The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-24
SAFFRON JOURNALISM.
Every City is Cursed With It-sometimes
the Sheets Sell For One Cent and
Sometimes For Two-Wans of "YeI-
low" Success,


the Sheets Sell For One Cent and
Sometimes For Two-Wans of "YeI-
low" Success.
IFrom the Philadelphia Public Ledger.)
The criticism advanced by the oppo-
nents of the one-cent idea is that there
is certain price below which it is i'm
possible. on sound business principles.
10 publish a newspaper, and one cent
is below that price. The cost of pub
fishing newspaper is enormous. The
great plant to be maintained, the corps
of men trained in the craft, the large
body of skilled workmen, the army of
news gatherers, the various fixed
charges, the interest on the capital, and
especially the white paper consumed
daily, make a total which is so huge
that II high quality in all be main
tanned, the completed paper, if sold at
one cent, is sold without profit or at an
actual loss. This is the shrewd criti-
cism, based on many experiments. made
against the lower price. 1t is wholly
1mmatersel how many copies are sold.
because the cost of white paper of a
good quality is so great that, with the
other expenses added, the cost Of each
finished paper leaves no margin at one
cent
It is evident then, that any prospect
of profit for the publisher rests wholly
in the increased advertising patronage.
which he hopes will follow. This is not
business. 1t is the abandonment of the
only safe, sound business ground, that
of fair profit. to embark in the realm
OF the fortuitous. 1t is a change from
q. sound, safe business basis to pre-
carious and doubtful one, and, there
fore, we should say that in placing a
paper in a hazardous position, leopard
izing its independence, there is a. ten
dency to weaken its independence and
impair its tone.
there is a vast number of educated, re-
fined and intelligent people in New
York who would prefer to read a clear
newspaper, not given over to vulgari.
ty and mad-house Methods" and thai
these people, who are now deferred
from reading a decent newspaper be.
cause of it's higher price, will abandon
the vulgar papers and read wholesome
ones, if the price be lowered. Here are
two false assumptions. We do not be.
heve that refined people read the mad
house" sheets, and we do not assem-
to the proposition that intelligent
healthy-minded people are deferred
from habitually reading decent paper,
because of the difference of one or twt
cents in the price.
That We're pitiful estimate to put
upon the quality of the countrys re-
finement and intelligence. It is, We
are sure, a mistake to assume that only
the well-to-d do buy the high-class news
papers. We do not think it is so mucl
matter of means as of taste and char
acter and the intelligent and refined
whether rich or poor, will be found, WI
think, to be the patrons of clean, hon
est newspapers.
The Times, we believe, has made
mistake. The people who now read thu
"mad-house" sheets read them becaus'
they are loud and vulgar. They arr
the morbid, who, as the French say
constantly crave a new SILVER" The.
are seeking new sensation, and thu
paper that peppers the highest is SUR
to please, 1t is a clientage as unsta
BILE as water and when once got i
of uncertain duration. The temptation
to hold it by catering to it and will b.
well-nigh irresistible. No orator is un
Influenced by his audience, and ever.
newspaper is bound to be influenced i
may be sensibly, but none the less ap
ciably, by the character of it's read
ers.
To make sacrifice of quality for mer'
popularity is to throw away for on
thing essential for a genuine success
and to get what is of questionable
value.
The cheap yellow Journalism ha
been overdone. The people are tired o
1t. and the reaction is coming. T,
suppose that the vogue of the hideou
mass of ridiculous inane, vulgar, men
dacious stuff that masquerades unde
the name of news in the flamboyan
cheap journals is anything but pass
ing craze is to wholly misjudge the san
ity and basic common sense of the peo
pie They are disguised with it, ant
we have the best reasons, based on TIN
most irrefragable testimony, tina
there never was a time when the peopl
were more willing TO pay a fair pric
for good newspaper than they ar
today.