Newspaper Progress.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 803, 16 May 1876, Page 6

Newspaper Progress.

*__ . From an extended .article on journalism in the New York ' Sun,' we extract the following :— Assuming that the first daily paper was started about the year 1700, we find that the amazing progress achieved has been the work of but five generations. No other invention, or industry, has ever advanced at such a speed. Instead of the maximum of 500 copies for a paper 175 years ago, we now have several thousand copies as the minimum under which no paper can possibly live, and we begin to consider 10©,OOO copies as merely a large, though by no meaus the highest circulation. &nd it must be borne in mind that these figures have been reached, notwithstanding tho increase in the number of papers. In 1702, the ' Daily Courant' was the only daily paper in London, with a circulation of 520 copies. To-day there are ten leading papers (not to speak of the smaller suburban sheets) with a total circulation exceeding 600,000 a day. This progress has, however, been particularly striking in the ' last fifty j'ears. The stamp returns show that the circulation of the London 'Times, 1 for instance, increased as follows : — 1834, 10,000 copies ; 1844, 23,000; 1854,51,050. During the Crimean war it reached 70,000, and remained for several years stationary at that figure, with a tendency to decline under the pressure of the excellent penny papers which had lately been brought to life. Since the abolition of the stamp it has become more difficult to ascertain the exact circulation of any of tho papers. But it is generally believed that ' The Times' does not issue at the piesent more than 60,000 a day. The circulation of the other leading London paper is, so far as I am able to ascertain, until recently as follows : — ' Daily Telegraph,' 160,000; 'Echo,' 150,000; ' iHily News,' 90,000 ; * Standard,' morning edition, 40,U0O; evening edition, 50,000.

It must be remarked, however, that the circulation of both the ' Tolegraph' and the ' Echo ' is eaid to bo declining. The great improvement which has taken place within » few years in the management of tho 'Paily News,' has drawn off a large number of readers from the 'Telegraph.' while the 'Echo' lost its reputation w'th the recent change of proprietorship, vhen it fell into the hands of Albert Gran*, the London Gay Gould. Add to the a-'iove figures those which represent the circulation of the ' Morning Advertiser,' ' Morning Post,' ' Pall Mall Gazette,' and ' Globe,' and we obtain a total of something like 610,000 copieß for ten daily papers of London.

The number of daily papers of Paris is much larger than that of London, p»nd the circulation of every one of them accordingly much more limited. Paris has only one paper which can boast of a circulation of 130,^00 copies, and that is 'Le Petit Journal,' a miniature onecent sheet, of which the chief attractions are the novels daily run through its feuilletoH. Second to the ' Petit Journal' stands the the ' Figaro,' with an edition of 70,000. None of the other Paris papers exceeds a circulation of 25,000 while some of them barely reach 2000. It has bean calculated, however, that the total of various newspaper sheets daily issued in Paris approaches very closely to dOO,OOO, which

would make a larger pro raia on her 2,000,000 inhabitants than the 600,000 sheets make on the 3,000,000 inhabitants of London. In all other European countries the newspaper circulation is far below the above figures. There is not a paper in Germany, with the exception of tho ' Allgemeine Zaituny' of Augebui'g, wMch han yet reached an edition of 40,000. In Pvussia, 25 000 iB said to be the largest figure which the Moscow ' Gazette' and the St. Petersburg 'Gazette' hove ever attained. In Italy and Spain 5000 copies is considered a large circulation, and the most popular paper of the former country — ' Opinione' — did not exceed 20,000 copies even during the excitement of the war of 1859. ' Unita Cattolica,' for a number of years the most firmly established paper, never exceeded a circulation of 10,000.