Arizona republican., 1911-07-01
News Purveyors.

1iN l<OS @AllStltS I1NAdlu PANSOtAAS Us
views on the subject of telegraph
news services, a pertinent topic now
that the Tribune is about to enter the
Los Angeles morning field without an
Associated Press franchise. It is per
haps the intention of the Herald to
show that as a newspaper its pros
pective competitor Will be fatally
handicapped. However what the
Herald has to say will be instructive
and interesting to the reader who has
not given the matter of collecting
news much thought:
The Los Angeles public, being in
telligent and well informed, under
stands pretty well that the only world
wide agency serving the readers of
morning newspapers with fullness and
accuracy is the Associated Press, and
that any other attempt to serve morn
ing readers is a makeshift and is
bound to be a lamentable failure
which will amount to taking money
under false pretenses.
poration but is a mutual association
of the greatest newspapers in the
world, which, for their common well
fare. exchange the news of their var
iOus localities. 1t was primarily
formed to serve the morning field
and that has always continued to be
its main object The serving of af-
ternoon papers was an afterthOught
and may be called a side line"
Into the farthest and most remote
corners of the globe this marvellous
association has extended it's reach. 1t
is a monopoly not because ii has
sought to be such but because in the
formation of it's comprehensive mach
inery for newsgathering it has of
necessity embraced in its membership
substantially all of the worlds most
enterprising and trustworthy journals.
There are outside of the Associated
Press a few news organizations en-
deavoring to serve the morning field,
but they hive been conspicuous only
by contrast for their failure to attain
any adequate scope. So much do
they fall short that there is not a
prominent paper in America without
the Associated Press service but what
is so eager to have it that when a
franchise is for sale amounts running
high in the six figures are bid for
the privilege. There have been cases
of papers buying great quantities of
machinery and costly good will only
to sacrifice heavily on them in order
TO possess the priced "A. p" fran
chise.
Every attempt to organize a COM
petitive association or corporation has
failed because outside of the mem-
bership of the Associated Press the
material does not exist Ii is the
product of a generation of unremit-
ting toll and thought Those who
have built up this wonderful mutual
machine must protect themselves by
limiting its service. Hence we find
in any large city the most valuable
asset of a morning newspaper is its
Associated Press privileges. the alb
sence of which would at once with
draw from its force of contributors
literally thousands of argus-eyed, tir
less newsgatherers scattered over the
earth.
Any morning paper that pretends to
give its readers the news without the
"A. P.' wires is not fair with its
readers 1t can't give the news of the
world and knows it. 1t can succeed,
if at all, only temporarily. for it's
readers are bound to learn its short
comings.
The Associated Press has in the af-
ternoon field a prototype, the United
Press, which like the larger orgauiZa
ton has specialized on its service and
takes care of the evening papers II
has built up a great association that
in its field is as noteworthy for
breadth and accuracy as its older
pattern in the morning news market
These two splendid concerns are I'M
rivaled in their chosen fields. 1t is
as impossible for anybody to print a
real newspaper without them as it is
to make a department store succeed
without certain standard goods that
are demanded by everybody. Any at
tempt to do it is marked for failure
from the start.