The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-03-05
ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS.
- IN The United States, they Arc Firmly
Established.

Established.
The English provincial daily press dates
bRck to nssout 1900. Five years before hat
time tho press was freed from tho last of
the r0strictions which the law had for gem
STATIONS imposed upon it, and between
1850, whom tho stamp act was repealed, and
1870 4 large number of newspapers which
had before that been issued In weekly or
ht-wcekly form made their appearance as
daily Journals. Prior to 1855 neither Man
chester nor Liverpool. Edinburgh or Glas
gov, possessed q daily morning Journal.
1t is also noteworthy that with only one
or two exceptions all the prosperous pro-
vincial morning papers were originally
weeklies. and RS such had long occupied
the ground they now hold as dailies. The
only prominent exception is the Bitming-
ham Daily Post. now liberal unionlst,
which was started as n morning journal IN
1867, and is the only paying provincial
newspaper Of the first rank so started within
the last thirty-fve years. All tho other
successful journals. such as the Manehes-
ter Guardian, the liverpool Courier and
Liverpool Post, the Leeds Mercury and the
Yorkshire Post, and the Newcastle Chronl-
Gle, and in Scotland the Scotsman. the
Glasgow Herald, the Dundee ADVERTISE,
and the Aberdeen Free Press were II
upon old-established weekly concerns
which had made constituencies for them
selves in the days when people We're con
tented to receive their news once or twice Il
week, and were willing to pay o. or even "a
or Sd for the modest journals IN which 1t
YVES contained.
During the last twelve years several Mt
tempts nave been made, notably III Liver
pool, Birmingham and in Newcastle. and IN
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, to es-
tablish journals published daily from the
outset. Something like E5oo,oOo or 4boo,ooo
sas been Two expense. on the on jour fnais fsss
started in Birmingham aud Liver
pool-droppea out Of existence after
short cnreers. The Newcastle and Edin-
burgh enterprises are still going. The Ed
inburgh venture does not pay. \ recent
case in the courts in that city put this be-
yond question, and it is doubtful whether
the Newcastle concern ID making any
money. In Glasgow the attempt was per
sisted in for many years, buu was nhally
abandoned five years ago.
The Aba.asen venture was started III
May, 1891. After it had been going Il little
ovor d yaar ;.s character was changed and
1t became al evening journal.
The conversion OF Il morning into an
evening paper is n nura indication tnat 1t le
losing money, and thus its owners are not
hopeful that it will soon begin to pay.
The change to an evening paper ls al
ways regarded az tie begirning of the end.
and that this view is correct IS shown by
the fate Of the LIVERPOOL Daily Albion and
the Northern Daily Express OF Newcastle.
These were both morning papers.
At one time they held good places in their
respective territories. but they were out
distanced by competitors. whose owners
had money and were willing to spend 1t,
and after continuing u chechered career for
a few months as afternoon papers they
dropped out of existence altogether. leaving
not SO much as q weekly issue to mark the
place where they had been.
In every one of the cases alluded to in
which endenyors have been made to start
/ daily journals without the foundation Of a
weekly. the new paper has been put on foot
to meet the supposed political needs of the
neighborhood. In no case was the new
paper a commercial enterprise. and in al
most every instance the men who found the
capital had q political end to serve and
were willing to adventure their money for
shat purpose.
All the older papers are so we'll estab-
lished and they 80 adequately cover the
field, and it costs such an immense sum tc
start a new concern, that nowadays bust
ness men will not embark their money in
daily newspaper enterprises, ana since the
establishment of the Daily Telegraph IL
LonCon and the Post in Birmingham nc
attempt has been made to start an abso
lutely new paper as q commercial s%pecula-
tiou, the Older daily jo~urnals-those which
came into existence as weeklies and bios.
somed into dailies i'll the sixties and the
seventies-had the advantage from the
start. They had Il clear field. they went in
and possessed it. and the futile results of all
recent eCdeavors to strike into their domains
and share their prosperity seem to prove
that the position Of these older journals is
altogether unaBSailuble,