The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-06
BUSINESS OF A NEWSPAPER
r. LINCOLN STEPHENS IN SORIB-
 NER'S MAGAZINE.

Journalism of To-day is a Business-How 1t Compares With other Businesses-
 Magnitude of the Financial Operations of Big Daily Papers-How Papers Have Been Founded and Made Successful | The executive heads of some two -score | of the great newspapers in America, talking shop" on railway train last spring, spoke of their properties as fac- tories, and when the editorial depart ment was mentioned discussed "their ] traffic in news" and likened the man. agement of it to that of a department store. White paper was the raw mate rial which was bought in bulk by the ton to be sold at profit retail, and the price and quality of the several brands was the favorite topic of conversation. The machinery by which 1t was pre- pared for the market was interesting; circulation and advertising were fasci- | hating subjects, too delicate and dan gerous, however, for easy chat. Public | questions were not once raised, and ed- itorial policies might never have exist ed. These men were the publishers and business managers and proprietors Of | newspapers, not editors and writers, but they ran" their papers; they rep resented "the press" Journalism to- day is business. To write of it as such is to write of it as it is. In the editorial rooms the comparison with the i department store is borne out in prin- ciple and method. The managing edi- tor aims to supply the wants of all sorts | of people, and the variety of interests handled there is divided into depart ments, each with a sub-editor; the for eign news, with cable editor the na tional and state news, with telegraph editor; the local news, with a city edi- tor.
 The man who paid a paper bill of $617,00 expended altogether that year more than two million of dollars. He has morning and an evening paper, and he employs 1900 men and women, besides twice that number who serve him at occasional critical moments His stock in trade--the news-is collect ed from all over the world The course of his business affects and is affected
 
 and he has connections in two or three often conflicting capacities with all the businesses in the community where his paper is published. To conduct such a business requires expert skill. The me- thodical expenditure of so much money is difficult enough, while to do it and make profit is financial operation of the first magnitude.
 I ;k,,Ia l,,a, ioJ tions of the newspaper is turning jour nalism upside down. There are still great editors whose personalities make the success of their organs, but, always few, the number of them has not in creased with the multiplication of newspapers. Then, too, the old editors die. Their heirs, seldom inheriting the brains with the business, turn it over to a financial manager to maintain it for the income he can produce. If there is no heir, and the property Is sold, the price is so high that business meh who have become capitalists in other busi- nesses, not writers, are best able to ac- quire control Newspaper men see the drift of their profession into commercial hands.
 When a commercial journalist sets out, to build up a newspaper he does not have an idea before him. He does not say to himself that modern journalism is bad, but there is no paper in the world that is perfect, and that the way it ought to be is thus and so. I met a dozen men who had begun with their papers during the last fifteen years, some who had succeeded within five years, and their stories were all alike in essentials. They had picked up the business in the news or business de- partments. While they were doing that they were studying the field. Just as a thrifty grocers clerk goes around, not with ideas of the sweetest butter and the purest sugar in his head, but with savings in his pocket, and a clear mo- ton of the peculiarities of neighbor- , hoods, and picks out a vacant corner in a residence district, so the would-be newspaper publisher seeks place. If , there is a chance tQ open store or Fifth avenue, the grocer may undertake to stock fine goods, otherwise he will be content to supply the Third avenue trade.
 Every city of the first rank has some | example of quick success, and the most , recent are evening papers, showing that there has been a movement in that di
 rection. The field has been neglected ; till the rise of the commercial spirit ant :, the fall of the price of white pape, = opened it. The old journalist, though
 he valued his dividend, aimed prlmari v ly at power. He strove to make grea organ The old evening paper was higl
 in price, small in size and circulation
 and it's influence, often powerful, wal
 not popular 1t had no attractions fol
 editors with an ambition for democrati
 power. It was the commercial journal
 ist who saw the possibility of popula
 evening paper. The readers existed t |, More people have time to read in tn ', evening than in the morning, and, wha
 was still more vital, papers bought ol ; the way home were carried into tn e family. That insured him advertisers c business. It is not to be wondered a
 that the evening newspaper field ha
 been oversown with penny papers. ,. The only sound sources of income fo = a newspaper are from the sales of
 and from the letting of space to adver
 tisers. The circulation is the measur of the earning power ordinarily. fo = that brings in the wholesale price and ,- the basis both of the amount and tn e charge of the advertisements Tn s publishers most constant care, there = fore, is the circulation. The idea