The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-22
SOMETHING ABOUT PAPERS.
Views of a New orSean, Editor .,

Views of . New Orleans Editor on inc
 Present Situation.
 The New Orleans Item in a recent editorial on the suspension of the Morn ing World of that city. discussed at .sngln the business of running news "one of the reasons why it fs prac. llcally impossible to discuss the condi- tons surrounding the business of public. not unnaturaIiy. ignres that newspapers have a selfish interest in presenting the reverse side of the pic- tnre 10 investors, the idea being to keep
 The business is. indeed, peculiar ana paradoxical. for it is impossible to make money In the newspaper business, and IS a1so an . axiom of the business afster than a saw mill and a newspa.
 Tt seems never to occur to outsiders 1,Inpresssd with their own technical knowledge of newspapers, 10 pause and ask the question--how many morning neWspapers have been successfully es- tablished in the United states during the last twenty years2
 During that time the number of morning papers that have failed. SO ily increased. In Chicago. the chron- morning papers in the metropolis Of the Mississippi valley. Tn New York new paper has not been established
 Tn Philadelphia the Times has sus- pended. In Baltimore the Herald, at Ger costing over million dollars. turn. ed itself into an afternoon paper--the --and went to the wall in a few months. Baltimore now has two morp- iug papers and one afternoon paper. Ii It. is ,heiy 3 city of more thsn sOo:oo6 Pee. substantial reading people Only re- gently both its morning papers have been making money.
 Among cities the size of New Or leans we know of but one, San Fran cisco, that has maintained three morn ing papers. And those papers have a general circulation througnout the en-
 Atlanta supplies all Georgia with news, 1t is far greater advertising center than. New Orleans. yet Atlanta has but one morning paper. the consti- newspaper distribution. yet the Com mercial Appeal Is the sole survivor Of three morning newspaper attempts.
 St; Louis has but two English morning newspapers, likewise Cincin- nati. Milwaukee has but one.
 The newspaper of today is up against a pitiless game for 1t must better than established papers. Pro- vided it can do this, can spend unlim- tied money and wait indefinitely, the uSlI DSCOuleb a real uRnl. IL may uI- terly destroy its rivals and still be- cause of the expense of operation ne- eessary to maintain the standard 1t has set it may prove unprofitable. A sItua- tion of this kind can be cited in a number of cities today where both morning and afternoon papers which have monopolies of their fields are operating at a loss.
 Tn a city like New Orleans. practi- cally every newspaper must spend all the money 1t makes from circulation and local advertising on its product. If the conditions of publication permit a profit it must come from the adver- tising known as foreign advertising. that which emanates from outside the city of publication.
 ''The foreign advertiser in nine cases out of ten refuses to patronise any newspaper during the first year of its publication. Even if a new paper has greater merit than its competitors this advertising comes to it through. the slow process of years Many local ad- vertisers are very conservative in giv- ing a new paper their business. In a community like New Orleans they are particularly slow in this regard"