THE COST OF NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1561, 6 August 1873, Page 2

THE COST OF NEWS.

After something like a. year's, experiment it is' found that 1 tli'e ;;i amount which The Argxts and SydiieyM<mdtig Herald are called on to contribute for

European? telegrams is at the , rate ,otbetween L9OOO and LIO,OOO per annum! Every reasonable person will' admit; (says the Argus) that an ■ additional item of LSOOO a year in the cost of .producing ia paper, is a matter which calls for serious consideration. , Wehavejno. doubt whatever that our almost daily .summary- of English and foreign news is looted >f or with great interest by most of pur readers,; but, although this is the case, it lias not been the means, so far as we can tain, of extending our (circulation by a single copy. We have every reason to believe that the experience of all put; con-, temporaries who have gone to tneTexpenJe of furnishing readers .with JEuropeaJa intelligence by joining the Associated Press is similar to bur own in this respect. In. ;Conntrieß, which count their inhabitants, by millions, jourhalißtic eater-

prise is certain to meet with its reward. .Not so, however, with us, who have only thousands in place of millions to deal with. No increase of circulation we cotild reasonably expect would go a very long way towards defraying the heavy expenditure these telegrams have imposed on us ; but, as a matter of fact, no increase at' all from that cause has taken place. The result is as we have stated, namely, a loss to both the Sydiiey Mornvtv) Herald and ourselves of an annual sum bordering on LSOOO. We have always been anxious and willing to treat our readers generously, and have begrudged no reasonable outlay ; but it can hardly be expected, looking at the matter in a fair businesslike point of view, that we should go on supplying the public with this costly telegraphic intelligence, without receiving one additional penny piece in return. The Argus, concludes its article by saying :— We shall still continue to give all really important items of news, but messages will be very much contracted in length, and will only be forwarded when there is something of very general interest to communicate. Anything of secondary moment, however interesting it might prove to certain portions of the community, will necessarily be , withheld, for in this way only can we reduce our expenditure within reasonable limits.