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NEWS WRITING
THE GATHERING, HANDLING
AND WRITING OF NEWS STORIES
BY
M. LYLE SPENCER, PH.D.
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, LAWRENCE COLLEGE
ON THE STAFF OF "THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL"
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
BY D. C. HEATH & CO.
TO
THOMAS B. REID
DEAN OF THE WISCONSIN NEWSPAPER MEN
PREFACE
The first week of a reporter's work is generally the most nerve-racking
of his journalistic experience. Unacquainted with his associates,
ignorant of his duties, embarrassed because of his ignorance, he wastes
more time in useless effort, dissipates more energy in worry, and grows
more despondent over his work and his career than during any month of
his later years. Yet most of his depression would be unnecessary if he
knew his duties.
To acquaint the prospective reporter with these duties and their proper
performance is the purpose of this volume, which has been written as a
practical guide for beginners in news writing. Its dominating purpose is
practicalness. If it fails in this, its main purpose will be lost.
Because of this practical aim the attempt has been made to approach the
work of the reporter as he will meet it on beginning his first morning's
duties in the news office. After an introductory division explaining the
organization of a newspaper and acquainting the beginner with his
fellows and superiors in the editorial rooms, the book opens with an
exposition of news. It then takes up sources of news, methods of getting
stories, and the preparation of copy for the city desk.
In discussing the writing of the story, it has seemed necessary to
devote much attention to the lead, experience showing that the point of
greatest difficulty in handling a story lies in the choice of a proper
and effectively worded lead. Likewise, it has been necessary to discuss
the sentence at great length and to touch the paragraph only lightly,
because the one is so much a matter of individual judgment, the other
subject to such definite laws,--laws of which, however, most cub
reporters are grossly ignorant. In some classes in news writing the
instructor will find it possible and advisable to pass hastily over the
chapter on The Sentence, but as a rule he will find a careful study of
it profitable. In Part III, that dealing with types of stories, emphasis
has been laid on interview, crime, and sports stories, because it is
these that the cub reporter must be most familiar with on taking up his
work in the newspaper office. For the same practical reasons the volume
omits editorial and copy reading, and makes no attempt to teach the
beginner to be a dramatic critic or a city editor. It aims to give him
only those details and that instruction which shall make him a
competent, reliable reporter for the city editor who first employs his
services.
The book is written also with the belief, based on practical experience,
that news writing as a craft can be taught. It is not contended that
schools can produce star reporters. The newspaper office is the only
place where they can be developed. But it is maintained that the college
can send to the city room men and women who have been guided beyond the
discouraging defeats of mere cub reporting, just as schools of law,
medicine, and commerce can graduate lawyers, doctors, and business men
who know the rudiments of their professions. And this contention is
based on experience. During the last four years the studies here offered
have been followed closely in the class room, from which students have
been graduated who are now holding positions of first rank on leading
American dailies. Some too, though not all, had had no previous
experience in newspaper work.
All the illustrations and exercises except two are taken from published
news articles, most of the stories being unchanged. In some, however,
fictitious names and addresses, for obvious reasons, have been
substituted.
For aid in the preparation of this volume my thanks are due to Mr. C. O.
Skinrood of _The Milwaukee Journal_, Mr. Warren B. Bullock of _The
Milwaukee Sentinel_, and Mr. Paul F. Hunter of _The Sheboygan Press_,
who have made numerous criticisms upon the book during its different
stages. Their suggestions have been invaluable. For permission to
reprint stories from their columns my thanks also are due to the
_Appleton Post_, _Atlanta Constitution_, _Boston Transcript_, _Chicago
American_, _Chicago Herald_, _Chicago Tribune_, _Des Moines Register_,
_Indianapolis News_, _Kansas City Star_, _Los Angeles Times_, _Milwaukee
Journal_, _Milwaukee Sentinel_, _Minneapolis Tribune_, _New York
Herald_, _New York Sun_, _New York Times_, _New York Tribune_, _New York
World_, _Omaha News_, _Philadelphia Public Ledger_, and the _Washington
Post_.
