The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-06
BUSINESS OF A NEWSPAPER
(continued from Tenth Page.)

to find a way to let the change be known.
 The limit to all these expedients of the circulation manager is in the adver- Using department. A business mana ger whose circlation man set out to se- cure for him the readers of sporting news in New York city, gave page to the subject which had formerly had only half page, He succeeded, But when he reckoned the gains he found that he had added not more than ten thousand to his circulation, which was not enough to pay for the increase of space. It was out of proportion to the space allotted to "Woman's Realm," for example, and brought in very little rev. enue from advertisers This manager let the sporting men go and cut their department down to the original size. The advertising manager objects 'i'N to the use of many of the circulation managers schemes as bad examples to his clients, who say that if billposters and circulars are good for a newspaper they should be good for soap. The two departments clash sharply on the Sum- day paper which has been a strong fac tor In increasing the circulation. It be- came possible to publish an edition of great bulk when the price of white pa per declined under improved processes of manufacture, and the Sunday paper was developed as a means of advertis- ing the business. The managing editor was able to concentrate upon one days issue the various features he had not time for during the week, and the circu- lating manager saw in it an opportunity to make an entering wedge for increas ing the total number of readers To him 1t was medium of advertisement for the daily. The manager of the ad- vertising department rejoiced at first with the rest, for his clients, the adver- Using shopkeepers and professions, saw quickly the vaule of the Sunday paper with its leisurely readers, and their patronage was tremendously profitable. But the circulation grew so far beyond that of the daily, and was so much more effective for business announce ments, that the revenue of the daily fell off more in many cases than the Sur day paper had gained. The advertisers concentrated their resources, in disas- trous imitation of the news, circulation and business managers of the papers. and the curtailment of the Sunday edi- tion is a step very seriously considered in all advertising departments.
 No newspaper can live without the revenue from advertisements. A circu- lation of one hundred thousand which in a one-cent paper that is sold to deal- CTS at fifty or sixty cents hundred, brings in five or six hundred dollars day, pays only for the white paper, the press and the composing room expen- ses. and part of the cost of delivery. All the other charges and the profits have to be earned by space-letting to other businesses. Anything that touch es this spot, therefore, reaches the quick. And everything touches 1t. In commercial journalism 1t is the very soul of the concern. So well understood Is this by laymen and Journalists that the degeneration of the profession is as- cribed to 1t, and it Is believed to be an insurmountable obstacle to future i'm proyement. did not find any reason to despair. On the contrary it was when my inquiry took me into this depart ment that I came first upon business 
 to check the excesses of .sensationalsm. The character of the circulation begins to be looked to there. The space let to advertisers is charged for on the basis of so much line for thousand read CTS. But the papers with the largest circulation do not receive the highest rate per line, because the merchant knows that the readers of sensational ism are not the best class of customers; that is to say, they are not the people who are able to pay the best prices for goods, or to buy the best and most prof. itable qualities of his stock. The paper with small circulation may be the most remunerative to the advertising trades The manager of the advertis- ing department of newspaper opposes any any features that are likely to keep the paper out of homes.
 More significant for the future, how ever. are the principles that govern ad- vertising in it's relation to news space and editorial independence. The adver- tiser is a shrewd, selfish man, who re- alizes his power over the press, and he is unsuitable in his demands. When he comes into newspaper office he wants to stick the name of his bicycle or his patent medicine into the middle of some important news. If not permitted to do that, he would like to have it next to reading matter or at the head of a col umn. That granted, he asks for the most conspicuous place on the first page. covering preferably two or three columns across the top. Then he wish es to insert a reading notice" an arti- cle printed without any mark to distin- guish it from news. If he were allowed to have his way he would defect the ed- itorial page and make the news pages of all papers like those of Boston, which are the worst in appearance in the country. They let out half the first page to the highest bidder, keeping for their own scare heads only the part that lies uppermost on the news stand; they break the news articles for advertise ments and make the reader follow a story through three and four disorderly pages over shoes and under tooth pow der; they print reading notices" give 'puffs, and permit firm to make up a page recommending it's wares in typo graphical imitation of the editorial page. It is a curious fact that the oth- CT extreme, good taste and high busi- ness principles in dealing with adver- tisers, is in the business offices of the Chicago newspapers.
 The temptation to let the advertisers 4