New Britain herald., 1917-02-05

personal" In the larger cities very
 few know who write for the newspa-
 pers. The anonymity which neces-
 sarily surrounds newspaper writers in
 larger towns disappears to great ex-
 tent in tho smaller cities.
 When men are known by those
 about whom they write they natu-
 rally manifest a keener appreciation
 of responsibility. There Is every req
 son why the small town paper should be as accurate, if not more so, than
 its "big" town contemporary.
 As to the comparison between
 newspapers: If this HigH school teacher would be further enlightened let her secure afternoon newspapers. all of the same date and members of the same press associations, from the following or nearby cities. or places in these vicinities:-san Francisco,
 Seattle. Salt Lake City. Denver, Kan
 Paul, Detroit, Cleveland. New York.
 Boston, Washington. Baltimore. Rich
 mond. Memphis, Atlanta, and New
 Orleans. Tn 8 period such as this she will find on the front pages of all these papers the same news stories out of Washington. Berlin, London, Paris and Petrograd. The only war; iations will be in the headlines and l S11h- -heodc of Aloy, l,.
 the local offices, As each paper has its own style of makeup" and war; 1ous kinds of display type these minor features are easily discounted. In the of news story found in these papers will coincide,--if they are Associated Press papers, published coetaneously. the other differences noted will be in the local news columns. A two
 column story in San Francisco, when it pertains to local life. Is not worth two lines in New Orleans where the
 characters are not known. A murder story from Little Rock, Arkansas, Is not even considered in Seattle unless the victim is of national importance
 or former resident of Seattle, or
 unusual circumstances attach them | selves to the mode or manner of the crime. These are obvious things, and to be seen every day by folk who read more than one newspaper. The only reason small cities have news l papers Is because of local news. It secures a place in those columns it could never occupy If placed in com- petition with Digger" stories in other fields.
 Thus we have attempted to sketch
 the underlying features of news pre-
 sentation and to show the difference
 between little" papers and "big" pa pers. Iris so there may be no great
 misunderstanding, not only in the High school, but in other quarters. In
 warning people against believing what they read in the little" paper, and advising them to wait for the "big" paper, 1t is well to understand this:
 All the "big" papers print out-of- town editions. These are the first off the press in the morning and are known as the 'lobster,' or the "bull- dog' editions. They are primarily for the purpose of circulation build ing and do not always carry the latest news. After a three or four hour journey on a train, ostensibly, this news is not as fresh as that Thus does the little" paper contain later despatches than the "big" paper. There is no need of further elabora- ton. It should be perfectly plain to any one who observes that, so far as the news goes. any "little' paper that carries a full report from the l biggest press associations in the 1 world should be just as reliable as 1 the big" paper that publishes the
 same accounts. The type may not l be as clean, nor otherwise as attrac-
 tive; but the ingredients are about on
 a par. There may not be as many | "features' in the small paper nor 1 as great an amount of advertising;
 but it will not differ in so many re- l spects from the big town sheet. | Newspapers are pretty much the
 same, since the men who run them get around from one place to an-
 other with degree of consistency
 not permissible in other professions,
 working here today, there tomorrow,
 which tends toward standardiza-
 tion of modern day newspapers.
 As we'll might it be said that a pupil