We will suppose that it is a great newspaper, in a great city, printing
daily 25,000, or more, copies. Here it is, with wide columns, with small,
compact type, with very little space wasted in head lines, eight large
pages of it, something like 100,000 words printed upon it, and sold for
four cents--25,000 words for a cent. It is a great institution--a power
greater than a hundred banking-houses, than a hundred politicians, than a
hundred clergymen. It collects and scatters news; it instructs and
entertains with valuable and sprightly articles; it forms and
concentrates public opinion; it in one way or another, brings its
influence to bear upon millions of people, in its own, and other lands.
Who would not like to know something about it?
And there is Tom, first of all, who declares that he is going to be a
business man, and who already has a bank-book with a good many dollars
entered on its credit side--there is Tom, I say, asking first of all:
"How much does it cost? and where does the money come from? and is it a
paying concern?" Tom shall not have his questions expressly answered; for
it isn't exactly his business; but here are some points from which he may
figure:
"_How much does it cost?_" Well, there is the publishing department, with
an eminent business man at its head, with two or three good business men
for his assistants, and with several excellent clerks and other
employès. Then there is the Editor-in-Chief, and the Managing Editor,
and the City Editor, and a corps of editors of different departments,
besides reporters--thirty or forty men in all, each with some special
literary gift. Then there are thirty or forty men setting type; a
half-dozen proof-readers; a half-dozen stereotypers; the engineer and
foreman and assistants below stairs, who do the printing; and several men
employed in the mailing department. Then there are tons and tons of paper
to be bought each week; ink, new type, heavy bills for postage; many
hundreds of dollars a week for telegraphic dispatches; and the interest
on the money invested in an expensive building; expensive machinery, and
an expensive stock of printers' materials--nothing being said of the pay
of correspondents of the paper at the State Capitol, at Washington, at
London, at Paris, etc. Tom is enough of a business man, already, I know,
to figure up the weekly expenses of such an establishment at several
thousands of dollars--a good many hundreds at each issue of the paper.
[Illustration: THE N. Y. TRIBUNE BUILDING AT NIGHT.]
"_And where does the money come from?_" Partly from the sale of papers.
Only four cents apiece, and only a part of that goes to the paper; but,
then, 25,000 times, say two-and-a-half cents, is $625, which it must be
confessed, is quite a respectable sum for quarter-dimes to pile up in a
single day. But the greater part of the money comes from advertisements.
Nearly half of the paper is taken up with them. If you take a half-dozen
lines to the advertising clerk, he will charge you two or three dollars;
and there are several hundred times as much as your small advertisement
in each paper. So you may guess what an income the advertising yields.
And the larger, the more popular, and the more widely read the paper, the
better will be the prices which advertisers will pay, and the more will
be the advertisements. And so the publisher tries to sell as many papers
as he can, partly because of the money which he gets for them, but more,
because the more he sells the more advertising will he get, and the
better rates will he charge for it. So, Tom, if you ever become the
publisher of a newspaper, you must set your heart on getting an editor
who will make a paper that will sell--whatever else he does or does _not_
do.
"_And is it a paying concern?_" Well, I don't think the editors think
they get very large pay, nor the correspondents, nor the reporters, nor
the printers, nor the pressmen. They work incessantly; it is an intense
sort of work; the hours are long and late; the chances of premature death
are multiplied. I think they will all say: "We aren't in this business
for the money that is in it; we are in it for the influence of it, for
the art of it, for the love of it; but then, we are very glad to get our
checks all the same." As to whether the paper pays the men who own
it--which was Tom's question: I think that that "depends" a great deal on
the state of trade, on the state of politics, and on the degree to which
the paper will, or will not, scruple to do mean things. A great many
papers would pay better, if they were meaner. It would be a great deal
easier to make a good paper, if you did not have to sell it. When, then,
Jonathan shall have become a minister, he doesn't want to bear down too
hard on a "venal press" in his Fast Day and Thanksgiving sermons.
Perhaps, by that time, Tom will be able to explain why.
"_How, now, is this paper made?_" "But," interrupts Jonathan, "before
they make it, I should like to know where they get the 100,000 words to
put into it; I have been cudgeling my brains for now two weeks to get
words enough to fill a four page composition--say 200 words, _coarse_."
The words which are put into it are, besides the advertisements, chiefly:
1. News; 2. Letters and articles on various subjects; 3. Editorial
articles, reviews, and notes; 4. Odds and ends.
