Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1895 — PAPERS OF CHICAGO. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAPERS OF CHICAGO.

GREAT NEWS JOURNALS OF A GREAT CITY. AH Been* to Be Built After the Same ■•tel* Affecting the Same Typographical Style and Striving After the Same Features. They Cover the Field. The Review of Reviews contains an neellent article by Willis J. Abbott on •'Chicago Newspapers and Their Makers.** The history of Chicago journalism, he says, is a short chapter. The «ity has no very old newspapers nor—paradoxical as it may seem—any very young ones. The oldest newspaper in Che great lake city celebrated its semicentennial only a year ago. The youngest of the very limited circle of morning daiHes published when this article is being written is fourteen years old. That there should be no such venerable organ of public opinion as the New York Commercial Advertiser or the Journal of Commerce in a city the site of which was a marsh and a red man’s hunting ground when those ancient ■beets had already attained respectable

age, of course goes without saying. For the dearth of such young newspapers as have sprung up of late years in New York, appealing each to a special and peculiar clientele of its own, reason is to be found in the peculiarities of the Chl-

•ago field. When the new Democratic daily, designed to fill the place left vacant by the political transformation of the Times-Herald, shall be established there will be five morning English ■ewspapers in Chicago as against ten In New York. Yet, when the number •f morning dailies was but four, immediately after the consolidation of the Times and Herald, the owner and active publisher of the two most widely circulated newspapers in Chicago declared that were he without a paper ■nd seeking to establish one he would

prefer to enter the seemingly overcrowded field of New York rather than to attempt to overcome the difficulties that hedge about the path to journalistic success in Chicago. These difficulties

are partly artificial, created by the strong combination of the established dailies for the purpose of restricting competition, but mainly arise from the peculiar tastes of the' Chicago reading public. Mr. Bryce’s criticism

upon the dreadful monotony of American life might be repeated in little with reference to Chicago newspapers. It is indeed the criticism always first expressed upon them by observant Jour-

aalists from other cities. All seem to he built upon the same model, affecting the same typographical style and striving; after the same features. Their makers assert with justifiable pride that they are the handsomest newspapers in the world, but their beauty is obtained at the expense of individuallThe newspapers of Chicago are ex-

cellent in that they are well cleanly edited and dignified. They are pre-eminently news papers. The range , of their telegraphic reportsls vastly greater than that of any other newspapers in America. They “cover" New

Totk news as the New York dallies •wrer” the happenings in Jersey City —ar better—but their managing editors kw* a shrewd eye on Manitoba, Mexl•Mipa “the slope” as well, and let noth«f note in those distant parts escape

them. They are more distinctly national than the payers o<«any other city In the Union. If they are weak at all it is In their lack «f-tailviduklity and, in a degree, differing according to the paper under consideration, in their editorial pages. No editorial in Chicago has the liberal quality Which attaches to the editorial page of the New York Sun. None shows thepatient and timeconsuming research which characterizes so&e tse editorials In the New York Times. No editorial page in the Western metropolfs/Jd conducted with

the courage of that of the New York World or gives evidence of such painstaking effort for cleanliness of expression, terseness and thought Editorial writers there are on the Chicago press who bring to their art the attainments essential to its highest development, but as a rule the Importance of the editorial page has been underestimated by newspaper proprietors, and Its writers are denied that leisure through which alone the best literary results may be attained. Something of the monotony in the Chicago papers is due to their too great reliance upon a co-eperative news-gath-ering agency called the City Press Association. By utilizing the reports of this concern money is saved in the city room, but at the expense of individuality. It is not unusual to find the reports of a news event given in precisely the ■ame verbiage in every Chicago newspaper; and if the reporter for the press association has been careless his blunders will be repeated in every morning daily. The City Press Association is but one manifestation of the spirit of co-operation among Chicago publishers, for which the late James W. Scott, more than any other man, was responsible. There is financial profit In this co-opera-tion, but one cannot but feel that the fullest development of the newspapers has been checked by the limitation which it has put upon free competition. The Publishers’ Association, made up of the chief dailies, makes regulations for the guidance of its members. It prescribes what class of news shall not be printed—for example, putting the court record under the ban. It limits the Inducements in the way of signs, bulletins, etc., which Its members may offer to newsdealers. There is co-opera-tlon, too, among the morning dailies in their delivery system. A general combination which would include all five morning dallies was planned but failed and now two co-operative groups are formed. In the special trains for out-of-town delivery all the papers join. The afternoon papers, however, are compelled to maintain their Individual delivery system.. Three of the morning newspapers are sold at 2 cents a copy, the Tribune, Inter Ocean and Times-Gerald. Two—the Record and Chronicle—are 1-cent papers. All Sunday editions—the Record publishes none—are sold for 5 cents. A very heavy additional charge is imposed upon the Sunday papers by the use of colored pupplements, which In th case of the Tribune probably cost over >1,500 a week. There Is some probability of all the papers dropping their price to 1 cent, as the tremendous gain in the circulation of the Record has alarmed rival publishers, and transferred to the columns of that paper most of the week-day advertising. Of the afternoon newspapers the Evening Journal and the Post Are sold for 2 cents. / 1 •

The circulation of newspapers is a perilous theme. Only two of the Chicago newspapers—the feecord and Daily News—publish sworn statements of their circulation. Two other dailies keep standing at the head of their editorial columns the boast, “Largest morning circulation in Chicago.” The claim is obviously unfounded in the case of one of them. A shrewd and practical observer would probably rank the papers in order of circulation thus: Daily News, Record, Tribune, Times-Herald, Inter Ocean, Post, Dispatch, Journal, Mail. The Chronicle is too new a comer to be fairly judged. In point of prosperity the Tribune and Daily News rank first, with net profits probably about the same. Mr. Medill recently refused $4,000,000 Ms paper, saying it was earning 10 per cent, upon that sum. The gross receipts of the Tribune : are of course vastly greater than those of the News, which is run inexpensively even for an afternoon paper. The Times-Herald prior to Mr. Kohlsaat’s purchase was earning money *t the rate of $150,000 a year. What, if any. effect Its amazing political flop and the establishment of a Democratic rival will hard upon its fortunes it is too early to say. Of all. the morning dailies the Intet'Oceah is the only one to maintain a weekly edition of any prominence, and as for its subscribers, it is a common saying'tH Chicago that the Weekly Inter Ocean might as well have its mailing lists stereotyped, as the only thing which leads a subscriber to discontinue his subscription is death.

WM. PENN NIXON. (Inter Ocean.)

INTER OCEAN BUILDING.

H. H. KOHLSAAT. (Times-Herald.)

TIMES-HEBALD BUILDING.

JOSEPH MEDILL. (Tribune.)

NIGHT EDITOR'S ROOM, TIMES-HERALD.