NEWSPAPERS. 



635 



dealers everywhere. The retail newsdealers 

 are in very great numbers in all the principal 

 places, delivering the bulk of the daily news- 

 papers, and a large share of those of other 

 periods of issue. Folding and mailing is 

 another branch. In some cities contracts are 

 made to supply the dailies with local news, 

 which is furnished, in duplicate on thin paper, 

 to each. The office that does this keeps up a 

 multitude of reporters, but prints nothing it- 

 self. As it supplies its copy for low rates, 

 some newspapers take it, to prevent loss of 

 news by accident, but others do it to save ex- 

 pense, fewer reporters are then required. A 

 very large business is that of advertising agen- 

 cies, a hundred or more of them being in op- 

 eration. They gather advertisements from the 

 public, and insert them in newspapers at the 

 published rates, receiving a commission from 

 the papers. Some are on a very large scale, 

 receiving and spending nearly $1,000,000 a 

 year. Much of the expense of carrying on 

 periodicals comes from the cost of type-setting. 

 Shortly after the war, offices were established 

 in which type was set for several papers, the 

 matter being transferred from one to another 

 without expense. Soon this was extended so 

 that part of a journal was printed, the incom- 

 plete sheet then being sent by freight or ex- 

 press to a local office, when it was again put 

 on the press with local news. This proved a 

 very great economy, and there are now 5,000 

 papers thus printed, the work being done by 

 forty firms. Every size and shape is furnished, 

 as well as every shade in politics. Some es- 

 tablishments also send out stereotype plates, 

 which answer the same purpose. 



Another secondary occupation is that of lit- 

 erary agents, who buy from authors and news- 

 paper men of reputation letters, articles, and 

 brief novels, for which they pay a certain price, 

 and then dispose of the manuscript simulta- 

 neously to several periodicals. 



The most remarkable development of the 

 press has been that of class journalism. One 

 third of the sheets published in New York make 

 no pretense of giving the ordinary political and 

 social news of the day, but supply that of a 

 particular occupation or belief with great full- 

 ness. The largest divisions are those of re- 

 ligion, trade, and commerce, education, law, 

 medicine, and mechanics; but there are more 

 than a hundred subdivisions. While their cir- 

 culations are not so large as that of general 

 periodicals, they spend much money in obtain- 

 ing and presenting news and comment in their 

 own line. Another class is that of illustrated 

 papers, including satirical and humorous peri- 

 odicals. The engravings in these are generally 

 excellent, their whole appearance being very 

 handsome. 



British America. A great increase in the num- 

 ber of newspapers is also witnessed in New- 

 foundland and the Dominion of Canada. Ex- 

 cellent periodicals are published in Toronto, 

 Quebec, and Montreal, and no town of any 



size is without one. Those now issued are as 

 follows: 



The difference in the totals from the addition 

 of the dailies, monthlies, and weeklies, in this 

 as well as a preceding table, is the number of 

 periodicals with other intervals of issue than 

 those named. 



Press Associations. The general collection and 

 dissemination of news was conducted by indi- 

 vidual enterprise on the part of each news- 

 paper until a little less than forty years ago. 

 when, almost simultaneously, the business ot 

 news-gathering through associated efforts was 

 begun in Europe and in the United States. In 

 1849 was formed in New York the organiza- 

 tion known as the " Associated Press," which 

 now includes the "Times," "Tribune," "Her- 

 ald," " World," " Journal of Commerce," 

 " Sun," and " Mail and Express," which has 

 its agents in every considerable town and city 

 in the world, and supplies news to all the lead- 

 ing papers of America, by way of the Consoli- 

 dated Cable Companies' wires and the Western 

 Union Telegraph. In the chief cities the pa- 

 pers are served by pneumatic tube from the 

 main office of the Associated Press. This pow- 

 erful organization has a monopoly of the news- 

 gathering business, and is so systematically con- 

 ducted, under such strict discipline, and with 

 agents so vigilant and experienced, that even 

 in remote places very little escapes it. Some- 

 thing less than twenty years ago a vigorous at- 

 tempt at competition was made in the organi- 

 zation of the " American Press Association," 

 with John Russell Young, an experienced jour- 

 nalist, at its head, and this institution continued 

 in existence for some years, and accomplished 

 a fair degree of success, but was ultimately 

 driven out of the market by its older and more 

 powerful rival. Besides the newspapers al- 

 ready mentioned as members of the Associated 

 Press, the "Evening Post," "Commercial Ad- 

 vertiser," and " Staats Zeitung" are admitted 

 by contract on equal terms of service with the 

 rest, these contracts being interminable so long 

 as their obligations are sustained by the papers 

 named. The " Mail and Express " is the only 

 evening paper that is a member of the organi- 

 zation, and its membership came about through 

 the union of the " Express," founded by Eras- 

 tus and James Brooks, and the "Evening 

 Mail," founded by Charles and Henry Sweet- 

 ser, the Associated Press franchise going with 

 the consolidation. Membership in the Associ- 

 ated Press is valued at about $250,000, and 