The "_letters and articles on various subjects_" come from all sorts of
people: some from great writers who get large pay for even a brief
communication; some from paid correspondents in various parts of the
world; some from all sorts of people who wish to proclaim to the world
some grievance of theirs, or to enlighten the world with some brilliant
idea of theirs--which generally loses its luster the day the article is
printed. A large proportion of letters and articles from this last class
of people get sold for waste-paper before the printer sees them. This is
one considerable source of income to the paper, of which I neglected to
tell Tom.
[Illustration: A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE WASTE-PAPER BASKET.]
As for the "_odds and ends_"--extracts from other papers, jokes, and
various other scraps tucked in here and there--a man with shears and
paste-pot has a good deal to do with the making of them. If you should
see him at work, you would want to laugh at him--as if he were, for all
the world, only little Nell cutting and pasting from old papers, a
"frieze" for her doll's house. But when his "odds and ends," tastefully
scattered here and there through the paper, come under the reader's eye,
they make, I am bound to say, a great deal of very hearty laughter which
is not that laughter of ridicule which the sight of him at his work might
excite.
[Illustration: OFFICE OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.]
About the "_news_," I must speak more fully. The "_editorial articles,
reviews, and notes_," we shall happen upon when we visit the office.
A part of the news comes by telegraph from all parts of the world. Some
of it is telegraphed to the paper by its correspondents, and the editors
call it "special," because it is especially to them. Perhaps there is
something in it which none of the other papers have yet heard of. But the
general telegraphic news, from the old-world and the new, is gathered up
by the "Associated Press." That is to say, the leading papers form an
Association and appoint men to send them news from the chief points in
America and in Europe. These representatives of the Associated Press are
very enterprising, and they do not allow much news of importance to
escape them. The salaries of these men, and the cost of the telegraphic
dispatches, are divided up among the papers of the Association, so that
the expense to each paper is comparatively small. Owing to this
association of papers, hundreds of papers throughout the country publish
a great deal of matter on the same day which is word-for-word alike.
Two devices in this matter of Associated Press dispatches save so much
labor, that I think you will like me to describe them.
One is this: Suppose there are a dozen papers in the same city which are
entitled to the Associated Press dispatches. Instead of making a dozen
separate copies, which might vary through mistakes, one writing answers
for all the dozen. First, a sheet of prepared tissue paper is laid down,
then a sheet of a black, smutty sort of paper, then two sheets of tissue
paper, then a sheet of black paper, and so on, until as many sheets of
tissue paper have been piled up, as there are copies wanted. Upon the top
sheet of paper, the message is written, not with pen, or pencil, but with
a hard bone point, which presses so hard that the massive layers of
tissue paper take off from the black paper a black line wherever the bone
point has pressed. Thus a dozen pages are written with one writing, and
off they go, just alike, to the several newspaper offices. The printers
call this queer, tissue-paper copy--"manifold."
[Illustration: REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS]
The other device is a telegraphic one. Suppose the Associated Press agent
in New York is sending a dispatch to the Boston papers. There are papers
belonging to the Association at, say, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield
and Worcester. Instead of sending a message to each of these points,
also, the message goes to Boston, and operators at New Haven, Hartford,
Springfield, and Worcester, _listen to it as it goes through_, and copy
it off. Thus one operator at New York is able to talk to perhaps a score
of papers, in various parts of New England, or elsewhere, at once.
But in a large city there is a great deal of city and suburban news. Take
for example, New York; and there is that great city, and Brooklyn, and
Jersey City, and Hoboken, and Newark, and Elizabeth, to be looked after,
as well as many large villages near at hand. And there is great
competition between the papers, which shall get the most, the exactest,
and the freshest, news. Consequently, each day, a leading New York paper
will publish a page or more of local news. The City Editor has charge of
collecting this news. He has, perhaps, twenty or twenty-five men to help
him--some in town, and others in the suburbs.
