THE PARIS PRESS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 473, 12 June 1912, Page 7

THE PARIS PRESS.

ITS LEADING ARTICLE

With a few notable exceptions, such as the "Temps," the "Matin," the "Echo de Paris," and the "Journal," the French press contains nothing like as much news as our dailypapers. The Frenchman does not care much for detail, and prefers general principles. One thing he must have—the leading article. He buys the "Intransigeant" to read Rochefort, the "Humnnite" to read Jaurcs, and the "Libre Parole" to know Drumont's last word, just as such men as M. Clemrnceau. M. Hanotaux, Comte Albert dr Mr.n, and Count d'Haussonbillc have, all their public. These articles are paid at a very high rate. In the days of the Dreyfus case, Emile Zola received £4O an article, and the late Vicomte Eugene Melchior dc Vogue often commanded the same fee. Academicians, Ministers, and exMinisters often get from £2O to £4O for an article of from a column and a. half to two columns, while other lights vary from £6 to £2O. Newspaper circulation is, however, by no means so great in France as in England, and the Press is not so profitable, except, of course, when an '"affaire" such as the promotion of a bank, a company, or a business is involved. Hundreds of thousands of the "reclame" which appears innocently in the body, of the paper is well paid. The halfpenny papers, such as the "Petit Parisien," the "Petit Journal," and the "Matin," have a circulation of between half a million and a million, and the "Temps," which sells at a penny in Paris and at twopence in the country, reaches 175,000 a day, which, of course, pays its way. The two newspapers which have of late years shown most enterprise in the way of news are the "Matin" and the "Echo de Paris."—Saturday '"Review."