A LONDON EDITOR INTERVIEWED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 77

A LONDON EDITOR INTERVIEWED.

There i, a very interesting int.er\iew in Great Thoughts with Mr Alfred G. Gaidiner, the editor of the Daily News, who tan not on'/ edit, but write, and write with distinction. When ai-ked as to his editorial routine, Mr Gar-daner said : "My own practice is t-o come into the office at 4 p.m., and to apord three hours ;n; n di«russin:g the varioja aspects of the d&y'** work and the nature with the bnsirjess manager and heads of fke departments. At 7 o'clock I dins, and at 8 o'clock I meet the leaderwriters and discuss the subjects for oomnuv.t and the line to be taken. Of i cou:-e, leader-writing under modern con- ! dit. j>nn i.s not quite so eaisily arranged as it was formerly. The newe of th© day anxl right is not vvell developed by 8 o'clock, and one's arra.ngiemeiits_may be s»3riou'-Iy di=located by later events. But against this, of course, experience teaches ot.-b in some measure to guard without a ! too liberal uc-e of that anticipation of | future events which, after all, is one of the legitimate faculties of the journalist. " In the cafe of the Daily News th* situation in rendered nru<ih more difficult ] by the fact that we have started print- | ing the paper in Manchester simultaneously with London. This means that | practically all the paper, apart from that j

which can hs despatched by train, is sent over the private wires, for tihe equipment of which we keep a staff of some 14 telegraphists. We telegraph anything up to 40,080 words a night to Manchester, where the -paper is reproduced with oertadr local i modifications. This, while adding greatly, | to tbs potentialities of the paper, has necessarily made x further^epeeding-up essential. By 12 o'clock I now regard my, day's work as pretty well over, and I complete the reading of the proofs in th© train going home. — The Halfpenny Press. — "It is quite idle to curse the half« penny press. It was in the nature of cb certain development of journalism ; jqcm thing whatever could stand in its way.It was governed, first of all, by the cheapness of paper, ami by the fact that there •was an enormous public which was not reached by the old press — a public which? consisted for the first time of a generation equipped with, -the gift of elementary; education. We may say, in fact, that thti halfpenny press is tfos natural corollaryi of popular education, the abolition of the stamp duties, and the cheapening of the raw material of the newspaper through the operations .of Freetrade. Without touching on politics, I may add that *he first tihing-to.be hit by the- estab* lishment of Protection would be the halfpenny • newspaper, of which there * would? be an end, unless yon aire going to cay; that palp is a raw material. "The governing fact is the heart of the people ; if that is sound it is well ;' and we must remember tlhat we are still 1 oraly at the end of the first generation of elementary education. Wendell Holmes used tc say that to make a- cultivated man it needed at least three generations who had sprawled at large in abundant! libraries; and a similar remark may bo applied to democracy. None can regard the broad aspect of th© years gathered! within my own short lifetime without' realising the enormous advance wphicih the democracy has made in intelligence, taste, and conduct." Mr Gardiner received his early press training on the Essex County Chronicle, published in his. native town, ChelmsfordL After a brief stay at Bournemouth h« became associated witt the Northern Daily Telegraph when it was started in Blackburn in 1886, and remained there until his appointment to the editorship of the Daily News in 1902.