The Washington herald., 1914-03-16

sells to Paris the pigeons only took four
hours NJ. Havas likewise was first in
the field in the employment OF railways
and telegraphs for news purposes. The
founder of Reuters Agency. it is be-
lieved. came from his Office, as did NJ.
Woln. who established the agency of
that name in Berlin.
start Of Modern journalism.
These and a great many more inter
esting details of press development in
Paris are given in a comprehensive ar
ticle by NJ. Louis Latzarus. the first part
OF which is published in the current num-
Der of the Revue de Paris. NJ. Lat
zarus traces the editorial and business
history OF modern Paris Journalism from
what he describes as the decisive date
Of July !, 1896, when De Gerardin founded
La Presse. Up to that date the Paris
newspapers had been essentially organs
of opinion. and addressed themselves
exclusively to the well-to-do classes The
annual subscription was uniform, and
it was Sof. Lodis Philippe's Prime Minis
ter. De Villele. when proposing for reve-
nue. purposes to raise the newspaper post
age, calculated that a journal with only
5000 subscribers made a profit of g. 01
a wear. At that time there were about
Il dozen daily papers in Paris which led
tranquil existence and realized what
their propTietors regarded as a reasona Bile
profit, ranging from the figure just men,
toned. Here is De VilIele's calculation
of the cost of production for the Con-
stitutionnel with 2O.o00 subscribers. Ac-
cording TO his calculations. the production
of the first 1000 copies cost annually just
under Gc.0Oo. and that of the remaining
100 about e4.35O. The total cost OF pro-
duction was thus about $3.50 a year.
The stamp tax was centimes about a
half penny, and the postage for the pro-
vincial ubscribers-two-thirds OF the
whole centimes, or under i farthing.
these two items together amounting to
about eel,4s0 The total expenditure was
thus about e27,SO The subscriptions
produced f57,6o0. so that the net profit
was about G3o.0oO
The Constitutional, however, chal-
lenged these figures in its own interest,
and made out its profits to be only
el4.00o.
Balxac and Hugo on His stan.
In any case, there was a great oppor-
tunity for a newspaper which would ap-
peal to a wider circle of readers and
De Girardin seized it. He founded La
Presse. and reduced the subscription by
half-to 81 12s-calculating that with
10000 subscrib he would lose ES,00O a
year. but cotnting upon making good his
loss and securing handsome profit from
advertisements. He soon had 1000 sub
scribers, then 5000 and ultimately 5000
The paper, instead Of expressing political
views of its own. invited contributions
from all political camps. It introduced
the feuiIleton and the column of daily
gossip. and it had among its contributors
Balzac and Victor Hugo. There were
scientific, agricultural and Industrial re-
views. and general articles on various
aspects OF life in foreign countries. The
modern journal was thus established.
The later developments, after the Presse
had been freed from the stamp duty and
also from the censorship during the Sec
ond Empire, is marked by the foundation
of the half-penny press in the form of
the Petit Journal In 1865, . paper con-