Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-15
SPECIAL NEWSPAPERS DOOMED.
rovth snd Influence Of the Daiies
Cause = Permanent Eclipse.
st. Louis Globe Democrat.

Cause = Permanent Eclipse.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The sole which has just taken place Of
the New York Observer, and the accom-
p%anying announcement that Il Is to cease
being a distinctly religious journal. is part
OF a drift which has been at work among
the religious press for many years. Dur
ing the quarter Of a century in which the
Observer was edited by Samuel I~renaeus
Prime, the well known Presbyterian writer
and scholar, II was one OF the foremost re-
ligious papers of the United States. Il &C.
cupied a position among the religious press
as conspicuous as did the New York In
dependent when It had, successfully, as
editors such accomplished men as Dr..
Leonard Bacon, DR.. r. s, Storrs and
Henry Ward Beecher, or as a newer paper
than either OF these, the New York Chris
tian Union, did while Beecher was it's chief
editor.
But both the Independent and the Out
look, which is the recent name OF the
Christian Union. left the ranks Of the dis
tinctively religious press several years
ago, and now give most Of their space to
literary, social and political topics. The
observer joins them in the field. Many
other religious papers, denominational aud
undenominattonal, all over the country
nave taken this step. or have discontinued
publication. None of them attract such
attention as they did in the old days. No
body inquiries or cares today who their edi-
tors are. To some extent, OF course, the
editors OF the secular press have been eff
raced In the same way in the lapse Of time,
but the secular papers themselves have
more influence and I'LL a far wider field than
they ever did in the past. Papers In the
other special fields suffer a similar eclipse.
The days when Wilkes Spirit Of the Times.
the New York Clipper and such papers
were read by everybody who had any in
terest In sporting matters are far in the
past.
Those papers devoted TO special fields
OF work have, in the case Of the larger
fields, been displaced by the daily news
papers. The big journals of the principal
cities OF the country, which come out
seven times a week, as compared with the
religious and sporting papers single APP
p~earance, have immeasurably larger facili-
ties for covering all the great departments
Of human interest than the special news
papers possess. They have better writer's
and furnish earlier and fuller accounts Of
the things which everybody wants to know.
The Presbyterians, Episcopalisns. Congre-
gationalists, Methodists, Baptists and
other great denomination are far more
numerous and powerful than they were In
the days when each of them had a special
organ or organs in most OF the large cities
and they read religious literature as much
as they ever did. but they get It in the
daily newspapers. Everything Of any con-
sequence to the people as members OF any
religious denomination or OF an a~ssocia-
ton Of any sort is printed in the daily
press before It gets a chance to appear
In the weeklies or monthlies and in mat
ters Of absorbing interest II is given with
a f%ullness, an authority and an intelli-
gence beyond the resources OF the special
papers. The great dailies have for years
past been encroaching on the domain Of
the magazines also. They treat the larger
themes of human interest as comprehen-
sively as do any Of the monthlies and do
1t earlier and more frequently while the
public concern in them is most acute. The
daily newspapers of the chief cities Of the
United States cover all fields OF human
endeavor and have become for the great
masses OF the people the chief educational
agency of the age.