SOURCE OF NEWS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 24, 8 November 1939, Page 6

SOURCE OF NEWS.

AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS. COVER OF EUROPEAN SCENE. In July, 1914, Karl von Weigand, the Berlin correspondent of the American United Press, cabled 138 words to New York and was reproached immediately for wasting cable tolls. The subject of that brief dispatch which earned him reproof was the ultimatum from Austria-Hungary to Serbia which led to the World War. To-day things are different, as a glance at the daily cable columns will show. Since 1914 the American press has developed a huge organisation abroad, and much use is being made of it for Empire news, now that the war has begun. One reason for this, of course, is that, as neutrals, the Americans are able to place correspondents in places which are barred to Allied journalists. But another reason is the sheer size of organisation which the Americans have developed. The “New York Times” which is often cited in messages, is now as much a national institution as “The Times’’ of London. It used to receive in peace time a daily average of 12,000 cabled words from its own correspondents. This is in addition to the American Associated Press messages (which are now available to New Zealand newspapers, because they are purchased by the British Associated Press). Naturally, also, these cabled words, transmitted in skeleton form, fill much more space by the time they are “filled in,” captioned and displayed in the newspaper. In moments when history is being made the “New York Times” or “The Times,” as Americans call it, can rise above any competitor. In the Battle of Danakil in the Ethiopian War Herbert Matthews, its correspondent with the Italian forces, cabled 16,000 words. When the Munich Agreement was the “London Times” printed 14£ columns about it. The “New York Times” printed 38 columns. These things are possible because of the great size of American newspapers, the beneficial postage rates they enjoy, and, in part, because many correspondents have become well-known figures, and what they have to say commands attention.