The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-15
NEWSPAPER RESPONSIBILITY.

NewSpdperdont, an able New York publ
cation devoted to newspaper concerns, has
published a leader severely assailing the
practice of some newspapers which aim to
secure q large circulation through means
other than merit. 1t saws
at is a wonder that an inkling of the
insuficiency of any scheme to increase
circulation other than the steady day-by-
day or week by-week making newspaper
good enough to attract readers does not
oftener enter the acute brains of newspaper
managers. During the past four or five
years there have been myriads of schemes
concocted to induce people to buy news
papers. Many newspapers have risen to
more or less dizzy heights of prosperity,
and have gradually sunk again to the
level of their merits as newspapers"
1t then proceeds to weaken this sensible
statement by declaring that successfully
to boom circulation the needs and tastes of
prospective buyers must be carefully
studied, and then the paper must be a
good paper, according to the judgment of
the people who are expected to read it,
rather than according to the taste of the
man who makes it, The fundamental
error OF large proportion of editors
who do not attain the degree of success
they desire is that they endeavor to induce
the people to read that sort of a news
paper. Now a man wears the sort of
clothes that suit his own taste. He also
reads that newspaper that comes nearest to
giving him the sort of reading he wants.
1t is news that people want in newspapers.
A full recognition of that fact must con-
stitute the foundation stone of any and all
schemes to boom circulation"
All this is eminently true so far as it
goes. but it is a very imperfect statement
of the whole case. The writer may not
have intended to create the impression
that the moral obligation under which the
editor rests is not factor to be considered,
and that success is the only thing that
should concern him; but there is danger
that such an inference will be drawn.
Upon the estimate given by Newspaperdoma
any paper might be successful and at the
same time exert pernicious influence. We
know that there are many such papers in
this country. They are merely panderers,
in a less or greater measure, to unwhole-
some appetites and depraved tastes, and
their influence for harm is made all the
greater by the excellence of the features
which Nearspaperdom correctly asserts are
essential to the building up of large cir
culation.
That publisher may surrender what
ever ideas of right or wrong he may have
in order to secure large business is the
most dangerous of doctrines to instill. 1t
ignores the fact that individual power in
leadership may be overlooked. 1t means
the sacrifice of all the good which the ex-
ercise of such power might accomplish.
And it should be constantly borne in mind
that any publisher who is successful at the
sacrifice of the good for which he might
use his position acknowledges his indi-
vldual lack of power as an elevating in
structor of humanity, and instead of being
leader is merely a servitor-a panderer
to human weaknesses instead of an earnest
worker for the elevation of the race. The
publisher whose individual force is suf-
ficient can secure as great prosperity as
the one who is merely panderer. and his
rewards are infinitely greater and more