M. L. S
APPLETON, WISCONSIN
_March 12, 1917_
CONTENTS
PART I
ORGANIZATION OF THE PAPER
I. INTRODUCTION 3
II. THE EDITORIAL ROOMS 5
III. THE MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT 13
IV. THE BUSINESS DEPARTMENT 20
PART II
THE NEWS STORY
V. WHAT NEWS IS 25
VI. NEWS SOURCES 34
VII. GETTING THE STORY 42
VIII. ORGANIZATION OF THE STORY 57
IX. THE LEAD 68
X. THE BODY OF THE STORY 84
XI. THE PARAGRAPH 97
XII. THE SENTENCE 99
XIII. WORDS 116
PART III
TYPES OF STORIES
XIV. INTERVIEWS, SPEECHES, COURTS 125
XV. ACCIDENT, CRIME 149
XVI. SPORTS 164
XVII. SOCIETY 199
XVIII. FOLLOW-UPS, REWRITES 212
XIX. FEATURE STORIES 224
XX. CORRESPONDENCE STORIES 235
APPENDIX
STYLE BOOK 249
MARKS USED IN CORRECTING COPY 273
CORRECTED COPY 275
SPECIMEN PROOF 276
TERMINOLOGY 278
EXERCISES 285
INDEX 353
PART I
ORGANIZATION OF THE PAPER
NEWS WRITING
ORGANIZATION OF THE PAPER
I. INTRODUCTION
=1. The City Room.=--The city room is the place where a reporter
presents himself for work the first day. It is impossible to give an
exact description of this room, because no two editorial offices are
ever alike. If the reporter has allied himself with a country weekly, he
may find the city room and the business office in one, with the owner of
the paper and himself as the sole dependence for village news. If he has
obtained work on a small daily, he may find a diminutive office, perhaps
twelve by fifteen feet, with the city editor the only other reporter. If
he has been employed by a metropolitan journal, he will probably find
one large room and several smaller adjoining offices, and an editorial
force of twenty to thirty or forty helpers, depending upon the size of
the paper.
=2. Metropolitan Papers.=--The metropolitan paper, of course, is the
most complex in organization, and is therefore the one for a beginner to
examine. The chances are two to one that the cub will have to begin on a
so-called country daily, but if he knows the organization of a large
paper, he will experience little trouble in learning the less
complicated system of a small one. For this reason the reader is given
in Part I an explanation of the organization of a representative
metropolitan newspaper.
=3. All Papers Different.=--The reader is cautioned, however, against
taking this exposition as an explanation of anything more than a typical
newspaper. The details of organization of various papers will be found
to differ somewhat. The number of editors and their precise duties will
vary. One journal will be a morning, another an afternoon, paper; a
third will be a twenty-four-hour daily, employing a double shift of men
and having one city editor with day and night assistants. One paper will
have a universal copy desk with a single copy editor handling all
departments. Another will have, instead of a state editor, a section
editor, a man who handles all special matter not carried by the press
service from possibly half a dozen states. Thus the organizations vary
in certain minor details, sometimes materially so; but, on the whole,
one general system will prevail. And it is to give the student an
understanding of a typical newspaper plant that Part I is written.
II. THE EDITORIAL ROOMS
=4. Beginning Work.=--As stated in the preceding chapter, the place at
which the reporter presents himself for work the first day is the city
room. Before coming, he will have seen the city editor and received
instructions as to the time. If the office is that of a morning paper,
he will probably be required to come some time between noon and six P.M.
If it is that of an afternoon paper, he will be asked to report at six
or seven A.M. Let us suppose it is a metropolitan afternoon journal and
that he is requested to be in the office at seven, the hour when the
city editor appears. The ambitious reporter will always be in his place
not later than 6:45, so that he may see the city editor enter.
