THE DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE SMALL CITY
“I had rather be the editor of a daily in a small city than hold any
other newspaper post,” remarked a journalist who had tried almost
every kind of newspaper work--and many will agree with him. Increased
facilities for gathering news and information and the wonderful
improvement in printing office mechanism permit the making of a
complete newspaper almost anywhere. The small cities may have just as
good a daily sheet as the big ones if the owners care to pay the price
of producing it. The news associations and the telegraph companies
deliver news simultaneously in all parts of the country. The newspaper
in the remote Northwest or the extreme South gets the same telegraphic
news as is furnished to New York City or to New England.
Any editor may supplement his news service with syndicate articles--by
which is meant, articles written in New York, Washington, the State
Capital, or anywhere, and duplicated to any number of newspapers.
Syndicate service has come to be an important feature of American
journalism. Its use saves the editor time, trouble, and expense. A few
syndicates in New York and Washington send special news by wire but
most of the matter goes by mail. It consists largely of articles on
national topics, social topics, business, the theaters, music, art, and
sports. At this writing a syndicate is sending from New York a service
of excellent editorial articles on general topics. All sorts of feature
matter also may be had: the medical column, the cookery department,
the fashion show, the question and answer diversion, the short daily
or weekly story of fiction, a daily cartoon or a comic strip or cut.
Entire pages of matter are offered on every imaginable topic for use in
Saturday and Sunday edition supplements. They include even the comic
pictorial broadsides in vivid color. Several of the big metropolitan
sheets sell their miscellaneous Sunday features entire and some of
them furnish a special news service intended to supplement the news
associations’ report. This news service and Sunday syndicate service
sent from the big newspapers furnish the identical articles that appear
in the papers from whose offices they are sent. By their use the out of
town editor may go a great way toward reproducing the big city sheet.
All of this kind of matter is offered at ridiculously low prices, the
profit to the producer being, of course, in its repeated duplication.
The modern multiple printing press, the modern stereotyping process
and the linotype typesetting machine are in general use all over the
country, giving the same mechanical facilities as enjoyed in the larger
cities.
By availing himself of all these things the editor in the small city
may produce a newspaper of any size and almost any quality to suit his
fancy. In all matters of national or state importance or of world-wide
interest he may reasonably compete with the big newspapers if he cares
to spend the money with which to do so.
The chief concern of the provincial editor however will center in his
organization for the collection of home and neighborhood news. This
must be of superior quality and in generous volume, for his so-called
“local” news is vital to his success.
In New York City there is practically no such thing as local news.
Happenings of considerable importance are not printed simply because
they happened in New York. They must possess enough of importance in
themselves to interest a large number of readers, must be just as
interesting to outsiders as to residents of the city. Scores of big
societies and organizations give banquets with three hours of oratory
and reporters listening to every word, but unless something important
or highly interesting is said by the speakers the newspapers print not
a word about the event. An ordinary murder, or suicide, or elopement,
or a celebration like that of a golden wedding, even though it may have
happened in the next block to where he lives does not interest a New
Yorker any more than as though it had happened in Boston or Buffalo. He
does not know the persons involved. The newspapers make very little of
the event unless it has some dramatic features. In New York City there
are between two hundred and fifty and three hundred homicides every
year and not one half of them are even mentioned by the press. The
details of them are known in every office but little is printed about
them because they are not of general interest.
Now, had the big banquet or the murder or the other things happened
in a small city the editor must have printed columns of matter about
them, for the very good reason that in smaller communities everybody
knows everybody else and all are interested in each other. Everybody
who attended the banquet must be especially interested in it for people
like to read about things in which they themselves participate.
The metropolitan press prints nothing of the ordinary happenings in
the scores of cities and villages within fifty or seventy-five miles.
The small city newspaper has a correspondent in every town and hamlet
near by and everything of any account is recorded. In the country, the
newspaper that has the best town and neighborhood news becomes the most
popular sheet.
In the big city the editor and his staff know personally a very small
proportion of the population; in the small city they know everybody
worth knowing. The provincial editor enjoys, if he will, the social
life of the place. He hobnobs with the congressman, with the state
officers who chance to live near, with all those who have to do with
public affairs. He is influential in their selection. He participates
in public functions, takes a lively interest in all that is going on,
sits in councils, is a member of the board of education and trustee of
the nearby college, and by personal interest and activity makes himself
a “leading citizen” of the place.
The journalist in the small city, like the village editor, is in close
intimacy with his readers. He is bound to them by the tie of community
interest. He lives with them as well as for them. He may make himself
the most influential and the most beloved man in the neighborhood if
he cares to do so. Repeatedly in the history of this Republic the
editor of the small city newspaper has been called to the President’s
cabinet, to a foreign ambassadorship, to the national congress, to the
government of his state and to county and town office.
Loyalty to community interests is perhaps as popular and as profitable
an attitude as the provincial editor can take. If the town needs
sewers, or if its pavements are poor, or its streets unclean, or its
educational system is faulty, or any obvious reform is needed, he
easily can effect the change. Some public official is responsible
for the defect and nothing so quickly warms an official into life as
temperate, convincing criticism of his acts. He cannot withstand public
opinion, and he knows that public opinion finds its first reflection in
the newspaper.
The editor may influence as none other can toward the erection of
public buildings, the establishment of high schools or colleges, the
making of parks, and the bringing to town of new enterprises. He may
champion the community needs by addressing legislative bodies, may
defend against unjust taxation, may call for state aid or federal
assistance. In a thousand ways he may influence to great benefits.
There is no denying the fascination, the wholesome satisfaction of well
directed influence. There is no limit to the honest pride a man may
have because he influences the thoughts and the actions of many men.