The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1905-01-11
COST OF A NEWSPAPER.
One Dollar Per Y .ar Il Too Little for
Good Paper.

A number OF weekly papers are
raising the subscription price to $3.50
year, without any enlargement 0.
improvement. They are forced to
raise the price or go out Of business
on acc unit OF the increased price Of
all material that 90 to make no
newspaper. The following editorial
frou Sundays Wilmington Messenger
is to the point: ''The Gastonia Ca
zatte announces that it viii advance
the price OF it's subscription from one
dollar to one dollar and a half a year.
This is not done because OF contem-
plated enlargement OF material i'm
proVement OF the paper, but as the
editor says, for purely business rea-
sons. The increased cost OF living
and Of labor in the printing business
and the advaLce In the price Of paper
has made this increase OF f:ty per
cent in the price OF the paper a me-
cessity. We are not surprised at this:
announcement. We do not see how
any editor can issue first class week:
ly pape. .or the small subscription
price OF one dollar year. The SUI.
prise is that the Gazette has not made
this change before this and that
Others have not done likewise. The
daily paper which also issues weekly
editioa has the advantage In the mat
ter of savieg expenses over the paper:
which has only a weekly and semi
weekly edition, and still none OF the
form r class in this section Of the
country Is getting rich By any means
with their dollar q year editions. If
they cannot make anything of their
pu 5lication how can the other class
of newspaper men be expected to do
so? And again a man who viii not
pay dollar and half for ff:y:two
issues OF bis county paper ought not:
to be furnished one at any price,.
The fifty cents additional Is very lit.
tie TO each indiv.d dual subscriber, but
the sum total amoults to q great
deal With the nam at the, other end
OF the line. This same idea applies
to prompt payment Of subscriptions
to weekly newspapers and weekly yedi-s
tiors OF the dsilies. Take a paper
with, say, six thousand names on its
weekly list. II every man pays his
dollar promptly this means six thous-
and dollars In cash TO the propcie-
tors. Every dollar that is held back
from him Is Just SO much cash lost by
him. To lose the fee OF one subscrib-
er who has taken and Rad the paper
for year is not much, but when you
beigia to multiply that by ten, TWEEN
ty, fifty and a hundred 1t will amount
to great deal In the course OF q few
years. These subscribers are scatter
ed all over the State. The one dollar
is very little to each one OF these sub
scrlbers, but when they all come to
the newspapers proprietors they.
amount to a god deal. The man
who falls to pay his subscription does
not save much. He has cheated the
editor out Of only a Collar; but when
such cases pile up by the score it,is a;
serious matter to the newspaper man
who depends on the individual dollar
subscri ptions to keep his business go
ing and to provide for the mainten-
ance OF himself ard family. We're all
newspaper: subscribers to reafzs this
condition many more OF them would
be great deal prompter than they
are In paying their su descriptions. y