=5. Copy Readers.=--When a reporter appears on his first morning, he
will find a big, desk-crowded room, deserted except for two or three
silent workers reading and clipping papers at a long table. These men
are known variously as the gas-house gang, the lobster shift, the
morning stars, etc. They are the reporters and copy readers who read the
morning papers for stories that may be rewritten or followed up for
publication during the day. They have been on duty since two or three in
the morning and have prepared most of the material for the bull-dog
edition, the morning issue printed some time between 7:00 and 10:00 A.M.
and mainly rewritten from the morning papers. On the entrance of the new
reporter they will look up, direct him to a chair where he may sit until
the city editor comes, and pay no more attention to him. They, or others
who take their places, edit all the news stories. They correct spelling
and punctuation, rewrite a story when the reporter has missed the main
feature, reconstruct the lead, cut out contradictions, duplications, and
libelous statements, and in general make the article conform to the
length and style demanded by the paper; and having carefully revised the
story, they write the headlines and chute it to the composing room. On
the whole, these men are the most unpopular on the force, since they are
subject to double criticism, from the editors above them and the
reporters whose copy they correct. The city editor and the managing
editor hold them responsible for poor headlines, libelous statements,
involved sentences, and errors generally; the reporters blame them for
pruning down their stories, changing leads, and often destroying what
they regard as the very point of what they had to say.
=6. Other Reporters.=--As the new reporter waits by the city editor's
desk, he will notice the arrival of the other members of the staff, who
immediately begin their work for the day. One of these is the labor
reporter. His business is to obtain and write news relating to labor and
unions. Another is the marine reporter. He handles all news relating to
shipping, clearing and docking of vessels, etc. Another reporter handles
all stories coming from the police court. Another watches the morgue and
the hospitals. Another, usually a woman, obtains society news. Still
another visits the hotels. And so the division of reporters continues
until all the sources of news have been parceled out.
=7. The City Editor.=--Then the city editor enters. If the reporter
wishes to make good, let him love the law of the city editor. He is the
man to whom all the reporters and some of the copy readers are
responsible, and who in turn is responsible to the managing editor for
the gathering and preparation of city news. He must know where news can
be found, direct the getting of news, and see that it is put into the
paper properly. When news is abundant, he must decide which stories
shall be discarded, and on those rarer occasions when all the
world--the good and the bad--seems to have gone to sleep, he must know
how to make news. Every story written in the city room is first passed
on by the city editor, who turns it over to the copy readers for
correction. Even the length of each story is determined by him, and
often the nature of it, whether it shall be humorous, pathetic, tragic,
or mysterious. To his desires and idiosyncrasies the reporter must learn
quickly to adapt himself. Sometimes the city editor may err. Sometimes,
during his absence, he may put in authority eccentric substitutes,
smaller men who issue arbitrary commands and require stories entirely
different in style and character from what is regularly required. But
the cub's first lesson must be in adaptability, willingness to obey
orders and to accept news policies determined by those in authority. He
must therefore follow to the letter the wishes of the city editor (or
his assistants) and must always be loyal to him and his plans.[1]
[1] For an admirable exposition of the way in which the city
editor handles his men and big stories, the student is
advised to read two excellent articles by Alex. McD.
Stoddart: "When a Gaynor is Shot," _Independent_, August
25, 1910, and "Telling the Tale of the Titanic,"
_Independent_, May 2, 1912.
=8. The News Editor.=--As a reporter's acquaintance grows, he will come
to know other editors in the city room,--the news, telegraph, state,
market, sporting, literary, dramatic, and other editors. Of these the
news editor, sometimes known also as the make-up or the assistant
managing editor, is most important. He handles all the telegraph and
cable copy and much of what is sent in by mail. He decides what position
the stories shall take in the paper, which articles shall have big heads
and which little ones, which shall be thrown out, and in general
determines the make-up of the pages. The news editor is always a bright
man of wide knowledge, thoroughly conversant with state and national
social and political movements, and more or less intimately acquainted
with all sections of the United States.
=9. Telegraph Editor.=--Next to the news editor, and usually his chief
assistant, is the telegraph editor. On some papers the two positions are
combined. This man handles all telegraph copy from without the state,
including that of the press bureaus and special correspondents in
important American and European cities. Frequently in the largest news
offices there are as many as a dozen telegraph operators who take his
stories over direct wires. Like the news editor, he must be a man of
wide acquaintance in order to know the value of a story from a distant
section of the United States or the world. Since the outbreak of the
European war, his has been an unusually responsible position because of
the immense amount of war news and the necessity of knowing the exact
importance of the capture of a certain city or the fall of a fort.
