634 



NEWSPAPERS. 



in 1775 to 150 in 1800, 366 in 1810, 861 in 1828, 

 1,403 in 1840, 2,526 in 1850, 4,051 in 1860, 

 5,871 in 1870, 11,314 in 1880, and 14,160 in 

 1886. The annual ratio of increase is 2'60 per 

 cent. Three hundred and sixty-nine have lasted 

 fifty years. The following table shows the 

 ratio of growth of each kind since 1850 : 



Those in 1880 were published in 2,605 coun- 

 ties, 329 villages or cities issuing five or more. 

 They employed in the mechanical department 

 51,140 males and 3,875 females, of whom New 

 York had 9,165; and there were engaged in 

 writing 16,600 persons, New York having 3,237 

 of these. The gross value of the products of 

 New York was $24,266,911, and of the whole 

 of the United States, $89,009,074. A little 

 less than half of the income came from adver- 

 tising. The average circulation of the dailies 

 in Montana was 304 copies ; but in Maryland, 

 the other extreme, it was 9,472. The average 

 for the whole country was 4,137. The average 

 circulation of newspapers in rural regions of 

 the West is not much more than 200 copies. 

 The largest circulation is that of a juvenile in 

 Boston, which prints about 400,000. The con- 

 sumption of paper in the census year was 189,- 

 145,048 pounds. The number of copies print- 

 ed was 2,067,848,209. The table in the next 

 column shows the number of newspapers pub- 

 lished in 1886. 



The post-office reports show that New York 

 sent a little less than one quarter of all the 

 papers going through the mail in 1886, Chicago 

 10 per cent., Boston 6, Philadelphia 5, St. 

 Louis 4|, and Cincinnati 3. Twenty places 

 sant nearly 70 per cent., the total number of 

 pounds being 109,962,589. Postage is prepaid 

 by publishers, at one cent a pound. 



Increase in Expenses. The principal develop- 

 ment of newspapers is in the cities of New 

 York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, and 

 to a less degree in San Francisco, St. Louis, 

 Cincinnati, Baltimore, and New Orleans. All 

 other journals are to some extent made up from 

 these. The greatest efforts are made to obtain 

 news, with fullness and completeness, and to 

 distribute their issues through a large extent 

 of territory. 



The increase in the labor put upon a single 

 journal is as remarkable as the growth other- 

 wise. No man lived entirely by writing for a 

 newspaper at the beginning of the century, but 

 the number thus engaged, and their compen- 

 sation, gradually increased. In 1850 Horace 

 Greeley testified, before a committee of the 



House of Commons, that the highest rate of 

 compensation on an American newspaper was 

 $2,500 a year ; but this is now more than 

 quadrupled. For a single news article $1,000 

 has been paid, and to obtain and print a tran- 

 script of a treaty with Spain cost the New 

 York " Times " over $7,000. Telegraphic bills 

 are very heavy. They vary from $30,000 to 

 $60,000 a year on the largest papers, and ii 

 stances have been known of much larger sui 

 The Chicago u Times " paid in one year $190,- 

 000 on this account. A newspaper that sper " 

 a million a year divides it about as follows: 

 White paper, $400,000 ; editorial expenses, 

 $200,000 ; telegraphing, $50,000 ; type-setting, 

 $100,000 ; the remainder being divided among 

 other things. Several journals equal, and some 

 surpass, these figures. Several earn profits of 

 from $300.000 to $500,000 a year. Their offices 

 in all cities are now among the most handsome 

 and imposing edifices there to be found. 



Subsidiary Industries. The printing, writing, 

 and distributing of newspapers have created 

 many lesser industries. The bulk of the circu- 

 lation of dailies goes into the hands of news- 

 dealers, who obtain their supplies either di- 

 rectly from the offices or from news companies. 

 Of these latter, the largest is the American 

 News Company, which deals in fancy goods, 

 stationery, and books, as well as in newspa- 

 pers. It takes of each of the more largely cir- 

 culated journals of New York, from 10,000 to 

 50,000 copies each morning, and supplies lesser 



