Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 282, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1918 — "Hard” and “Soft" News. [ARTICLE]

"Hard” and “Soft" News.

Japanese newspapers, according to Prof. F. L. Martin of the University of Missouri’s school of journalism, divide their news into “hard” and “soft.” The hard news consists of serious, Important events. The soft news Includes all sorts of “human Interest” incidents. What Is called the “third page” of the soft news department consists of trivial stories which would be called gossip in this country. Here is a sample of “third page” soft news: *‘Since Etsunaka, a resident of Osakusa, has separated from her master, a coal dealer, she has lost a good opponent for her noted powers of quarreling. The neighbors are breathing freely again at the prospect that they need no longer hear embarrassing quarrels which have made the neighborhood famous. The reaction has been so great that Etsunaka has been downhearted. She says: ‘I feel sick now that I have no one to quarrel with.’ ’’ —Outlook.