Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1919. f I - --- Wh3 No town or small cit} asset than a good, live, husl which gives the happening trict it serves; which acqui of the offerings of its mei the honest opinions of its ] all great political and soci harmony with the busines or town in a helpful spirit o tain the trade and best i munity; whose editor seeki ness basis and maintains i profession, because if he usiness, how can he expect a paper honestly conduotec power in the community it a mighty influence. No of with it, because its reader the editor knows a large [ ers. Confidence in the papt ing years, and what it has weight. Nothing speaks be live newspaper, and you en newspaper?and this is off This being true, there editor of a live country w< just as great a degree of mercantile establishment ir all seen grocers, dry goods r 'ware merchants accumulaf within the course of a cor and be able to spend the ev the quiet peace and comfor entitled them to, free fro worries. But who has eve the editor ot a country w< mulating a property suffic him to do that, where he 1 wholly and strictly to the paper business? I have n of such a case. Why shouldn't the edit enjoy just as great a degre merchant in the town? H< more real good for his conn factor in it; he is just as life; his investment is ofte his work is as hard or hard< ity is surely just as heavy country weekly newspaper ble, as a whole, and what surely there's a reason. In reply to that questi( the statement that we, the c papers, are responsible for 't ww rn?< - i'?i? i 'He1 ??? THE LANCASTER NEWS, LANC / Editoi Get R By GEORGE H. HALL, Editor Alt us. Okla. T has a more valuable tling weekly newspaper s of the county or disiints the buying public chants; which reflects publisher pertaining to al questions; works in s interests of the city if co-operation to mainnterests of the com; business upon a busia high respect for his does not respect his anyone else to? Such 1 is bound to hppnmo .? serves, and will wield her paper can compare s know the editor and )ercentage of its read r grows with the passto say carries great ?tter for a town than a in judge a town by its ;en done. is no reason why the iekly should not enjoy prosperity as the best 1 that town. We have nen, clothing and hardte good-sized fortunes nparatively few years, enings of their lives in t that their hard labor m business cares and r heard, or known, of eekly newspaper accuiently large to enable ias confined his efforts country weekly newsever heard, or known, or of a country weekly e of prosperity as any 5 is in a position to do munity than any other important to its daily n as great or greater; er, and the responsibilwru.r :* .u_,i ?? ny i? 11 mat nit; business is unprofita; is the reason??for )n I am sroinfr to make ;ditors of weekly newsthe non-profitable oc% - ? 'ASTER, S. C. rs Never % ? 1 icn The Journal. cupation that we are in, and every time we give away space that ought to be paid for; every time that we accept an inch of advertising, or do job work, for what it costs us. and in too many cases for less than it actually costs us. we are only helping to perpetuate conditions that we justly complain of. And those conditions will continue until we, ourselves, correct them. Now, who is to blame? That's another question. Primarily we, the editors, are to blame, but it is far from me to charge that we are intentionally so. What's the trouble then? To my mind here's the trouble, and the cause of all our trouble, and that is that we do not know what remuneration we ought to have, because we do not know what is the actual cost to us of producing a printed column of advertising, or of the job work we are selling. Personally, after spending nearly a third of a century in the newspaper business, I have come to feel that country weekly editors are the greatest fellows on earth to "kid themselves" into the belief that they are actually making money. i nai may cause some or the "fascination" of the business. But do you know that "kidding: ourselves" is a dangerous proposition, and in the face of present conditions in our business it is especially dangerous? "Kidding" is all right in its place, but when we deceive ourselves we are deceiving the very ones who should lie most vitally interested in knowing the exact truth. So let's quit kidding ourselves and actually know whether we are making money, or whether we are not actually engaged in losing it. The country weekly newspaper business is different from almost any other. The merchant can figure pretty closely as to what his actual expenses are. By adding a certain percentage to the cost of his goods and deducting a certain per cent for depreciation, etc., he can estimate fairly well as to what his profits should be. But in the country weekly office, where advertising and job work are the principal lines, where the same materials may be used for each, where the non-productive labor expense is so large, it is different. Our employees may work a half hour on job work, switch over into setting advertisements, then, perhaps, be occupied in the non-productive line of distributing dead jobs and advertisements. Where this is done, where any of the same type and materials may be used for both jobs and advertisements, it would take a Philadelphia lawyer to figure out the actual cost of a column of printed advertising, or anywhere near the actual cost of job work, in a country weekly office as ordinarily conducted. PAGE SEVEN 1 ? I i I I V / \ MM' 0 ? MTir a.Hil