THE TECHNICAL PRESS
As our young man in journalism begins to get a reputation among his
fellows for sincere trustworthy work his services may be sought
by other editors. Hundreds of miscellaneous weekly and monthly
publications employ writers and they draw largely from the daily
newspaper staffs. More than one thousand persons employed regularly
in New York City furnish the copy for these miscellaneous journals.
Nearly as many more are occasional or special contributors. There are
scores of magazines of fiction and scores of weekly journals devoted
to literature, religion, fashions, humor, science, art, music and the
play-house, to sports, birds, and beasts, and fish.
There are journals devoted to the learned professions, to medicine,
law, chemistry, engineering, theology, electricity. And there are
hundreds of technical publications and trade papers that cater to the
interests of all kinds of business: banking, insurance, shipping,
manufacturing, railroading, dry goods, textile, grocery, hardware,
wines, spirits, liqueurs, drugs. Almost every occupation has some sort
of a publication to advance its interests. Many of them are prosperous
and some of them are “gold mines” for their owners. Almost all are
very helpful to the trade they represent. They expand in vast detail
the things that the daily newspapers pass by with mere mention or do
not mention at all. They tell the reader what the other fellow is
doing. They cunningly search the entire world for facts bearing on
the business they represent. Their representatives in Washington, and
at every state capital, inform of any proposed legislation hostile to
their clients’ interests--restriction of trade, increased taxation,
regulation of methods, legislative strikes or blackmailing raids.
In the editorial columns are discussed every phase of business that
could affect the readers’ business and the news columns give every
obtainable fact, including columns of routine record such as price list
quotations, statistics of merchandise movement, government reports of
agricultural and metal production, and the like.
A vast volume of technical matter is required to fill these
publications, the writing of which calls for expert and special
knowledge and continuous study. The writer’s task is difficult for
the reason that he is not writing for the general public, but rather
for men who already have comprehensive knowledge of the subject and
who instantly detect misstatement of fact or feebleness of reasoning.
Nevertheless, the writer appreciates that his business-man reader is
keenly alive to know the doings of his rivals who may be smarter and
more successful than himself and who are working to solve the same
problems as himself.
Writing for the technical press is not so fascinating as for the
newspapers, the literary weeklies, or the magazines of fiction. The
imagination has less opportunity to frolic. Facility of literary
expression is not an asset. The embryos of inspiration and ambition are
incubated elsewhere. Constant consideration of the one topic tempts to
routine thought and to imitative writing.
Nevertheless, writing for the technical press involves most careful
and painstaking effort. It will not do to make a mistake. Some of the
accomplishments to be desired in the writer are indicated in an address
delivered by Mr. Charles W. Price, editor of the _Electrical Review_:
Accuracy in technical statements and simplicity of language
are two elements of greatness and distinction in technical
journalism. It is not always easy for the abundantly informed
technical writer to present his scientific truths in simple
limpid language to be comprehended by and thus delight and
enlighten the average reader. I am now referring to editorial
treatment of such subjects, and not of course to those technical
contributions in which mathematical figures necessarily must
appear. The editor or technical writer who can present scientific
reasoning and its practical application accurately and simply
without the aid of his algebra, is assured of the largest
possible audience, and is the producer of the greatest influence
and information. He is, besides, popular in technical publishing
circles.
Another element of greatness is a practical illuminating
presentation of what an invention in the field of which that
publication is the exponent, really means to the art to which it
relates; that when an invention of importance is announced, it be
told just what it would mean and how it might or will affect the
art or the industry. But the technical writers who can state a
scientific fact in a few words and with crystal clearness are not
very numerous.
The electrical reviews may be mentioned as a fair example of technical
journalism. They are large publications of a hundred pages or so, half
of which are given to advertisements of every electrical apparatus or
machine known to man. The electricians do not advertise in the daily
newspapers, nor do the newspapers print the news of the electrical
business except when some big discovery is made. No way exists,
therefore, for the electrician to know what is going on in his business
except through an electrical review. There he gets not only every
treasure of discovery, but every flash, every twinkle of the business
as well. He may learn what all the electric societies are doing in all
parts of the world. He may read the lectures on electrical subjects
delivered by experts. He may be told just what the great electrical
companies are doing, what new construction they are planning or
finishing. It is a constantly growing and changing business with every
day new application of old discoveries as well as new ones. He simply
cannot be without an electrical review.
In New York City are forty-five publications devoted to drugs, medicine
and surgery. Many of them are for the drug trade only and others
are highly intellectual reviews of progress and practice in medical
science. They are little read except by physicians, surgeons and
druggists; but of late years, so bewilderingly fascinating have been
their disclosure of medical discovery and progress and so absorbing
their illustrations of surgical skill, the daily newspaper editors have
been compelled to read them searchingly for the news they contain,
and they have been generously quoted in the daily press. The medical
press exploits all that is new in surgery or practice, gives elaborate
reports of medical society discussions, descriptions of unique surgical
operations, new uses of drugs. It digs up everything all over this
earth that possibly could interest a practitioner. Obviously the
physician or surgeon who doesn’t read the medical literature of the day
is miles behind the times.
Even the newspaper business has its trade journals, and one of them,
_The Fourth Estate_, was saying the other day that between seven
thousand and seven thousand five hundred persons are actively engaged
in writing for the New York City press; and that thirty-five thousand
are similarly employed in the United States.
