The Helena independent., 1893-08-20

THE WEATHER,
JOURNALISM AS A BUSINESS.

JOURNALISM AS A BUSINESS.
In clever article in the August num-
ber Of the Forum, Mr.. John w. Keller,
president of the New York Press club
ono of the brightest newspaper men OF
the metropolis, gives an insiders view
OF journalism as career. Looking at
the newspaper life purely from metro
pol,tan point of view the writer finds
little attraction in it for young mon
seeking a vocation. Iu the mere matter
OF furnishing a livelihood he comedies
that journalism compares favorably
with other occupations, but beyond that
point, SO far as great opportunities for
the exercise Of power and influence 60,
the business offers small inducements.
There are ten great newspapers IN
Now York, and five thousand working
newspaper men. The business calls for
but ten managing editors, two or three
times as many editorial writer's, and the
other places are those in the main filled
by men drawing salaries ranging from
two thousand to thirty-tive hundred dol
lars. These salaries are not increased
as the men advance in experience and
knowledge. Tho man who has been ten
years in the business as q rule earns no
more than the man who has served an
apprenticeship of two years. "Ihe most
pathetic figure in journalism" says Mr..
Keller, sis the man who has grown old
in it's service. Through no fault of his
he finds himself without a vocation
when he most needs it. In any other
business his experience will be OF value.
The accumulated knowledge of years
would command a price commensurate
with it's worth. Here it is valueless be-
cause in the first ten years Of his jour
nalistic career he has mastered the art
of reporting, of copy reading, OF any
routine departmental work, and expert
ence shows that celebrity decreases with
age after certain period of years has
been reached. journalism is essentially
business for young mon. They rush
into it by hundreds, they remain in it
by tens. Ninety per cont of the men
who enter journalism leave it before
they become old"
ALI newspaper men know from expert
ence that very much of Mr.. Keller's
criticism is we'll founded. The disap-
pointments of the journalistic career,
however, are due not SO much to the
occupation itself as to the misconcep-
tion of it in the popular mind, and in the
minds of those who enter upon it's du-
ties. There is a certain glamour of ro-
nance and mystery about the making
OF newspaper. 1t is less understood
by the average man than any other in
dustry, perhaps, in which men engage.
In reality the making of newspapers is
simply manufacturing business, re-
quiring for it's successful conduct the
same qualifications that any other man
ufacturing business demands. 1t calls
for a knowledge Of labor-saving ma
chinery, Of products used in the process
Of manufacture. 1t calls into play at
all times the commercial instinct, the
knowledge of markets, of how to make
the manufacturers wares most attrac-
tive, and salable. Business sense is an
absolute prerequisite for the successful
publication of newspaper. The young
men just out of the colleges who enter
the offices of metropolitan newspapers
have no opportunity to gain tho busi-
ness experience that their calling will
demand of them if they ever become
anything moro than underlings.
But a young man in New York
newspaper Office stands as little chance
OF becoming proprietor of q metropoli-
tan journal as a clerk in Clafln's store
does of getting partnership in that
establishment. Why should he? But
what does the dry goods clerk do about
it? Well, if he is bright fellow, he
doesn't find fault with the business he
is in, or run on into old age behind the
counter. He cuts loose and goes west
or south to a smaller town where he can
start in business for himself on small
scale. In few years, if he is capable
man, he is at the head of nice business
of his own, and an independent man.
He doesn't consider his life failure be-
cause he didn't step into Mr.. Clatlin's
shoes. Now, if the five Thousand work
ing newspaper men in New York would
take hint from the men in other activ-
tiles, they wouldn't all stay in the me-
tropolis until they were the pathetic
old greybeards in harness that Mir.
Keller describes. They would give over
the idea of being Danns, Reds, Ben
netts, and Pulitzers, and seek smaller
fields of activity. There are thousands
of towns in the United States in which
the manufacture OF newspapers can be
carried on with reasonable profit, and
afford an honorable calling for tho men
engaged in them. Nor need a young
man think his life will bo wasted and
his influence go for nothing in these less
important towns. The New York jour
nails long ago ceased to have any in
huence west of the Alleghanies, and