The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1914. THE NEWSPAPER WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 204, 26 February 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1914. THE NEWSPAPER WORLD.

The visit to New Plymouth of repivsentatives of the New Zealand Pre*, and | master printers may appropriately be made the occasion for offering a few remarks upon the progress made of (ho world's newspaper press and the lines upon which future development secin likely to proceed. The newspapers of Great Britain are generally conceded to be Hie best in the world. They represent the high-water mark, in fact, in sanity, in freedom from sensationalism, and iiv sound and dignified judgment on public questions. Yet it is not so long since • newspapers were barely tolerated by ''the powers that 'be," when they were subject to various harassing restrictions and to a repressive tax. It was only after strenuous fighting and much individual suffering that the Press, even in England, was really freed from these shackles. Since then, its progress has been truly phenomenal, and its inlluence has increased tremendously. It used to be said that journalism was .a Fourth Estate of the Realm. We seldom hear that phrase to-day, because it is generally recognised that the Press has advanced so far as to make such a description of its position altogether inadequate. The Press of New Zealand has closely followed the English model, and has thus escaped the extravagances that deface many American journals. A curious fact is that, despite, the excellence of British journalism, the great newspapers have not provided themselves with attractive premises nor have they supplied their literary workers with suitable rooms. The grandest newspaper olliee in the wdrld is in Rio de Janeiro, and a Russian olliee runs it very close. Professor Williams, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Missouri, states that the office of the Moscow World is one of the finest in the world; he has seen nothing to compare with it ."for having everything up-to-date, for comfort for the writers employed, for salaries, and, indeed, everything connected with the literary and news side of the paper." It is surely 'better that newspaper writers should be treated thus than they they should still answer to the contemptuous description that the great Napoleon gave an editor: ''A grubby man who sits in a dirty back room and writes as if he were a. great power." As for the future of journalism, the mention of Professor Williams, who is now on a visit to Sydney, is a reminder that chairs or schools of journalism have been established in America. The late Mr. Juseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, gave 3,000,000 dollars to endow the Chair of Journalism at Missouri. Professor Williams, describing the work of educating- journalists, said: "We have about 200 students, among them a number from other countries, including one or two from China. There are 14 members of the faculty, of whom four are journalists of standing. Before we take a student to' train him in journalism, he must have had two years' college training in special subjects, such as sociology, psychology, eoonomics, the science of government, and at least one foreign language, usually German or French, though Spanish counts with us. Then he stays with us for three years. During the first year ho is not called upon to do much beyond learning the run of the office. We even have our own office. We publish a daily newspaper, with news and advertisements, just the same as the other two papers in Columbia, with which we compete. And we make it pay. In his second year the student is sent out to gathers news and write it up under supervision. In his third year he is put on to interviews, special articles, and leader-writ-ing. All the time he is keeping up His studies in the special subjects. It is a '.combination of the practical with the theoretical, and at the end of his course he passes his examination, and the degree of Bachelor of Journalism is conferred upon him." The specially-educated journalist will therefore soon be a feature in all countries. In America the change will be for the better, for it may be expected that educated men will set their faces against the corruption of the English language that is at present encouraged by American newspaper writers. Another tendency of to-day is towards signed articles in newspapers. This is obligatory by law in France, Germany, Russia and some other countries; but the practice is becoming common in Aniercia. In some newspapers the editor's name appears every day, and many articles by contributors are signed. On this subject Professor Williams remarked in Sydney:— "It is good for the writer, because ho attracts attention, and there is a de,man<l for his services; it is good for .the newspaper, because the public will 'buy the paper to read the articles that '.the clever and expert men write. I discussed the subject with Lord North'cliffe, and found him to be in favor of it to a limited extent—that is to say, ,he does not mind it as applied to special .articles, criticisms of art, music, the , drama and literature, and things of that kind. When the proprietor of the Times says that, it may be taken as ,a sign of the times. As for the future ,of journalism generally, I am of opinion that the best features of the best newspapers, no matter in what part of the world they may be published, will be included, and the rest will be discarded." Another direction in which journalism Will advance U in the broadening of Hie functions of the newspaper. In British countries there is an unwritten rule that religious subjects are debarred from the secular press. The Americans have shown greater breadth by publishing sermons weekly and by occasional special and leading articles on religious topics. The London Times has recently taken a I freer view of journalistic functions, for it had a leading article, on the WellaCarpentier prize-fight, and later (as the cabie has informed us) it took for the text of an editorial the title of a comic

sons Hint was being sung at tlip musichalls. This shows an approach to a trim conception of the newspaper's sphere of influence—a sphere that should he coextensive with humanity and its varied interests. Tile politician lias hitherto occupied too much journalistic space; it would not he a had thing- if more attention, were devoted to the moral and spiritual side of things. Such a change, we believe, is coming, and when it does the Press will take nil even higher place than it occupies to-day as "guide, philosopher and friend" of the people.