The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-01-16
AN EDITOR TELLS HOW TO MAKE A
NEWSPAPER.

We made a brief extract yesterday from
the address made last week by Mr..
Charles 4. Dana. editor of the New York
SUM- at Cornell University. upon the max
ing of a modern newspaper. The address
is one Of the most interesting documents
that we have met with in long time,
and we shall make quite full extracts
from it this morning.
After telling us OF the immense i'm
provements in the press, which not very
far back would not turn out over 600 or
200 copies of paper in day, While IL
now turns out 10000 sheets an hour of
eight. ten or tweve pages. he adds~that
the same machine folds and counts them.
and lays out certain numbers in separate
piles. ready for the customers, the mo
ment they come. He then tells OF how
the tyDe-setting machines-the identical
machine with which these lines are set
up-have saved cost of printing, and he
quotes Mr.. Whitelaw Reid, editor of the
New York Tribune, as saying that he
thinks they saved him more than half OF
what his composition bill was before.
lie tells us. then, that thirty years ago
all the paper on which newspapers are
printed was made from rags, but that
about that time it had become evident
that all the countries in the world could
not furnish enough rags so greatly had
the demand for newspapers increased,
and that, therefore. a process was dis
covered for grinding up soft woods and
making them into paper. upon which all
newspapers are now printed. Thirty
years ago. he tells us, the newspaper had
TO pay from y TO 20 cents pound for
its white paper, whereas it gets 1t now
for IA cents per pound. 1t is plain that
the newspaper has had opportunities for
great economies offered it here and in
the Improvement OF the press.
The following passage as 10 the cost of
starting and running a newspaper IN
New York city is highly interesting. Com
menting upon the question: how far this
cheapness of paper may tend 20 lessen
a newspapers expenses, he says:
Now this is revolution Of great con-
making. How far ii will tend 10 pro-
duce any greater cheapness of news
papers | Will not now attempt TO say.
They are already sold very cheap. con-
sidering their other expenses besie> the
pr,ntiug and the paper, such as ne va
;iety of intelligence, the cost of getting
n VS. The salaries OF writer's. coTre-
spondents and assistant editors. and the
rent that must be paid in a great city
he ri haf ara
quired. That is IA very serious item. For
Instance. there is the New York Times
one of the ablcst and most trustworthy
newspapers in the world, whose company
has lately been recognized, so that, I'M
like some of the other large newspapers,
the company does not own the building ii
occupies 1t has to pay $4,000 rent for
the quarters 10 transact its business in,
and | don't think that is excessive. Most
of the large newspapers. the Herald, the
Tribune the Sun own their own build
ings But, taking everything. | should
say that the actual capital needed and
employed i'm carrying on one of these big
establishments, is not less than a million
dollars. That is necessary, not to pay
the natural losses Of an enterprise just
begun, but TO carry on the regula" busi-
ness, 10 run the work at reasonable
cost SO that YOU are not swallowed up
Won ask how much IL woud cost to esSab-
lish a new journal entirely, why. then
YOU have got TO have a great deal more
money; but a million is the least with
which a suitable outtt can be procured.
You must have at least four of those big
presses, costing $4,000 apiece. Then you
must have electric lighting. and the OUTFIT
for that costs something considerable.
After you have II. 1t doesn't cost you
much 10 produce the electricity; that Is,
after you have got the plant. The 81
namo is run by the steam engine which
drives the presses and the waste power
that would not be used at all, sut'ices TO
Keep the dynamo going and TO light your
whole house with electricity. There Is
notable advantage In electricity for light
ing a newspaper Office. In fact, IL Is in
dispensanle The only other means is
gas. In the summer when the weather
is hot. II your printers have their desks
liShted with gas, the heat becomes DIM
cult to bear. When we used 70 cH,.ioy