=10. State Editor.=--Next comes the state editor, who is responsible for
all the state news and helps with the telegraph copy and local news when
it becomes too bulky for the other copy readers to handle. The state
editor manages the correspondents throughout the state and is
particularly valuable when his paper is in the capital city or the
metropolis of the state. Most of his copy comes by mail or long-distance
telephone from correspondents residing or traveling in the state. Nearly
all this copy needs editing, coming as it does largely from
correspondents on country dailies and weeklies. In addition to editing
stories sent in by correspondents, the state editor keeps a space book,
from which he makes to the cashier in the business office a weekly or
monthly report of the amount of material contributed by each
correspondent.
=11. Sporting Editor.=--Unless given a place in the sporting department,
the reporter will not soon meet the sporting editor, who, with his
assistants, is usually honored with a room to himself and is independent
of the city editor. But some day, by accident perhaps, the cub will get
a peep through a door across the hallway into a veritable den. That is
the sporting room. The four walls are covered with cuts of Willard,
Gotch, Johnston, Matthewson, Travers, Hoppe, and dozens of other
celebrities in the realm of sports. There the sporting editor--often a
man who has been prominent in college athletics--reigns. Because of the
intense interest in sports he must publish the news of his department
promptly, and in consequence he often is privileged to make expenditures
more freely than other editors. The sporting editor of a big daily must
be an authority in athletic matters and should be able to decide on the
instant, without looking up the book of regulations, any question
relating to athletic rules or records.
=12. Exchange Editor.=--Another editor, who usually will be discovered
in a room by himself, is the exchange editor. He will be found all but
buried in piles of exchanges, now and then clipping a story not covered
on the wires, an editorial, a criticism of his own paper, or a comment
of any kind that may be worth copying or following up. He must know
thoroughly the bias of his paper, to know what to clip and publish.
Favorable references to his paper he reprints. Criticisms he refers to
the managing editor, who reads them and throws them into the waste
basket, or else keeps them for a reply in a later issue. Most of the
jokes, anecdotes of famous men and women, stories of minor inventions
and discoveries, and timely articles relating to current events,
fashions, beliefs, etc., published on the editorial page and in the
feature sections of the Sunday issue, are the result of the exchange
editor's long hours of patient reading of newspapers mailed from every
section of the United States.
=13. The Morgue.=--One of the chief duties of many exchange editors is
to supply the morgue with material for its files. The morgue, sometimes
called the library, is an important adjunct of every newspaper office.
In it are kept, perhaps ready for printing, obituaries of well-known
men, stories of their rise to prominence, pictures of them and their
families, accounts of great discoveries, inventions, and disasters, and
facts on every conceivable newspaper topic,--all ready for hasty
reference or use. If the President of the United States were to drop
dead from apoplexy, the papers would have on the streets in a quarter of
an hour's time columns of stories giving his whole career. When the
steamer _Eastland_ turned over in the Chicago River, causing the death
of 900 persons, the papers published in their regular editions boxed
summaries of all previous ship disasters. When Willard knocked out
Johnson at Havana, reviews of Willard's and Johnson's ring careers were
printed in numerous dailies. All such stories are procured from the
morgue, from files supplied mainly by the exchange editor. In some of
the larger offices, however, these files are maintained independently of
the exchange editor, and are under the charge of the librarian and a
staff of assistants who keep catalogued lists of all maps, cuts,
photographs, and clippings. On a moment's notice these may be obtained
for use in the paper.
=14. Other Editors.=--Other editors, who may be passed with brief
mention because of their minor importance in this volume, are the
market, dramatic, literary, and society editors, and the editorial
writers. The market editor handles all matters of a financial nature.
