Daily Kennebec journal., 1917-10-19
Some Newspaper Developments.

Some Newspaper Developments.
Just how critical a period the press
Of the country is passing, or falling to
pass. is well presented In an editorial
from the New York Evening Post
given below. 1t shows also a tendency
! to consolidation of the newsgathering
and educational forces in a given field,
non partisan and independent editorial
support rather than by machine poll
tics. The referred to editorial fol-
| lows:
| The recent amalgamation of the
Boston Journal and the Boston Herald
! and of the Cleveland Daily Leader and
Plain Dealer emphasizes anew a note
worthy tendency in American journal
| ism. 1t is toward consolidation,
wherever possible, of competing news
papers into one strong organ. SO
great are the costs of modern daily
/ journalism that many communities are
! found not to afford sufficient bases Of
support in advertising or circulation
for more than one morning or evening
:
considerable size without any morning
daily. Indeed 1t is in the morning
| field that his drift is chiefly to be no.
ticed. Thus we have just witnessed in
New York the consolidation of the
Press and the morning Sun. While
the Press was comparatively youthful
publication, the Boston Journal was in
its eighty Nth year. and the Tran
| ccrpt nf that ri$y, rfOhfJu oh ~ ort1
its demise as zone OF the tragedies of
! journalism" It recall the enormous
influence the Journal once welded in
Maine New Hampshire and Vermont.
! as well as Massachusetts, when it's
circulation was surpassed by no other
Boston daily
While Boston still has four morning
journals. Cleveland now Joins the
ranks of those cities with only one
morning newspaper. There are many
others among them, Indianapolis. for
instance, where the public eager for
news must take 1t all from one source
the Indianapolis Star. Thus In
Scranton, the Republican now occupies
the morning field alone and the Times
the evening. Detroit is limited to the
morning free Press. Columbus, o. to
the State Journal. and Toledo to the
Times. st. Paul has only one morning
daily, and so has New Orleans But
this movement Is not confined to
smaller cities. In Chicago, a decade or
so ago. there We're seven strong papers
published in the morning Today
there are but four, including the
Stats -Zeitung. and there are signs
that one Of these is having difficulty in
establishing itself on sound paying
basis.
But the clearest example of the
movement toward consolidation ap-
pears from conditions in the State of
Michigan. There are fourteen cities
there with daily newspaper printed in
English, each with over 5000 circula-
tion. In the last twenty five years the
population of these cities has more
than doubled, and within that same
time the number Of daily newspaper in
the English language in these cities
I has shrunk from ~ to only 23 More
than that in nine out OF these fourteen
cities there is not a morning news
paper. while each of the nine has only
one evening newspaper. There are
only five morning week day news
papers and seven Sunday papers In
these fourteen cities. In the five cities
Of this group having more than one
newspaper there are six dailies which
are believed to be Improbable to their
owners at the present time. An au-
thorty writes us of his belief that
within five years the number Of one
newspaper cities may be increased to
twelve. leaving Detroit and Grand
Rapids the only cities with morning
newspa pers It is an interesting fact
that in these communities, having less
than $4,000 population, the one news
paper idea is extremely popular There
have been cases where the merchants
of town have refused to support ef-
forts to establish competitive jour-
mails. This comes as good deal OF a
shock when one remember the his
toric party alignment IN America and
the belief that Americans have held
that there should be at least a Repub-
lican and a Democratic daily in every
city to present the opposing political
views. The demand for Socialist
newspapers. pace Mr.. Burleson is
another reason for surprise at what
the Michigan situation shows.
That 1t is cause for uneasinees we
cannot deny. A sound democracy
ought to hear both sides OF every cues
ton, and a large part of Michigan will
J not II those |twentythree newspapers
or the bulk of them should be for any
one party or any given policy. Again.
the steady reduction in the number OF
newspapers makes more easy the pur-
chase OF string of them to dominate
public opinion for a set purpose. AL
ready there are groups of newspapers
owned by one management--in the
Michigan territory under consideration
there Is one such group Of six. It is
: but fair to say that the owners OF this
group have shown great independence
and desire TO present both sides. But