His plan for news collecting will be something like this: He will have
his secretary keep two great journals, with a page in each devoted to
each day. One of these, the "blotter," will be to write things in which
are going to happen. Everything that is going to happen to-morrow, the
next day, the next, and so on, the secretary will make a memorandum of or
paste a paragraph in about upon the page for the day on which the event
will happen. Whatever he, or the City Editor, hears or reads of, that is
going to happen, they thus put down in advance, until by and by, the book
gets fairly fat and stout with slips which have been pasted in. But, this
morning, the City Editor wants to lay out to-day's work. So his secretary
turns to the "blotter," at to-day's page, and copies from it into
to-day's page in the second book all the things to happen to-day--a
dozen, or twenty, or thirty--a ship to be launched, a race to come off, a
law-case to be opened, a criminal to be executed, such and such important
meetings to be held, and so on. By this plan, nothing escapes the eye of
the City Editor who, at the side of each thing to happen, writes the name
of the reporter whom he wishes to have write the event up. This second
book is called the "assignment book;" and, when it is made out, the
reporters come in, find their orders upon it, and go out for their day's
work, returning again at evening for any new assignments. Besides this,
they, and the City Editor, keep sharp ears and eyes for anything new; and
so, amongst them, the city and suburbs are ransacked for every item of
news of any importance. The City Editor is a sort of general. He keeps a
close eye on his men. He finds out what they can best do, and sets them
at that. He gives the good workers better and better work; the poor ones
he gradually works out of the office. Those who make bad mistakes, or
fail to get the news, which some other paper gets, are frequently
"suspended," or else discharged out-and-out. Failing to get news which
other papers get, is called being "beaten," and no reporter can expect to
get badly "beaten" many times without losing his position.
[Illustration: HOW SOME OF THE NEWS IS GATHERED]
And now, Tom, and Jonathan, and even little Nell, we'll all be magicians
to-night, like the father of Miranda, in "The Tempest," and transport
ourselves in an instant right to one of those great newspaper offices.
[Illustration: TYPE-SETTER'S CASE IN PI.]
It is six o'clock. The streets are dark. The gaslights are glaring from
hundreds of lamp-posts. Do you see the highest stories of all those
buildings brilliant with lights? Those are the type-setters' rooms of as
many great newspapers. In a twinkling we are several stories up toward
the top of one of these buildings. These are the Editorial Rooms. We'll
make ourselves invisible, so that they'll not suspect our presence, and
will do to-night just as they always do.
[Illustration: TYPE-SETTERS' ROOM.]
Up over our heads, in the room of the type-setters, are a hundred
columns, or more, of articles already set--enough to make two or three
newspapers. The Foreman of the type-setters makes copies of these on
narrow strips of paper with a hand-press, and sends them down to the
Editor-in-Chief. These copies on narrow strips of paper, are called
"proofs," because, when they are read over, the person reading them can
see if the type has been set correctly--can prove the correctness or
incorrectness of the type-setting.
[Illustration: TAKING "PROOFS."]
The Editor-in-Chief runs rapidly through these proofs, and marks, against
here and there one, "_Must_," which means that it "must" be published in
to-morrow's paper. Against other articles he marks, "_Desirable_," which
means that the articles are "desirable" to be used, if there is room for
them. Many of the articles he makes no mark against, because they can
wait, perhaps a week, or a month. By having a great many articles in type
all the time, they never lack--Jonathan will be glad to know--for
something to put into the paper. Jonathan might well take the hint, and
write his compositions well in advance. Against some of the articles, the
word "_Reference_" is written, which indicates that when the article is
published an editorial article or note with "reference" to it must also
be published. Before the Editor-in-Chief is through, perhaps he marks
against one or two articles the word "_Kill_," which means that the
article is, after all, not wanted in the paper, and that the type of it
may be taken apart--the type-setters say "distributed"--without being
printed.
[Illustration: IN THE STEREOTYPERS' ROOM.]
When the Editor-in-Chief is through with the proofs, perhaps he has a
consultation with the Managing Editor--the first editor in authority
after him--about some plans for to-night's paper, or for to-morrow, or
for next week. Perhaps, then, he summons in the Night Editor. The Night
Editor is the man who stays until almost morning, who overlooks
everything that goes into the paper, and who puts everything in according
to the orders of the Editor-in-Chief, or of the Managing Editor. Well, he
tells the Night Editor how he wants to-morrow's paper made, what articles
to make the longest, and what ones to put in the most important places in
the paper. Then, perhaps, the City Editor comes knocking at the door, and
enters, and he and the Editor-in-Chief talk over some stirring piece of
city news, and decide what to say in the editorial columns about it.
After the Editor-in-Chief has had these consultations, perhaps he begins
to dictate to his secretary letters to various persons, the secretary
taking them down in short-hand, as fast as he can talk, and afterwards
copying them out and sending them off. That is the sort of letter-writing
which would suit little Nell--just to say off the letter, and not to have
to write it--which, in her case, means "printing" it in great, toilsome
capitals. After dictating perhaps a dozen letters, it may be that the
Editor-in-Chief dictates in the same manner, an editorial article, or
some other matter which he wishes to have appear in the paper. Thus he
spends several hours--perhaps the whole night--in seeing people, giving
directions, dictating letters and articles, laying out new plans, and
exercising a general headship over all things.