Sometimes on the largest dailies there are both a market and a financial
editor, but usually the work is combined under a single man whose duties
are to keep in close touch with markets, banks, manufactories, and large
mercantile companies, and to write up simply and accurately from day to
day the financial condition of the city and the country. The duty of the
literary editor is often little more than book reviewing. Frequently he
does not have an office in the building, and on small papers his only
remuneration is the gift of the book he reviews. The society editor, in
addition to reporting notes of the social world, generally handles
fashion stories, answers letters regarding etiquette, love, and
marriage, and edits all material for the woman's page. The work of the
editorial writers is explained by their name. They quit work at all
sorts of hours, take two hours off for lunch, and are known in the city
room as "highbrows." But many an editorial writer who comes to work at
nine in the morning has worked very late the night before, searching for
facts utilized in a half-column of editorial matter.
=15. Cartoonists and Photographers.=--The business of the cartoonist is
to draw one cartoon a day upon some timely civic or political subject.
He is responsible to the managing editor. Under him are other
cartoonists who illustrate individual stories or do cartoon work for
special departments of the paper. The sporting editor has one such man,
and the city editor has one or two. Finally, there are the
photographers, subject to the city editor, who rush hither and thither
to all parts of the city and state, taking scenes valuable for cuts.
=16. The Managing Editor.=--The men whose work we have been discussing
thus far are those whom the reporter meets in his daily work. Above all
these is an executive officer whom the cub reporter rarely sees,--the
managing editor, who has general supervision over all the news and
editorial departments of the paper. He does little writing or editing
himself, his time being taken up with administrative duties. All unusual
expenditures are submitted for his approval. The size and make-up of the
paper, which varies greatly from day to day on the large dailies, is a
matter for his final decision. The cartoonist submits to him rough
drafts of contemplated drawings. The city, telegraph, and news editors
confer with him about getting important stories. The Sunday editor
consults with him with regard to special features. To him is submitted a
proof of every story, which he reads for possible libel and for general
effectiveness. Now and then he returns a story to the city editor to be
lengthened or to be pruned down. Occasionally he may kill an article.
Always he is working at top speed, from the time he gets to his office
at 8:00 A.M., or 2:00 P.M., until he sits down to compare his paper with
the first edition of rival publications. For the managing editor
scrutinizes with minute care every daily in the city, and when he finds
anything to his paper's discredit, he begins an immediate investigation
to learn how the slip happened and who was responsible.
=17. Editor-in-Chief.=--Above the managing editor is the
editor-in-chief, often the owner of the paper. Of him the sub-editors
say that his chief business is playing golf and smoking fat cigars. As a
matter of fact, his duties are at once the most and the least exacting
of any on the paper. He is either the owner or the personal
representative of the owner, who looks to him for the execution of his
policies. But since such policies necessarily must be subject to the
most liberal interpretation, the final responsibility of the editorial
rooms falls on the shoulders of the editor-in-chief. To make known the
plans of the paper, the editor-in-chief holds with the editorial
writers, the managing editor, and the city editor weekly, sometimes
daily, meetings, at which are discussed all matters of doubt or
dissatisfaction relating to the editorial rooms.
=18. Conclusion.=--In conclusion, then, we have the editor-in-chief, who
is responsible for the general policies of the paper. Immediately
beneath him is the managing editor, who executes the editor-in-chief's
orders. Responsible to the editor-in-chief or the managing editor are
the editorial writers, the news, city, sporting, exchange, literary, and
dramatic editors, and the cartoonist. Beneath the city editor are a few
of the copy readers and all the reporters. Such is the organization of
the editorial staff of a typical metropolitan newspaper.
III. THE MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT
=19. Division.=--Beyond the editorial rooms is the mechanical
department, with which every reporter should be, but rarely ever is,
acquainted. Because of the heavy machinery necessary for preparing and
printing a paper, the mechanical department is often found in the
basement. This department is divisible into three sub-departments, the
composing room, the stereotyping room, and the press room.
=20. The Copy Cutter.=--When a story has been revised by the copy reader
and given proper headlines, it is turned over to the head copy reader or
the news editor, who glances over it hastily to see that all is rightly
done and chutes it in a pneumatic tube to the basket on the copy
cutter's table or desk in the composing room. The copy cutter in turn
glances at the headlines and the two or three pages of copy, and records
the story upon a ruled blank on his desk. Then he clips the headlines
and sends them by a copy distributor to the headline machine to be set
up. The two or three pages of copy he cuts into three or four or five
"takes," puts the slug number or name on each, and sends the "takes" to
different compositors, so that the whole story may be set up more
quickly than if it were given all to one man. If the time before going
to press is very short, the pages may be cut into more takes. The slug
names, sometimes called guide or catch lines, are marked on each take to
enable the bank-men to assemble readily all the parts after they have
been set in type.
