Milford chronicle., 1916-02-04
TROUBLE WITH RURAL PRESS
Too Easy for inexperienced Men to Enter
Business-How One Publisher Evoke
Up" and Found Prosperity.
By J. E. Jones,

BY j. r. Jones,
! Publisher Events, Kilbourn, Wisconsin.
If country editors were given an op-
portunity to visit the big newspaper
plants in cities. and there study the
/ business methods and comprehend the
practical conduct of affairs, there would
| be less need for discussing the price of
subscriptions and cost systems. 1t is
this difference in business methods that
divides the city press and the country
publisher into two distinct and remote
classes. In a city people are accustomed
| to pay for every service rendered. There
I the product of mans labor and the use
of his time is expected to be paid for
Every city plant is operated at a profit,
or it cannot exist. In all of its various
departments time and labor must be
paid for, and in the profit of the busi-
ness lies the possibility of continued ex-
istence. Thus it is that city publishers
often get rich, while few country pub
fishers ever make living.
TROUBLE WITH COUNTRY PRESS.
One difficulty with the country press
is in the fact that it is too easy for in
experienced, incapable men to engage
in the business. Three or four hundred
dollars and convenient mortgage to
type foundry will start any man as a
publisher. Generally he is fiattered by
what he is pleased to term the honor of
being IAN editor" He may have no
idea of costs and will conclude that all
he gets above the cost of stock is THAT
much ahead His idea of a subscrip-
tion is to get all of the names he can,
regardless of price or pay. He fills his
paper with free business puffs and glow
ing eulogies to gain popular favor. If
he cannot get his price he takes what
is offered him, and if be has a competi-
tor who is trying to follow business
methods he cuts prices below cost to
get the business, and reduces the price
of subscription.
In that way a community is led to
belive that the printing business is a
snap and that publishers are extOrtiOn-
lists. Having been accustomed to get
ting free advertising the public expect
it as a matter of news and are offended
if asked to pay for it.
We do not mean to say that these
faults are not found in the most capable
editors. Men who can get out a paper
that is a credit to any community, able
writers and intellectually strong men
get into the same habit. They may be
inspired with an ambition to uplift and |
develop, to cultivate and educate, and /
they may succeed in doing all of that, |
praise and honor from their /
patrons. But in the disposition Of the
average community to regard the news
paper as a free public institution, on the
one hand, and the publisher ambition
to be public benefactor. on the other,
lies the danger of failure.
EDITOR A FREE GIVER.
A man will go to a lawyer for few
words of advice, to a doctor for pre-
icription, or a merchant for goods, and
le expects to pay literally for the SER
vice or the goods. But the editor is ex-
1ected to give free a publicity that
luilds up a mans business. 1t may be
hat printer is practical enough to see
hat he is in a losing game and figure
lis prices to make his income barely
exceed his expenses. When he raises
prices many of his patrons conclude that
le is extortionate, and they send to a
.ity for printing. But these men do not
expect that the city paper will be giving
IS time and efforts to developing and
building up his home town. If times are
! little hard and business dull the first
Expense the business man cuts off is the
printer. Thus it is that so many towns
ire served by weak newspapers. An
,ditor who has the ability to get out
paper will not always be con-
ent with the ''glory of being an editor. "
Nor is the public entirely to blame.
'eople have been educated to this Gus
ON and the average country editc is
lot strong enough to overcome it. He
) there with his plant, his home and
amily are there, he still holds the com
nendable ambition to be IAN editor,
erhaps he is sincere in a desire to be
elpful, upbuilding influence in the
yord. He has invested all he has and
ot being fit for any other business, he
angs on in the losing game, living al
rays "below cost because of that ex-
tied spirit of ideal journalism.
TIME FOR CHANGE DUE.
But the time has come for a change.
eople are forced to realize that a news
aper is an indispensable institution,
nd that to be of most help it must be
bly, and creditably conducted. They
now that the newspaper is the repre-
of the town, ard that outsiders
ldge the intellectual, social and pro
ressive spirit of the community in which
is published by the character of the
aper. Therefore, the country news
aper is becoming a business proposition
the eyes of the public.
In a ehe newspaper town / have pub
shed a paper for thirty consecutive
ears. During that time several other
have started and run for lit
e while. In competition with them /
1t prices and reduced subscription.
d a hand-to-mouth existence, hardly
yer being able to meet bills. A few
ears ago l woke up, raised the price
81. so a year, established cost sys-
m, and am now enjoying the only de
zee of prosperity l ever knew. | am
It rich, but l can pay my bills, hold
e respect of other business men, and
I'VE not lost half a dozen subscribers
,cause of the increase in subscription.
UAPT TN CAVE EOR CHRISTMlS