Facts about News.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 38, 10 January 1883, Page 3

Facts about News.

PAPERS.

By some unacountable misapprehension, of, facts, observes an American contemporary, there is a large class of people m the world who think that it costs little" or nothing to run a newßpaper, and if they buy a copy occasionally they are regular patrons, and entitled to unlimited favours. Men ask for a copy of a newspaper for nothing who would never dream of begging a pocket-handkerchief from a dry goods store, or a piece of candy from a confectioner, even upon the plea of haying done business with them once before. One paper is not much, but thirty or forty at each issue will amount to something m course of time. But this 'is 1 a small drain compared* with the free advertising a newspaper is expected to do. Some people, when they once pay for an advertisement, think they are stockholders' itf the establishment for eternity. Without being represented m its advertising columns we have had people request us to gratuitously insert this notice, or draw attention to this article, with the slight suggestion that " itrwill not cost you anything to put it m," which ,. is just as ridiculous as to ask a man to grind your axe on his grindstone) and graciously tell him it won't cost him a cent. It takes money to run a newspaper as well as any other business ; no paper can succeed financially that carries a dead head system. Any mention of people's* affairs that they are anxious to see m print is worth paying for, and, when, printed, is generally worth as much as any other investment of the same amount. The newspaper business is very eiacting on all connected with it, and the pay is comparatively small ; the proprietors risk mere money for smaller profits, and the editors, reporters and printers work harder and ckeaper than the same number of men m any other profession requiring the given amount of intelligence, training, and drudgery. The life has its charms and pleasant associations scarcely known to the outside World ; but it has its earnest work and anxieties and hours of exhaustion which also are not known to those •v^ho think the business all fun. The ideal that newspaperdom is a charmed circle where the favoured members live a, life :of ease, and free from care, and go to the theatre at night on a free ticket, and to the sea-Bide on free passes m the summer, is an idea which should be.exploded. Business is business ; and the journal that succeeds iB one that is lun on a square business footing — the same as banking, building bridges, or keeping an hotel. And what is true about American papers is just as true about colonial ones— only a little more •0.