Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1896-05-02
The Semi=W Weekly.

The position that the semi-weekly holds
in the field of journalism is still a mooted
question. In the last two or three years
the semi weeklies throughout the country
have increased greatly, but in the middle
and western states faster than in the east.
Vermont now has three, and New Hamp-
shire none Until recently the Transcript
published at Franklin Falls, n. H., was
issued in this form, but the publisher re-
Gently returned to the weekly issue. In a
letter to the editor Of the TINES which we
Ike liberty to publish he says:
We changed from the semi-weekly to
the weekly because, after investigating the
matter. we found that majority Of our
subscribers in the towns around Franklin
preferred the eight pages once week,
not four pages twice week. In one town
where we gave double the amount ofsnews
matter ever given in the weekly 90 sub
scribcrs who were asked said they would
be better satisfied with it ''all together
Those who felt pleased with. the semi
weekly would take the paper as weekly, and
we looked at it that the weekly should
create special demand, fill ''long felt
want" etc., but we must say that when we
began to investigate we found that good
share Of the people did not appreciate the
extra work involved in getting the paper,
out twice week. They would take it
either way. Some were pronounced against
the new plan and others were Indifferent.
OF course there were many who liked it,
but we didn't get the new business that we
wanted. This in brief is the situation here.
The twice-a-week works we'll in other parts
Of the country but the folks this way do
not seem to "catch ON to this kind OF en-
terprise,
The question here raised is whether the
people appreciate the change enough to
pay in dollars and cents for the extra ex-
pense and trouble Of issuing twice week.
So far as the TINES is concerned, we have
heard so many expressions of appreciation,
that we have yet to be convinced that any
mistake was made when we changed from
the weekly to the semi weekly plan.
Newspaperdom, perhaps the best paper
Of its class published in the United States,
says:
We are firmly Of the opinion that the
weekly can be Established to pecu-
mary advantage in towns that have reached
population Of 1000. This gives a paper
good paying constituency that will
yield goodly income if properly culti-
waited. A good semi-weekly has that happy
taculty-it gets close to the people. We
all admit that the rural paper possesses a
field within itself, and this field is its local
feature. 1t has no competition and it
simply depends upon itself how strong it
shall be-
Every state is now SO honeycombed with
railroads that mail facilities are close to
the subscribers door, and the rural reader
appreciates the freshness of his local news
as much as the city reader does the general
news.
There are few weekly paper towns where
the local field is fully covered. The soil
lies dormant half the time. The semi
weekly is the natural channel to gather the
lost fruitage, and we predict that in five
years the positions of the weekly and semi
weekly in these towns will have changed
places in numerical numbers.