“NEWS COMES FIRST”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 776, 24 September 1929, Page 11

“NEWS COMES FIRST”

A TALK TO ADVERTISING MEN * “Any newspaper man will tell you that a paper is divided into three sections—advertisements, views and news—and the greatest of these is news,” said Mr. A. B. Chappell, M.A., •in a talk at the Auckland Advertising Club luncheon today. Mr. Chappell dealt chiefly with news as related to advertising, pointing out that the first syllable of the word “newspaper” is the one to be accented. Advertising, although it is the means by which a paper lives, must take second place. The third place is occupied bj r “views,” which the speaker used to describe leading articles and letters to the editor. Tt was the aim of all papers to keep both of these sections entirely separate from the actual news, and never to allow consideration of either one to affect the presentation of the facts. The official opinions of a paper should never be apparent from a glance at the news columns, according to British ideals. The American £Tess, however. had different standards. The speaker admitted that, in certain circumstances, advertisements could be regarded as news, as in the “agony” sections. Mr. Chappell outlined briefly the general collection of news and spoke of some notable feats of news-gathering. “When the reader grumbles at the mistakes which creep in occasionally, he is really paying a tribute to the high standard of accuracy reached in the Press,” concluded the speaker. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr. F. W. Petterd.