University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-05-13

The making of a city newspaper
has speeded up immensely in the last
twenty-five years. Then it went to
press at $3.50 a. M, now at 12:40 a.
m. The entire art department has
been added, with its photographers.
its sketch artists, its cartOOnists and
it's comics" HOrsecars have eiven
way to electrics and the miles of
subway. Then most of the men one
had to interview lived between Wash
ingtOn Square and the Park, matter
of three miles, now it may take
man hours to round up four men
scattered from Harlem to the SUI
burbs. The use of the telephone has
increased a hundred fold. have
known men of the staff who report
the news of the Bronx, of outlying
Brooklyn, COney Island, Jersey City
and Newark. l have talked with
them on the telephone, written them,
"OK'd their bills, and | have never
seen them. The evening papers were
content to quit at p. m. with the
Wall street quotations.; now finals"
are out at 6 p. m. after the ball
games. Theatres open later, dinners
are later, the after-dinner speeches
that the papers must report are later.
In fact good New York goes to bed
much later, and more of the wicked
stay up all night making all sorts of
news.
The newspapers meet the pace.
The managing editor no longer can
lay out his paper ct 6 o'clock and go
home. He goes home to dinner now
but he comes back to find the night
city editor on his right constantly in
forming him of more news breaking
here and there as his men report to
him by telephone and in person for
orders. The telegraph editor on his
left passes over the latest queries,
bulletins from Washington and all
over the world. The managing edi-
tor is developing the news and watch
ing the handling of it constantly.
An editorial writer may be at his ell
bow calling for the latest figures of
the Massachusetts primaries. 1t is
often 1870 before he gets his dunn
my sheet" showing how the adver-
tisements have been placed. He must
then lay out his paper and with the
help of the night editor make it up
and get the last page to press at
12.4O. That is his part. The stereO-
typers, pressmen, mail room handlers
and deliverymen are speeded up to
the same pace. 'venty-five tons of
white paper must be turned into
400, 900 complete papers and all out
OF the building by 4:30 o'clock every
morning.
The city editor has a staff of sixty
reporters with the news bureaus for
routine work. to cover the great city
and its suburbs with their 5000 600
people. Think for a moment what
has to be watched. There are $50
frst-class hotels. sixty producing the
aters. seven colleges, five county
cOurthouses. ninety-five police sta
tiOns. a dozen police courts, the huge
playground of COney Island, the in
coming ocean liners, the far-reaching
activities of Wall street which has to
be watched by a special bureau. One
need not go on.
| You may talk of "editOrs;" but
the reporters are the flesh and blood
of the newspaper. A very bright girl
said to her father, famous newspa-
per proprietor: Papa why do you
always speak so harshly about edi-
tors. and so kindly about repOrters?''
He thought moment and told her:
my dear, reporters are always a
hope. and editors always a disap-
pOintment."
| This is what a reporter has to face
in a morning paper in New York.
hope he has had a good sound all
round training for several years out
side of New York. He will report at
noon. He must have read his own
paper thoroughly, the more he has
read of the other papers the better
equipped he is on the news of the
day. No knowledge comes amiss in
a newspaper office. He says good
morning to the city editor. sits at his
desk. writes a letter, reads the pa
pers. tells a story, and suddenly
hears his name called, The city edi-
tor says simply: "Swift, follow up
that story about the insult to the
American flag at the socialist meet
ing yesterday. See CrOpsey and the
others and get a picture of the wO-