Turning, now, from his room, we observe in the great room of the editors,
a half dozen men or more seated at their several desks--the Managing
Editor and the Night Editor about their duties; two or three men looking
over telegraph messages and getting them ready for the type-setters; two
or three men writing editorial, and other articles.
From this room we turn to the great room of the City Department. There is
the City Editor, in his little, partitioned-off room, writing an
editorial, we will suppose, on the annual report of the City Treasurer,
which has to-day been given to the public. At desks, about the great
room, a half-dozen reporters are writing up the news which they have been
appointed to collect; and another, and another, comes in every little
while.
[Illustration: FINISHING THE PLATE.]
Over there, is the little, partitioned-off room for the Assistant City
Editor. It is this man's duty, with his assistant, to prepare for the
type-setters all the articles which come from the City Department. There
are stacks and stacks of them. Each reporter thinks his subject is the
most important, and writes it up fully; and, when it is all together,
perhaps there is a third or a half more than there is room in the paper
to print. So the Assistant City Editor, and his Assistant, who come to
the office at about five o'clock in the afternoon, read it all over
carefully, correct it, cut out that which it is not best to use, group
all the news of the same sort so that it may come under one general head,
put on suitable titles, decide what sort of type to put it in, etc.,--a
good night's work for both of them. They also write little introductions
to the general subjects, and so harmonize and modify the work of twenty
or twenty-five reporters, as to make it read almost as if it were written
by one man, with one end in view.
The editors of the general news have to do much the same thing by the
letters of correspondents, and by the telegraphic dispatches.
While this sort of work goes on, hour after hour, with many merry laughs
and many good jokes interspersed to make the time fly the swifter, we
will wander about the establishment. Here, in the top story of the
building, is the room of the type-setters. Every few minutes, from
down-stairs in the Counting Room, comes a package of advertisements to be
put into type; and from the Editorial Rooms a package of news and general
articles for the same purpose. They do not trouble to send them up by a
messenger. A tube, with wind blown through it very fast, brings up every
little while a little leathern bag, in which are the advertisements or
the articles--the "copy" as the type-setters call it.
In this room are thirty or forty type-setters. Each one of them has his
number. When the copy comes up, a man takes it and cuts it up into little
bits, as much as will make, say, a dozen lines in the paper, and numbers
the bits--"one," "two," etc., to the end of the article. Type-setter
after type-setter comes and takes one of these little bits, and in a few
moments sets the type for it, and lays it down in a long trough, with the
number of the bit of copy laid by the side of it. We will suppose that an
article has been cut up into twenty bits. Twenty men will each in a few
moments be setting one of these bits, and, in a few minutes more they
will come and lay down the type and the number of the bit in the long
trough, in just the right order of the number of the bits--"one," "two,"
etc. Then all the type will be slid together, and a long article will
thus be set in a few minutes, which it would take one or two men several
hours to set. It is by this means that long articles can in so short a
time be put into type. Each man who takes a bit, has to make his last
line fill out to the end of the line; and, because there are sometimes
not words enough, so that he has to fill out with some extra spaces
between the words, you may often see in any large daily paper every two
inches, or so, a widely spaced line or two showing how the type-setter
had to fill out his bit with spaces--only he would call the bit, a
"take."
[Illustration: PRINTING PRESSES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT]
I said that each type-setter has his number. We will suppose that this
man, next to us, is number "twenty-five." Then he is provided with a great
many pieces of metal, just the width of a column, with his number made on
them--thus: "TWENTY-FIVE." Every time he sets a new bit of copy, he puts
one of these "twenty-fives" at the top; and when all the bits of type in
the long trough are slid together the type is broken up every two inches
or so, with "twenty-five," "thirty-seven," "two," "eleven," and so on, at
the top of the bits which the men, whose numbers these are, have set. When
a proof of the article is taken, these several numbers appear; and, if
there are mistakes, it appears from these numbers, what type-setters made
them, and they have to correct them. Also, of each article, a single
"proof" is taken on colored paper. These colored paper "proofs" are cut up
the next day, and all the pieces marked "twenty-five," "thirty-seven," and
so on, go to the men who have these numbers, and when pasted together show
how much type, number "twenty-five," "thirty-seven," and so on, are to be
paid for setting--for the type-setters are paid according to the amount of
type which they set.
[Illustration: