Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-16
CITY vs. COUNTRY NEWSPAPERS
WHY 1T COSTS MORE TO RUN A COUNTRY
NEWSPAPER THAN A CITY WEEKLY.


NEWSPAPER THAN A CITY WEEKLY.
The following article Is from the
Howard City Record, and it fills the
bill so completely that we reproduce
il entire.
Every country publisher in Michi.
gan no doubt frequently hears the
complaint that country newspapers
should be furnished cheaper; that the
subscriber can get a larger paper for
less money from the city and that he
cannot afford longer to take the
country paper unless it is furnished
for less money. Not everybody is
aware why the city papers can be FUR
nished so much cheaper, ut profit.
Here are few of the reasons. The
publishers of nearly all city weeklies
also print daily. Take for instance
the Chicago Inter Ocean. The profits
arising from the daily are large. Each
daily issue contains several columns
of matter suitable for publication in
the weekly issue, and the type in
these is set aside To be SO used. Sue
ceeding issues of the daily furnish
like quantities of material and by the
time the week has elapsed sufficient
matter has been culled to fill the
reading matter columns of the weekly
issue. Those have cost the publisher
| nothing because they have been once
used and paid for by the profits of the
daily issue. The class of matter thus
selected, is of general interest, and
makes II paper suitable for circulation
not only throughout the entire state
but in many states of the Union. The
circulation thus becomes very large,
fifty, one hundred, two hundred
thousands, perhaps. Does anyone
doubt that the advertising secured by
such vast circulation will easily pay
the expense of the paper, mailing,
etc., where type setter has already
been paid? This, then, will leave as
clear profit for the publisher, all the
money derived from the subscriptions,
be it at $l.00, 70 cents or 80 cents per
year.
The local paper is limited in its field
of circulation. Every county has from
one to twenty papers published within
its borders, each working and asking
for portion of the public patronage.
1t must be of particular local interest
to enable its circulation to extend far
beyond the borders of the county
where published. The circulation of
the average of the county papers
therefore, Is apt to be less rather than
more than 600. Where the city pa
per is invariably paid for in advance,
the country publisher gets portion
OF cash in advance subscribers some
owe him for II year and others for
several years. Some pay in wood,
some promise to pay and forget to
redeem their promise. Country pub
fishers as a rule do not stop u paper
as soon as the subscription has expired
(as city publishers do because as
rule his subscribers are his personal
friends or acquaintance and feels
that TO do so would be an affront.
His profits are therefore curtailed,
while his expenses yearly grow larger.
Newspaper offices cannot be run as
they were twenty years ago. Boys do
not work year or two for their board
as they once did, and wages in the
city are such that the country pub
Usher must also pay good wages to
keep competent help. Adertisers aud
business men will not accept work
performed with the faculties that were
deemed adequate even ten years ago.
The hand press which used to be good
enough is now back number and the
modern country newspaper must be
printed on n power press costing from
5000 to $500. How to reduce the
price of the paper and yet make the
business pay fair rate of interest on
the investment and proper return
for the labor is the problem which |
continually confronts the country pub
Usher. His rent gets no lower; his
insurance, taxes, help, paper, type, |
ink and the other hundred and one |
expenses are no less. Why should he |
be compelled to lower the price of his |
paper because larger one from the
city can be furnished at lower price? |
1t is the local paper that stands
nearest of all to the home reader. 1t |
is interested in the things he or she is
interested in. The little occurrences
which make up the every day life of |
the community. The births, mar
riages, and deaths; the comings and |
goings; the amusements, the enter
the enterprises, the hopes
and the ambitions of those here at |
home. Its columns contain the mat
ters of local interest which are never
seen in the city weekly, and can be
had nowhere else but in the home
paper. The family who cannot get
81 30 worth of good from the local
-. an =.