The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-11-15
SERVING THE. PUBLIC Il
IMMENSE SUMS EXPENDED TO-
: SECURE NEWS. -. =.
Publishers Of American Newspapers
Spare No Expense in Gathering In
formatIon-Interesting Facts in Re-
Cent Census Bulletin.

People who believe newspapers to-:
day are making money hand over fist:
and rakfng in unlimited numbers Of.
shekels from their advertising can
refer to the recent census bulletin on
Printing and Publishing" and get
much valuable information. Il l.
It is asserted by Mr.. W. S. Rossiter,-
the expert agent of the bureau, that
the newspaper managers have made.
and are making daily large sacrifices.
for the public benefit, and the last
ten years have been period OF im-=
portant gain to the public at the ex-
pense of the publishers.
AT the close of the decade" says
Mr.. Rossiter, "the daily newspaper
was more of a public institution than
ever before, because it sacrificed an
increased share Of it's revenue for
the public benefit, obtaining no COM
pensating. financial return from either
purchaser or advertiser.'
To the uninitiated this phase of the.
newspaper business comes as a puz-
zl1ng proposition. They see that a
newspaper increases in size, gets a.
wider circulation and carries more
advertising, and they naturally arrive
at the conclusion that the paper is;
making excessive profits It rarely
occurs to them to take into account
that an enormous increase in expense
is always incurred in this develop
ment.
The progressive newspaper of our
day gives it's readers the news regard
less Of cost, with the result that the
public is always the beneficiary in
the transaction. The telegraph news
service of first class paper is most
elaborate, and is obtainable only
through heavy expenditures on ac-
count of telegraph tolls and the pay
of correspondents.
} The bill for the white paper used
is a heavy and ever increasing ex-
pense, and each additional page
means additional outlay. As the cir
culation grows, so does the bill for
the white1s paper. .@.xT To print all the
snewstand give spaees to adj rtisements-
at the same time becomes to publish
ers serious problem.
, In giving some interesting facts
along this line, Mr.. Rossiter says that
on certain New York paper. whose
circulation is much over 300, 900, the
advertising entails cost of 21 cents
a line for the white paper alone, and
he adds:
@'The publisher who secures a cir
culation of huge proportions confronts
the necessity of securing from his ad-
vertising patrons a return of the cost
of his paper space they occupy. with
a margin of profit
There are "a number of American.
newspapers, according to this author
ity, whose expenses in the actual
cost of white paper threaten to ex-
coed the returns from advertising.
in the decade on which Mr.. Rossi-
ter based his statistics advertising
has showed no remarkable rate of
increase, while the expenses of the
papers have grown enormously. A
better instance where papers spared
no expense in securing news cannot
be cited than the Mont Pelee affair.
The American public was kept thor
oughly posted in every detail of the
great catastrophe, and to do this
thousands of words were cabled to
the press at a cost of fror, 81. to 81
a word. =. ... =
So far, then, as benefits are count
ed, the public has been the gamer in
the newspaper business, and in many
instances at the expense. OF the pub