=21. The Linotype Machine.=--Each compositor on receiving his take
places it on the copy-holder of his linotype or monotype machine and
begins composing it into type. The linotype machine consists of a
keyboard not unlike that of the typewriter, which actuates a magazine
containing matrices or countersunk letter molds, together with a casting
mechanism for producing lines or bars of words. By touching the keys,
the compositor releases letter by letter an entire line of matrices,
which are mustered automatically into the assembling-stick at the left
and above the keyboard, ready to be molded into a line of type. When the
assembling-stick is full of matrices, enough to make a full line, the
operator is warned, as on the typewriter, by the ringing of a tiny bell.
The machinist then pulls a lever, which releases molten lead on the line
of matrices and casts a slug of metal representing the letters he has
just touched on the keys. The machine cuts and trims this slug of lead
to an exact size, conveys it to the receiving galley for finished lines,
and returns the matrices to their proper places in the magazine for use
in a succeeding line. When the operator has composed twenty or
twenty-five of these slugs, his take is completed. He then removes the
slugs from their holder, wraps them in the manuscript, and sends them to
the bank to be assembled with the other takes of the same story. The
proof of the compositor's take looks something like the matter at the
top of the next page.
The big _three's_ are the compositor's slug number. This take was set up
by the workman operating machine number 3. The _Loops_ is the catch
line, or slug name, by which the story is known, every take of the story
being named _Loops_, so that the bank-men may easily get the parts of
the story together. The letters at the right of _Loops_, in the same
line, are merely any letters that the compositor has set up at random by
tapping the linotype keys to fill out the line.
----------------------------------------
THREE THREE
----------------------------------------
LOOPS... ... ... ...) rna..8an........
ARMY BIRDMEN BREAK
RECORDS FOR LOOPS
San Diego, Cal., Sept. 25.--Sergt. William Ocher and Corporal
Albert Smith, attached to the United States army aviation corps
at North Island, made fifteen loops each while engaged in
flights, shattering army and navy aviation records. Both
officers used the same machine equipped with a ninety horsepower
motor, and designed for long distance flying.
This take, which was picked up at random in the editorial rooms of the
_Milwaukee Journal_, was followed by this:
----------------------------------------
SEVEN SEVEN
----------------------------------------
Folo Loops........................ETAOIN
FALLS 1,000 FEET, UNHURT.
Omaha, Sept. 25.--Francis Hoover, Chicago aviator, fell 1,000
feet at David City, Neb. He alighted in a big tank and was not
injured.
The compositor in this case was at machine number 7, and the slug name
given the story was _Folo Loops_: that is, it was a follow story, to
come after the one slugged _Loops_.
=22. The Proofs.=--On receipt of the different takes by the bank-man,
the various parts of the story are assembled, with the proper head, in a
long brass receptacle called a galley, and the first, or galley, proof
is "pulled" on the proof press, a small hand machine. Three proofs are
made. One goes to the managing editor, on whom rests responsibility for
every story in the paper; one to the news editor; and one, with the
original copy, to the head proofreader, who is responsible for all
typographical errors. The head proofreader in turn gives the proof to an
assistant and the manuscript to a copyholder, who reads the story to the
assistant for the detection of typographical errors. A corrected galley
proof will be returned in the form shown in the specimen proof sheet
printed on page 276.
=23. The Form.=--After all corrections have been made and the position
of the story in the paper has been determined by the news editor, it is
inserted in its proper place among other articles which together make up
a page of type, or what printers know as a form. This form is locked in
an enveloping steel frame, called a chase, and carried to the
stereotyping room, the second department in the mechanical composition
of the paper. In the small newspaper offices, the sheet is printed
directly from the form. But since the leaden letters begin to blur after
15,000 impressions have been made, and since it has been found
impossible to do fast printing from flat surfaces, it is necessary for
the larger papers to cast from four to twelve stereotyped plates of each
page.
