand dollars to publish q daily 10 q
town OF about thirty thousand inhebi srti,
Which already bad daily managed By
cempetent aud shrewd newspaper mgn-
email daily, indeed, but es large as The
owoar knew the town would support. The
ouner OF this small daily had purchased
the Associated aod United Press Association
franchises for HE ylcinity-:hGt is, he coz
irolled the news cent by those great tele-
graph news gathering associations. Hsd
Ills rivals been newspaper men they would
have knowo they could do nothing without
telegraph and that no daily paper has
ever been able to sncceed without the
telegraph gotten By the organized Efforts
Of these pres5 associations, which epend
RI million dollars annually TO Get the
news. OF course, tGe new paper went
under after eighteen moD:he' struggle,
during which 1t t,ied thet experience
OF most novices-tae one-cert paper.
Ia the first place. the expense of running
one-oent paper is just ae large because
the public demands thst tbs paper shall be
as good a. If the price per copy were higher,
while the revenue from the sale OF TIE paper
is much smaller For instance, statistics of
the american Journalist show that no one
cent paper bas paid outside of any city of
eight hundred thousand inhabl;ants-aDd
there are oniy five one-cent papers 10 the
United States that are paying. Comparison
elbows that, advertising patronage being
equal, q one-csnt paper must have O daily
circulation of rs coo to makes profit from
Its circulation. Sc the paper above alluded
to simpIy hasteoed It's graveyard doom by
selling at one cent. Occaeopaiiy complaints
are heard from Richmond that the Rich
mond papers Nre not es good aa those else
where. Baltimore has 9 population Of near.
ly 500 900, mostly white, end yet 1t supports
only two morning and ore evening paper.
Within the past ten years thres morning
and two evening papers have started ia Bal
timore and have died. Washington, too.
with its 250 900. hss for years oDiy supported
one paper, the Star but the Pest in recent
Years has succeeded in getting foothoId,
we belieye-Rich State