It is quite impossible, in this space, to describe these miscellaneous
and class publications. They are numbered by thousands. In New York
City are more than one hundred literary magazines and weeklies. A
recent tabulation attested that in the United States more than eight
hundred publications are devoted to religion, of which about one
hundred are printed in New York. Six hundred are issued to tell the
farmer how to till. Eighty exploit automobiles. How to fly is told by
six sheets. The mouthpieces of the barbers number four and the blind
may learn about themselves in eleven. Eighteen appear regularly in
the interest of the American Indian, and six for bees. More than six
hundred tell about schools and colleges; twenty about dogs; twelve
about confections and ice-cream; twenty-three of dentistry; twenty-six
of the theater; fifty of fashion; ninety of finance, of which thirty
are in New York. The grocers support eighty odd and the insurance men
sixty-seven, while two hundred and fifty are in the interest of labor.
We find devoted to law one hundred and fifty; to liquor twenty-seven;
mechanics and engineering sixty-five; moving pictures twenty; music
trade fifty-four; the negro about two hundred; poultry eighty-five;
soap and perfume three; sports seventy; women suffrage seven;
undertakers ten. One of the newspaper directories recently gave a list
of two hundred and forty-five trades or businesses each of which has
its own technical publications.
The trade papers have come to form a very important and conspicuous
part of American journalism. Their writers may not be so well known to
fame as are other authors, but they have better business opportunities.
Their expert knowledge of the business under consideration and the
acquaintances they necessarily form with the kings of that business,
frequently lead to advantageous offers to engage in business. A larger
proportion of the technical press men quit writing to do other work
than is noted in any other line of journalism.
The business of furnishing information about business has become a
great industry in itself. It has developed amazingly within a few
years, chiefly through the technical journals or magazines, the number
of which has increased greatly, but also through books and pamphlets.
The big banks have their business libraries totalling thousands of
volumes, covering endless topics relating to railroads, corporations,
specific business, systems and methods. They preserve newspaper
clippings in bewildering numbers. The bureau of information is
conspicuous in all big business houses and corporations and all the
literature of business is at hand. Every Wall Street brokerage house of
any account employs a man to furnish information to customers.
The great war so effectively restricted importation that the country
was largely thrown on its own resources. It was compelled to produce
or furnish substitute matter for many products it could not import.
Business facts became greatly in demand. The librarians reported, and
continue to note, a greatly increased demand for business literature.
The book publishers recognize an increasing devouring public appetite
for business books. The managers of business journals and magazines
tell of largely increasing circulations in this period of great
business expansion.
One of the managers of the _System_ magazine series said not long ago:
The demand for our publications has increased tremendously
since the war. In the last three years one of our magazines has
increased sixty per cent in circulation. Blame Germany for that,
and for the big increase in business literature. We have learned
suddenly that German business has been studying books all these
years. We find now that to compete, American business must also
take to books. And that has brought about one big difference.
A few years ago when I left college to go into business, my
employers encouraged me with, “Well, you’ll live down your
college training.” To-day, a big business man does more reading
than a student in college--and he has to do it.
Technical journalism is a great feature of the journalism of the times.
Its importance is little appreciated or understood by the general
public. It gives employment to thousands of writers and its rapid
increase indicates demand for thousands more.
Trained newspapermen are in active demand as publicity and general
aids by big corporations. The salaries paid are larger than is paid by
newspapers. These men usually oversee the advertising; likewise they
write pamphlets, collect information for the use of the corporation,
frequently prepare speeches for delivery by the officers, make out
reports, read many publications for any information bearing on the
business. The work requires fine editorial ability and thorough
knowledge of the business. It is far above the press agent work done
to advertise theaters, moving pictures, or hotels. It involves a study
of the principles and condition of other business besides their own,
for in many instances their own business is affected by the business of
others. The literature of business has become very important.
Accuracy is the supreme requirement in business writing. A single
misstatement may involve a loss of confidence in the writer or the
publication--a loss of money to the reader. Simple construction in the
plainest of language is the rule for writing.
Demand for the literature of business has made startling changes in the
newspapers of to-day, affecting daily sheets as well as all journalism.
Ten times as much space is given to market reports as was used forty
years ago. Business news is lavishly exploited. It was little noticed
in the old days.
It is a business age. The educational impulse of school and college
is in the direction of business education rather than classical or
general education. Technical schools are much more popular. Business
schools are conducted by large corporations, by banks, by chambers of
commerce. Banks, insurance companies, the railroad organizations, and
big business concerns maintain statistical and information departments
and publish pamphlets and periodical literature. Men competent to
produce information are in demand and those of newspaper experience are
preferred.
Publishers are putting out an avalanche of books on every phase of
business. The demand for books of reference, books of the practical, in
our libraries is overwhelming. Reports of the New York Public Library
attest that seekers after books of technical information are numbered
by hundreds of thousands.
Nearly all of the men who are furnishing this greatly increased volume
of business information have had daily newspaper office experience.
In looking through the lists of technical journals printed in New
York I see the names of dozens of men as their editors whom I
recognize as former daily newspaper men. They now have permanent and
responsible posts at reasonably remunerative salaries. The work is
not so continuously exacting as that required in the minor places in
the newspaper. The hours of toil are shorter, are in the middle of
the day, and are omitted on holidays and Sundays. These are important
considerations to the man who elects to live by writing information.