Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1905-11-08
THE NEWSPAPER
Country Weeklies Exert Great
Influence Over Readers

Country Weeklies Exert Great
Influence Over Readers
The Newport News Times
Herald having remarked that the
day of the weekly newspaper,
"certeinly the Cay Of its great in
duence in the politics of the
State" has passed, the Hampton
Monitor replies:
"And therein raps US and many
OTHER of its dear friends through
out the State a right hard blow.
We are perfectly willing to
subscribe that there is great deal
of the e-horsedness about the
weekly, but we raise an humble
protest against the statement that
the weekly is a back number.
'1t may be estimated that in
Virginia there are eighteen good,
bad and Indifferent dailies, which
have an audience Of ia, 900, while
the $50 weeklles enter about 300,.
000 Virginia homes, and in many
instances they are worn out going
from one home to another which
are Lot on the subscription list.
ga statement from one Of the
large newspaper directories, few
days since, indicated that there
had heen a large increase made,
especially among the the weekly
papers, in the matter of circuIa-
tion during the past year. The
funeral knell, therefore, of the
weekly has been prematurely rung
by our young friend. The daily
has field the weekly cannot fill,
and in like manner the weekly's
pathway cannot be trod by the
dailies."
In 1850 there were 3,173 weekly
newspapers in the United States,
says The Richmond Times Dis
patch, with a total circulation OF
100000; in 1900, according to
the United States census, there
were 1879 weekly newspapers,
with total circulation of nearly
forty millions. These figures do
not indicate that the day of the
weekly newspaper has passed. 1t
is true that the daily newspaper
is coming more and more into
general circulation, and the rural
free delivery is lending valuable
aid, but the metropolitan daily,
with all It's fine features, cannot
take the place of the weekly
paper in the rural districts. The
local paper deals especially with
local news, with bits of
neighborhoOd gossip concerning
persons and things which the
metropolitan paper does not cover,
and, in addition, there are court
notices, business notices, advertise
ments of land sales, announce
ments of meetings, and all that
sort of thing, which make local
paper not only entertaining, but
indispensable to every family
which wants to keep in touch with
neighborhood offa RS. Many fam
lilies in the rural districts take
daily newspaper, but they take
the local paper also, AID il they
had to give up one or the other
the chances are that most Of them
would give up the daily.
For these reasons the weekly
newspapers of Virginia have a
large circulation to-day, and more
generally prosperous than ever
they were in the history of Vir-
ginia. Any man who doubts this
statement may have his doubts re
moved by attending a meeting of
the Virginia Press Association,
which is composed, for the most
Fart, of country editors. Their
reports from year to year are more
and more encouraging, and they
show In their appearance that
they are prosperous.
We are somewhat reluctant to
make the statement, for it may
sound like hatteiy. but the state
ment is true, that the editors OF
the country newspapers in Vir-
GINA are men of intelligence,
integrity and of clean life. They
are jolly,warmhSarted and sOciable.
but they are temperate in all
things, and their conduct at their
ANIMAL meetings is above criti-
cism.
A few years ago the proprietor
of q hotel at which the association
met remarked to several of the
mem bers that the Virginia Press
Association was, without excep-
ticn, the best behaved body Of men
he had ever in a long experience
entertained.
1t follows of necessity that these
editors are men of influence at
home, and be who thinks that the
rural press Of Virginia is not a
power in politics and all affairs OF
state is poorly informed as to the
fact. In our opinion, iU was never
more influential than 1t is to-day.