The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-10
RAILROAD NEWS.
Relations Which Exist Between
Railroads and Newspapers.
Writer In Printers Ink Dis
cusses the Questions.
LOSING OPPORTUNITY.
Railroads Could Get Plenty of
News Advertising.
Up to Date Railroad Officials
Have Right Idea.

Printers Ink, the leading advertising
magazine of the country, prints the
following communication from a cor
respondent:
Dover. Me. Feb. 10. 1904.
Editor of Printers Ink:
do not know of a large corporation
anywhere which gets before the public
the news about itself which would be
good reading and also have an adver-
Using value. The railroads. for instance
are large spenders of money for adver-
Using, but they neglect their news OPP
portunity.
Suppose thai a railroad has an acct
dent. 1t would not prejudice the news
paper reports against it if it furnished
photographs of the spot where the ac-
cident took place and of the train
crews and others concerned. In fact,
the friendly tone of one report (Where
the road had not put obstacles in the
way of the reporters) would more than
pay for considerable expense.
Suppose it is going to build a new
bridge. Instead of waiting for the
newspaper men to discover that fact,
the railroad officials might do we'll to
make an effort to tell them of it. Along
with 1t there could probably be secured
judiciOus remarks about how the iu-
creasing business calls for a new and
larger and stronger structure in order
TO carry the new and fast and heavy
trains which the road now sends over
its rails. A history of the old bridge,
illustrated with photographs, and along
with it description of the changes in
abutments and all the news pertaining
to the new, would make matter which
many papers would be glad to edit and
use. It might even pay to furnish free
cuts or matrices of cuts in place of the
pictures. The same applies to new To-
cOmOtives. new cars. new branches,
sidings, ETC., and also to new officers.
When the road cuts down a grade, or
lays new iron or haulS special train,
or builds a new depot, or changes a
time table, it would pay to get the facts
before the public as much as possible.
Tell them everything that will give any
body a hint that the road is good and
safe and comfortable and on time, and
everything else which makes people like
TO use line.
If there is a cham Of trainmen on a
little branch line, It ould get the road
before the public if the station agents
were instructed to tell the reporters of
their local papers about it.. Very likely
the reporters might be induced to put in
a few words to say what an everlasting
good fellow is the newcomer. The same
thing will work up along the lines of
both the railroads and the newspapers.
In doing reporting on both city and
country papers, I have many times been
obliged to work hard for news which it
would have been advantageous for rail-
roads to tell without being asked. I
have taken a 2S-mile ride to get the
picture of a new official, and the rail-
road would have at least won a feeling
of good nature alike from editors and
reporters if it had saved the newspaper
that expense. On a, country weekly 1
have been obliged to write to headquar-
ters for news which a station agent re-
fused to give out.
1 have sometimes thought that it
would pay railroad to hire a bright
newspaper man to see to placing the
news about itself.
These remarks apply with equal force
to many other lines Of business. Yours
truly, D. CROMETT CLARK.
Any newspaper man who has had ex-
perience in getting railroad news will
probably agree with what Mr. Clark
says. AS general proposition. rail-
road men are the hardest people there
are TO get news out of. There is only
one regular exception to this rule. and
that IS the advertising man in the pas
Genger department. who is always anx-
1CuS to load up the reporter with an
nouncements of new excursion rates.
Railroads claim that newspapers are
responsible for this condition. They
say that newspapers announce things
prematurely. and are not accurate
They accuse newspapers of printing re-
ports which are not founded on fact.
and which tend to injure the railroads
There is no doubt truth in these
charges. But it may be that the rail-
roads themselves are responsible, in
Part at least. for this condition.
Every reputable newspaper is only
after the truth. 1t has 10 desire to
print false reports about a railroad
But railroad officials have wiIlfully de-
ceived the newspapers many times
about the true conditions of things,
and newspapers have grown accust-
Cmed to distrust railroad officials.
When an official tells a newspaper. man
that the wreck didn't amount to any
thing; only one car off the track" and
1t turns out later that forty people were
killed and hundred thousand dollars
worth of equipment destroyed, that
newspaper reporter is likely to set the
official down as liar, and write up the
next wreck which comes along accord
ingly. 1t is the railroad which gets the
worst of it in the end
The railroads should make it easier
for newspaper man who has shown
himself trustworthy. He should re-
ceiVe all the assistance and confidence !
that the officials can give him, and it
will be a very rare occurrence when
the railroad has any cause for com
plant on the way that reporter treats
1t in his reports.
The general experience of newspaper