FLEET STREET.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1924, Page 4

FLEET STREET.

AFTER I'WEXTV YEAR*. ADVANTAGES OF THE OVERSEA PRESS. (l iy L. E. Neaino, late editor “Rand Daily -Mail,” South Africa). I travelled up from Brighton to l.ondon the other morning. Every hotly on tin* train read a newspaper. Some had two or three journals, iiiid glanced through them all. To a newspaper iiian" the spectacle seemed pleasant enough. At Victoria there was the usual rush from the train. Rut not one solitary man—or women either for that matter took his newspapers with him. All were left on the scats. A porter passed along the train collecting the discarded journals from the carriages. Before lie hail goiie half n length of the express the bundle under his arm was almost bigger than he could hold.

The incident impressed me because 1 was back in England, after spending nearly 2o years in newspaper production oversea, and ] was interested in noting the changes .in English journalism in the interval. And nowspaperlioin in England has changed—in some ways for the worse. People in England read more papers than they ever did. They read more papers than do the oversea public. Rut the influence of the printed word has waned, nevertheless. The multitude of journals in England to-day is bewildering. There are nearly djO diflerent newspapers printed in London alone. 'I lie great rotary presses never cease to poor forth’ printed matter. The largest bookstalls cannot stock all the papers that I'iighf lit i.Hught. Everywhere papers. Everywhere paper shops, paper sLalls, paper vans, hoys shooting papers on the corners middle-aged men elfering trays of papers in the gutters, old women selling papers in corners and alleys. Everywhere papers resting oh widls, hanging; ins ladings, arranged in kiosks.

The evening journals appear directly alter breakfast, and run oil a fresh edition with every horse race result that comes over the wire. And there is a great sameness about them all. A process of standardisation has been going on. Three papers out of four look like half brothers of the “ Daily Mail,” the page of picture;', social features, the “human interest ” storicß, the doiibie column splashes, the Italics the thumb nail portraits, the short paragraphs, the gigantic daily ellort to drive one point at least into the head of a sensation-satiated public. Something has to be sacrificed, too, and in

the mad rush to be first, or at least, to shout more loudly that the rest into tiie ears of a somewhat dealened people. The emphatic assertion of the evening is as emphatically denied in the morning; Init no man knows which is right, and to tell the I ruth no man seems to care very much which is right. EXCEPTIONS. Some exceptions there are. of course. The “Times,” free from t lie Xorthelili'e inlliicnce again, seems to wish to move as far away from Carmelite I louse as possible. The “Telegraph” ami the “ Morning Post ” pursue the oven tenour of their way unperturbed by the clamour around, them. Rut the penny "Press, issued manly by the huge newspaper combines working on jam factory methods, provides the menial pabulum for the folk of the people, and in the battle for circulation some ideals have to lie casualilies. The present dav popular Press in England is turned out by marvellous organisation bv tie - cleverest brains purchasable, by tremendous and unceasing energy and viliglanic. It interests. It surprises. It entertains. Ii lightens the leisure of (lie millions. Rut it does not lead. It. has lost something of the inllucliee of i lie older Press which it affects to despise. The popular Press to-day dors not load because il does not argue. It 100. neither space nor lime I'm argillit. Il asserts. Il in.-isls. And (he public leave it in the railway carriages.

Till'. OV EI’SKA PRESS. In my opinion the oversea Press of f.'reater Britain has relatively more influence that the English Press of today. The hig newspapers of the dominions, India and the colonies stand approximately where the great dailies of England stood in the last, decade of (Jit ccn Victoria. There is less mass production method in their oflices than in tlie average great newspaper factory in England to-day. Eree from the frightful competition and the headlong race to lie first, which mark modern English newspaper production, thev can pay some attention to accuracy. II they lose anything in brilliancy They make up for it in earnestness, thoughtfulness, and solidity. The field being less crowded there is less temptation to appeal hy sensationalism or exaggeration. An oversea paper may not have a leading article or a 10 p.m. sensation in its midnight edition hut when its opinion is expressed it has been more carefully formed and it is urged with more solid reasoning than is contained in the hurried comment of the English popular paper to which anything I'd hours old is an-

cient history. And the oversea patters are not scorned and discarded. They are read thoroughly. They are carried to the ollice or the home (or both) and are studied with care hy it public which is not confused hy tt multiplicity of papers and can still decide whether a particular journal is reliable or not. This is a point which met its the attention of the business world. Newspaper advertising is admittedly the best form of publicity obtainable, and the London dailies with hig circulations command anything between LTott and Cl 20() for one page for one day. As advertising on this scale is common

ono niiiy assume' that it is a paying proposition even when many men Imy jtapers hy the half-dozen ami sited them till day lotto in trains and tithes, lint I am convinced that nowsapper advertising oversea is a still hotter investment. The rates in the oversea Press are comparatively low, hut the service rendered is wonderfully good. There is real publicity, because the oversea newspaper of any standing: is respected and retained. It is not merely one ol a batch of papers hastily scanned for.a

race result or a sensation of the moment and then cast aside. It may appear in smaller and quieter waters than the half million or million a day circulation boasted in England. Hut it has a relatively greater influence, and it gives relatively larger results to its advertisers.