Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-03
MORE NEED OF THE MERGER.


MORE NEED OF THE MERGER.
The comment in which newspaper
men have INDUCED freely regarding the
consolidation of two large dailies in
Des Moines suggests very pointedly
what ought to be done in many another
Iowa field. No publisher of any note in
Iowa has failed to express his opinion
we have yet to see the editorial of a
single one of them that does not con-
tain the conviction that the merger is
a good business move, because Des
Moines had too many newspapers.
II this is the universal verdict of
publishers regarding the Des Moines
field, which may fairly be considered
| the largest field in Iowa, what must be
the conditions elsewhere? We have in
mind a prosperous city on the Iowa
border of scarcely mare than half the
population of Des Moines, in which
/
for support, some of them are good
newspapers, too, and some not so good,
but the wonder is that any of them live.
and it is safe to guess that few pay
| dividends A merger there that would
leave two dailies only would give the
| town better service and enable PUBLISH
ers to carry out their ambitions for i'm
proving their papers.
| Again we have in mind hustling in
terror town of possibly 600 people
which has two daily newspapers. The
| town itself is as enterprising as the
best. Business men there and real es-
tate owners firmly believe that their
| town is crowding Chicago hard by
icomparison, and nothing short of five
4 story blocks is discussed by builders,
| but the two newspapers are not thrlV-
ing. Competition between them has so
demoralized prices that the more busi-
ury. Publishers there, to our certain
knowledge, have cherished plans for
Improving their papers that would
have greatly benefited the town, but
were impossible because of a too lin
tied field. A merger should be effected
there by all means, and all energy put
into one daily newspaper. A town OF
less than $4,000 people accomplishes
wonders if it supports one daily news
paper we'll.
| The same might be said of many an
| other town, and even to the weekly field.
There are few county seat towns in
Iowa that offer field for more than
two good weeklies, while most of them
are burdened with from three to six.
The result is none are what they ought
TO be, and the word goes out that there
| is no money in country Journalism. 1t
| is we'll known that the T.-R. believes
the county seat weekly offers good
living and desirable business for he
man who will hustle. Since delivering
l
subject we have been assured by doZ-
ems of county seat publishers, who We're
fulfilling the requirements. that we
were right. Only those who failed to
measure up to the standard FOUND
fault with our views and in nearly eV-
ery case the trouble was pointed out to
be. 100 many papers in the field.
The nergei. is the first remedy for all
such ills 1t is always better to merge
than to kill by force of competition for
newspaper is a hard thing to Kill and
can nearly always wear out it's antag-
onist in the killing. The Algona situa-
ton is a case in point. There news
paper was started by rich man who
had been piqued in politics. It's main
object was to injure the other papers
that had baked the ambitions OF the
rich citizen. Since this paper was
| started there has been little newspaper
profit in Algona and consequently pub
,ishers have been unable to do their
best work. The merger accomplished
when Harvey lngham leaves should i'm
prove the situation. The day has passed
when every idea, personal ambition or
ism needs AN organ. The modern news
paper gives expression to all ideas alike
confirming the views OF it's editor to a
Very limited space and the task of gath
ering and publishing news OF a local.
state or general field has become SC
great an effort that good work can be
done only by concentration. We might
point to instances of what can be
accomplished by newspapers enjoying
the united support of their field, even
tho the field itself be small, but itwil be
unnecessary. There is no institution
of greater value to u community thar
Il good newspaper. We have seen towns