The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-06-01
NEWSPAPER FIELD; like MOST =
INDUSTRIES, IS A0N0PoLIzED
Writer Declares Average Publication Is Put Out
With Primary Purpose to Make Profit for
Owner, Not to Print News.
BY WALTER w. LIGGETT.

BY WALTER w. LIGGETT.
The newspaper field, like nearly
every other American industry, is
I refer to the news
papers as an industry because journal
ism is no longer a profession actuated
average newspaper is not even pub
lished with the primary purpose of
printing the news. 1t is published
solely for profit and the proprietor
cares for little except that profit.
If your grocer cheats you it is pos
sible for you to trade with another
grocer. If your coal man short
weights you, it is possible for you to
buy coal from another dealer. If the
milk man puts water in the milk, we
can patronize another milk man. But
if a great daily newspaper constantly
or distorts news. colors its
editorial columns and attacks every
that promises to better pub
lie welfare, you have no remedy.
Publisher Is Safe.
Therefore, your newspaper pub
Usher feels safe. He has an absolute
and like all monopolists,
lie applies his power He prints. what
lre pleases and suppresses what dis
pleases HIM with equal facility; he
flouts the public and scorns popular
movements. He is not dependent
upon the public-tle public is de-
pendent upon him and he treats the
public with scant consideration. The
publisher is not running his paper for
the public. He is running it for profit;
and his advertisers and not the public
are the ones who make his paper pos
sible. Therefore, it is to the adver-
Users and not to the public that the
newspaper proprietor bends a deferen-
tial knee.
1t was not SO even as late as 40
years ago. Then subscribers sup
ported the newspapers and in order
to live, a newspaper had to please it's
readers. Competition was still posi-
BILE, the cost of printing papers was
comparatively small, and advertisers
paid less than so per cent of the cost
Of publication. Today 80 to 80 per
cent of the cost of publishing a news
paper is paid by the. advertiser and a
paper seeks a large list of readers
solely so that it can raise it's advertis-
ing rates.
Advertiser Supplies Coin.
The advertiser furnishes the money
to run the modern paper. That is
why the modern publisher listens to
the advertisers and laughs at his
readers; that is why big advertisers
are immune from attacks and have
virtual powers of censorship over
newspapers. You do not hear of news
paper publishers consulting their read
ers as to what their policies shall be.
A newspaper proprietor who took such
a step would be considered insane by
his fellow publishers. They are in
the business for profit; the advertiser
makes the profit possible and he is the
man that the publisher consults when
there is any question as to policy.
You can count the really independ-
ent daily newspapers of the United
States on the fingers of you< two
! hands. Practically all are thoroughly
prostituted by big business. This de-
generacy is the more vicious because
it is partly unconscious. 1t is not a
question in most cases of money being
paid out in return for editorials or
colored or suppressed news stories, but
a case where Individual advertisers
and associations of advertisers instinc-
lively shun a paper unless lit is right "
And a paper that is right for the adj
vertiser usually is wrong for the pub
| lie.
Conditions Arc Changed.
There was a chance for newspapers
to be independent so long as most OF
| their advertising came from small
business firms. But this condition no
longer exists. Advertising in a great
! daily newspaper is so extensive that
most of the advertising is carried by
individuals or corporations controlled
by or associated with big business
These firms will not advertise with a
paper which they think is supporting
some popular cause that threatens thu
Eselfish interests of big business.
| Let us illustrate. Department store
; advertising is the life blood of news
papers. Practically all department
stores periodically borrow large sums
from banks. Most banks in turn are
controlled by men who are connected
with the railroads, the Steel trust, the
milling combine, the packers and
other vast concerns. Suppose that q
paper attacks the Steel TRUST, for in.
stance. Steel trust directors, who also
may be directors of banks from which
department store owners borrow, car
easily shut down on department,
store credit unless the owner of thai
department storeA uses his advertis;ne
to reward or punish papers that the
Steel trust director may want to con.
troll. Furthermore, whenever the bis
interests find it advisable they star
huge advertising campaigns to lin.
fluence public OPINION
i Cites Steel Agitation.
j When there was talk of starting {
sovernment-owned munition plant thu
; Bethlehem Steel company immediatel,
started carrying huge ads all over tn,
| United States These ads apDearet
! only in newspapers that opposed gov
eminent munition plants. When tn,
' railroads had their wage difficultie
with the brotherhoods, the same tao
, tics were used and hundreds of thou
:. sands of dollars were spent with pa
pers that were opposing the demand
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