=24. Stereotyping Process.=--These stereotyped plates are circular or
semicircular in shape, so that they fit snugly on the press cylinders.
They are made in the following way: When the form is brought into the
stereotyping room, it is placed, face up, on the flat bed of a strongly
built press. Over the face of the columns of type are spread several
layers of tissue paper pasted together. Upon the paper is laid a damp
blanket, and a heavy revolving steel drum subjects the whole to hundreds
of pounds of pressure, thus squeezing the face of the type into the
texture of the moist paper. Intense heat is then applied by a steam
drier, so that within a few seconds the moisture has been baked entirely
from the paper, which emerges a stiff flat matrix of the type in the
form.
=25. The Autoplate.=--This matrix in turn is bent to the shape of the
impressing cylinder that later stamps the page, and is put into an
autoplate, or casting machine, which presses molten metal upon the paper
matrix, cools the metal, and turns out in a few moments the finished,
cylindrical plates ready to be put on the press for printing. Duplicates
follow at intervals of from fifteen to twenty seconds, so that several
impressions of the same page may be made at once in the press room and
the whole paper printed more quickly than if a single impression of a
page were made at one time.
=26. The Press Room.=--The press room, the third and final stage in the
mechanical composition of the paper, is where the printing is done on
highly complicated machines. The larger the number of pages of the paper
printed, the more complicated the presses, the marvel of them being
their adaptability to running full, or half, or third capacity,
according to the needed output, or to printing a double or triple number
of small sized papers in a third or half the usually required time. The
large presses of the great dailies print, fold, cut, paste, and count,
according to the size of the sheet, 50,000 to 125,000 papers an hour. A
double sextuple press has a limit of 144,000 twelve-page papers an hour.
=27. The Printing Press.=--It is on the cylinders of these presses that
the circular stereotyped plates are fitted, two plates filling nicely
the round of the cylinder. All the plates for the inside pages of the
paper are stereotyped and screwed on their cylinders a half-hour or more
before press time, the pages with the latest news being held until the
last possible moment. Usually the last page to come is the title page,
and as soon as the last locking lever has been clamped, the wheels of
the big press begin to turn. As the cylinders with their plates revolve,
raised letters on the surface of the plate come in contact, first with
the inked rollers, then with the paper, which is spun from large rolls
and drawn through the press, obtaining as it goes the impression of the
pages of type. As the printed ribbon of paper issues from beneath the
cylinders, it is cut into pages, folded, and counted, ready for the
circulation department. The whole period of time elapsing between the
chute of the last story from the city room and the delivery of the
printed pages to the newsboys will not have exceeded ten minutes.
=28. Speed in Printing.=--Even this brief time is materially cut when
great stories break. The result of the Willard-Johnson fight in 1915 and
all the details up to the last few rounds were cried on the streets of
New York within two minutes after Johnson had been knocked out in
Havana. This was made possible by means of the "fudge," a device
especially designed for late news. This is a small printing cylinder,
upon which is fitted a diminutive curved chase capable of holding a few
linotype slugs. When the fudge is used, a stereotyped front page of the
paper is ripped open and a prominent blank space left, so that if the
press were to print now, the paper would appear with a large unprinted
space on its front page. To this blank space, however, the fudge is
keyed, so that as the web of paper passes the main cylinder, the little
emergency cylinder makes its impression and the page appears to all
appearances printed from a single cylinder.
=29. Speed Devices.=--The value of the fudge, of course, is that, by
printing directly from the linotype slugs, it saves the time expended in
stereotyping. Its speed, too, is increased by reason of the fact that
every great newspaper has in the press room near the fudge a composing
machine to which a special telegraph wire is run, and a special operator
to read the news direct from the wire to the compositor. This enables
the papers to meet the baseball crowd on its way home with extras giving
full details of all the plays, and during the last quarter of the
football game to sell in the bleachers a complete account to the end of
the first half. But even this speed is not always sufficient. Where the
outcome of a big piece of news may be predicted, advance headlines are
set up and held ready to be clamped on the press. In the case of the
Willard-Johnson fight, two heads were held awaiting the knockout: JESS
WILLARD NEW CHAMPION and JACK JOHNSON RETAINS TITLE. When President
McKinley died in September, 1901, one prominent Milwaukee newspaper man
held locked on his presses from 8:00 A.M. until the President died at
midnight the plates that would print the whole story of Mr. McKinley's
life, assassination, and death. Then when the flash came announcing the
dreaded event, the presses were started, and ten seconds afterward
newsboys were crying the death of the President of the United States.
