The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-06

CTS away from him, held the attention of his fellow-p publishers for an hour one night and when he finished talking, they said that he was right, "only just little ahead of the procession" This man was understood, His motives are common; his ideas will be pondered, and whatever he does will be watched, with chance of imitation, Should he succeed, his influence would affect newspapers all over the country
 He maintained that it paid in the long run to conduct every part of the paper for the readers. The advertising col umns must be 0 directory No an- nouncement should have q preferred position" of any sort. The dry goods advertisements should be together by themselves; the boots and shoes should be grouped and so on with each trade and want. This classified arrangement was right not because it was orderly and a protection of the reading matter from distasteful foreign subjects, but, as this manager said, to make his paper an effective advertising medium, a pa- per in which man who sought some- thing could find the address of the shop that sold it. That this was good busi- ness he illustrated by recounting how he inserted for dealer one day spec ial sale of a particular kind of chair, and then on his way home stopped him. self to buy one. They were sold out The announcement had been put sim ply and briefly in it's class, yet seven teen hundred of the chairs had been bought by readers who had seen that lao Lo H o d. vertisers to break up his pages in their eagerness for conspicuousness, more ui- willing eyes would have caught sight Of the advertisement, but not so many readers would run over his business d. rectory every day, The same prlncl- pie has been followed by small one cent evening newspaper in Chicago, which makes a profit of half million dollars a year, and, though the plant of this paper cost half million, it was all paid for out of profits; the original investment was only few hundred dollars. The most profitable newspa- per in the country is three-cent daily that has made itself so effective as an advertising medium that thousands of people who do not read it use no other paper for that purpose
 When a newspaper has reached this point it is past the stage where it is mere business. It is spoken of as a property by the rivals who are striving to establish themselves on similarly firm footing, and the word Is full of meaning to them and to everybody in- terested in journalism. It contains the commercial ideal of a newspaper.
 The basis of the ideal is, strange to say, the old newspapers built up by the editors of early days, who. by their forceful personalities, gained hold on their readers that death can not shake off The children of the readers cling to the paper of the children of the founder This makes the old organ a property. Its earning power may be comparatively small but 1t is sure, the expenses are low, and the good name" can be sold at moments notice. Many men would bid for the honor of owning it, whereas very few would seek the proprietorship of a sensational newspaper. Few businesses are quite 80 precarious as Journalism, for there is nothing tangible about it. The plant of a newspaper that is earning a good dividend on ten million dollars, is actu- ally worth not half a nlllion and it's value may be reduced to this by the competition of a younger, more ener- getic rival.