Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1916-08-18
The Newspaper
And The Public

The Newspaper of today is the
worlds department store, the
market-place of the community.
1t sells literally everything, while
at the same time its stock in trade
may be defined in the one word
space. That is all it has to sell
and by the judicious handling of
which it must stand or fall.
Few persons, even those general
ly we'll informed, have the slightest
conception of how much work the
newspaper does for the community
without the least compensation, or
of the demands made upon it for
the free use of its only source Of
profit. They fail to see why / S
columns should not be thrown open
for the exploitation of private bust
nesses, personal money-making
ventures, and the like.
1t is for this reason, therefore,
that the man would not dream of
asking his butcher for free meat or
: bis tailor for free suit Of clothes,
unhesitatingly makes the most I'M
warranted demands upon his news
paper and considers any refusal on
its part as unreasonable in the ex-
treme.
That every newspaper owes
much to the community is fact
unqestioned, but that it gives more
literally by far than any other
business of that community is also
beyond dispute. Most papers, in
fact, are unwarrantably prodigal of
their sole stock in trake space.
Never are their columns closed to
any matter that is for the good of
the community. Thousands of
words, hundreds of columns, and
page after page is constantly being
devoted to the advancement of 10
cal interests by the press of every
city ia nth the land.
And every word, column and
page, just as really as every item of
stock on the merchants shelf, costs
money that the publiser must pay.
If the merchant sells his stock be
prospers, if not, his business fails
The newspaper therefore, de-
serves the hearty and substantial
support of everyone who wants to
see his city and community grow
Directly, such support goes to the
publisher-indirectly it goes to the
community as whole. Tho pub
Usher should not be expected to
bear all the burden placed upon
him by indiscriminate and unlimit-
ed demands for free advertising.
Such space as is given to the
promotion of public charities and
the like is the papers donation to
such cause, but the individual
and private enterprise that seeks
pecuniary prft without paying for
ito puts badly virtually at
tempts to impoverish the chief up
builder of the community from
which it's own revenues are derived.
More than any one thing the
prosperity of a town is conditioned
on the prosperity of it's press. If
the papers are poorly printed and
there is little advertising in their
columns, the town itself is falling
back. If the pages are fresh and
clean and the advertising columns
we'll filled, the town itself is going
ahead.
Invariably the first act of the
prospective seeker of residence or
business locality is to secure copies
of local newspaper; first to see
what is going on there, and second
to form an estimate, through the
advertising columns, of business
life and public spirit.
Every issue of every newspaper
sent abroad in the land, in the
degree that its appearance bespeaks
the hearty support and co-opera-
ton of the community, makes for
that community its friends and
spreads broadcast it's good reputa-
ttiioa.
To support your paper is to
boost your town and serve yourself
-Staunton Daily News.