Such are some of the devices editors use to publish news in the shortest
possible time.
IV. THE BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
=30. Divisions of the Business Department.=--When the paper issues from
the press, it passes into the hands of the circulation manager, whose
duties are in an entirely different department of the newspaper
organization,--the business department. This department is divided into
two or three more or less closely connected divisions, presided over by
the circulation manager, the advertising manager, and the cashier. Over
all these is the business manager, who supervises the department as a
whole.
=31. The Circulation Manager.=--The work of the circulation manager has
been termed simple by outsiders. But the simplicity exists only for
outsiders. The distribution of a hundred thousand to a million papers a
day is not a small task in itself, particularly when one considers the
scores of trains to be caught, the dozens of delivery wagons and wagon
drivers to be guided, and the hundreds of newsboys and newsstands to be
supplied with the very latest editions at the very earliest moment. Yet
the circulation manager's duties are even more multifarious than this.
All the canvassers for new subscriptions are under his supervision. The
organization of the newsboys for selling his paper is his duty,--and it
is marvelous how the good-will of the newsboys, even when they handle
all rival publications, can boost the sales of some particular
circulation manager's papers. The advertising of the paper's past and
forthcoming news features, such as stories by special writers, exclusive
dispatches, etc., are the brunt of his work, because in so far as he
makes people believe in the superiority of his news, they will buy the
papers. Even the outcries against public grievances and the publication
of subscription lists for charitable purposes are often the thoughts of
the circulation manager, because they invite more readers. Some
managers, under the guise of helping the down-and-outs, even publish
free all "Situations Wanted" advertisements, because they believe that
the loss in advertising will be more than paid for by the gain in the
number of readers, with the resultant possibility of higher advertising
rates or more advertising in other departments because of the increased
circulation.
=32. The Advertising Manager.=--Closely associated with the circulation
manager is the advertising manager, who is dependent upon the former for
his rates. It makes a great difference with the advertising manager's
rates whether the circulation is a hundred thousand or a quarter of a
million, and whether the circulation is double or one half that of the
rival morning publication. The advertising manager's duties are as
manifold as those of his associate. He directs the advertising
solicitors and advises prospective advertisers about the place, prices,
space, and character of their advertisements. A chewing tobacco ad is
worth little in the column bordering the society section; the back page
is far more valuable for advertising than the inside; and the columns
next to reading matter are worth more than those on a page filled only
with advertisements. The advertising manager, too, has the power of
accepting or rejecting advertisements. Liquor, soothing syrup, and
questionable ads are barred by many managers. Some will not even accept
so-called personal ads. Yet at the same time that they are rejecting ads
in this class, such managers are straining every point to gain desirable
ones. One way of obtaining these is by advertising solicitors. Another
is by advertising in one's own paper and in publications in other
cities. Many of the metropolitan dailies exchange whole and half-page
advertisements, directing attention to their circulation figures and the
number of agate lines of advertising matter printed within the
preceding month or year. Some of these papers publish audited
statements, too, of the relative number of advertising lines printed by
their own and rival publications. But the advantage is always in their
own favor.
=33. The Cashier.=--The third division of the business department is the
cashier's office, frequently known as the counting room. Briefly put,
the cashier directs the pay-roll and all receipts and disbursements of
the paper. He keeps the books of the publishing company. From him the
reporter receives his pay envelop, and to him are sent all bills for
paper, ink, machinery, telegraph and telephone messages, and similar
expenses. Rarely has the cashier served an apprenticeship in the
editorial department, but he knows thoroughly the business of
bookkeeping, money changing, banking, and similar work, which is all
that is required in his position.