AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15017, 11 July 1914, Page 8

AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.

INSIDE THE BIG OFFICES. A VISITOR'S IMPRESSIOJIB. (SPECIALLY WB-TIKN FOB '-THB PB-SS.'') (Br Geo. F. Incus.) Tbe newspapers of any nation possess a peculiar interest not unlike that belonging to its language. They express its life, its customs, and ways of thought. To the discerning reader the nation lies revealed through its newspapers. In the United States, as elsewhere, newspapers are the product of the genius of the country, or rather, of the particular city that is their homo. They differ just as "widely in form and charactor as do American cities, and their individual peculiarities will be found to correspond to similar peculiarities among their constituents. It is no intention of mine to attempt to interpret American lifo through American journals, but rather to record a few personal observations on American journalism, leaving the interpretation to those who feel able to make it. Undoubtedly for anyone accustomed to Australasian journalism, the most striking feature of American newspapers is their huge glaring headlines. Whether they are pretty or ugly ia beside the question. They sell the paper, and that is final. As a Chicago editor admitted, "They are not always true to the facts, but," he added, "thoy are corrected down below." Tbe.American idea of a headline is totally different from.our own. The piece de refistanee is kept for the top of the front page, and its object is to catch the eye of the passer-by, and increase the street sales. For days towards the end of April the papers were labelled in black and-red, with some staring paraphrase of the statement. "War declared against Mexico.' 5 A fortnight has now passed, and still war has not been declared against Mexico. A large proportion ol the headlines are quite unintelligible to strangers. This arises somotimes from the jargon of words employed. For instance, in connexion with baseball —and sometimes not so much to inform as to excite curiosity. What would a New Zealand reader make of these typical baseball announcements? —"Tigers smeared by Barristers," "Yankees batting light in Boston," "Herzog's _*tomer,held to Ames," "Heavy . hitting - counts Detroit." But what would any. reader make of these?—'' Enough for continuous jag," "Miss Davis standing hrm on Tombs order," "Sneers at his peril on trip," "Blease would, slay doctor,; "Didn't want to come here," "Strap Duryea to Cot," •''May send delegates.' By universal consent articles definite and indefinite are- oxcluded from head lines. Sometimes a note of interrogation is used as a condensed method of expressing uncertainty, thus "Hamlin toi Bank Board?" An awkward type of.inversion seems to. be rapidly creeping into favour. In practice it works,out after this fashion, "I wiiiobey," "kneeling.pio_is_s Miss Wilson," and "Worst vrUi be .known on Wednesday, think_ Bryan." A typical careless freedom and a vigorous originality of which a couple of illustrations will serve per-, vade many of the headings. We would not expect to read "Austrian Kaiser's cough is hot bad," or. "Fire chief falls to death" in any but American 'journals. ' ".''■"•''.■'.'.'■' ' '

The question of the accuracy of American news, is an interesting-"one," and-u is not easy to determine immediately how far you may roly on the" tru'-K-of th(< information placed before you . Generally . speaking; the-standard of journalistic honour in this all-important matter seems to . rise > steadily as one travels across the continent fcom the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast. British residents in San' Francisco give the papers there a very poor name. Nobody takes any notice of them,, they say. It cannot matter much anyway whether they are accurate or not, for all their overflowing' pages rarely venture beyond local baseball. and sensational crimes. In Chicago it* was re assuring to learn from the editor of the City News Bureau that "a man'that will fake'is fired." That, he> said, was an absolute rule in his office.'To illustrate the attitude of his bureau and the papers it serves on the matter of accuracy, he mentioned a casein which one of his men had reported a 15,00----dollar robbery. The .figure was questioned before publication,, but tho bureau decided to stand by its - reporter. Eventually it' turned out that tho value involved was only 5000 dollars. The reporter was .immediately, called upon to furnish a written explanation ■ of his mistake, and had his statement not been considered satisfactory, he would ; almost certainly have lost his position. An interesting: feature of American newspaper offices is tho library or reference room, vulgarly _.nown to the ■staff as "the morgue" or "the boneyard. Its purpose is to.provide an exhaustive collection of. clippings on every conceivable subject, so arranged that they may be referred to at- a moment's notice. . The library, of. the' San Francisco '•Chronicle," .for in- _> nce ._ i has its four walls. lined, with 800 or 900 pigeon-holes, each containing a tin tray with an average of, say 20 envelopes, each stuffed with* cuttings. On-one wall the trays are alphabetically arranged under the Leading "biographical, on the next they are "geographi_i* * on J h Z' "general," and on the iourth "criminal." In the centre of the room are drawers containing upwards of 100,000 classified photographs. A rough calculation will show that the cuttings in tbe pigeon-holes must number upwards of half a million. Th© work of keeping the library up-to-date and. in order and of searching out any desired references is carried on by a librarian, with a staff of five assistants. This explains how the moment any person.or place comes into prominence the papers ar© able to come out with appropriate photographs and descriptive mattw - in the New York limes office a building which has been in use only about a year, and puts in a strong claim to be regarded as the finest and most up-to-date newspaper buiidinc-m the world, is even.more simple and perfect.. Every item that appears in the "Times" is recorded under ■L sro5 ro § 6r he - ldin S in one of several hundred neat little loose-leaf type-writ-ten books. Thus, under ''Kidnapping" you wilj see "Clara James, reported missing January 13th, 1904, ■ page 7, column o"; followed by other- similar entries such as 'Tolice discover clue," "Sid Warner arrested." etc. These references will also be found in other books under the heading "James/- "Warner," etc. All cuttings from cont_mpo-rarv New York papers on subjects mentaoned "Si ;£ mes " are filed away numerically. They occupy surprisingly little The Sunday editions are important and conspicuous features of Americaua journalism. They are published - in addition to the usual daily, and correspond , in many ways to the New Zealand weekly journals. Eon—times, as in the case with the "Los Angeles Times," they occupy from 140 to 170 pages, all of which may be had for the sum of 5 cants. More often their -size n about 70 or 80 pages. ■Large papers, of course, .must bring

out frequent editions. An interesting sidelight on the. time at which San Francisco goes to bed, or, rather, does not go to bed, is thrown by the fact that the two so-called •'moming 1 ' papers, the "Chronicle" and tho "Examiner," bring out street editions exactly at 11.30 p.m. By mutual agreement, not till the clock strikes, are the waiting newsboys turned loose ou the streets to shout their rival wares. During the war scare about the end of April tho Chicago "Daily News" was bringing out ten editions daily, instead of the usual seven or eight. The first appeared at 9.45 in tho morning, and thereafter there was.an edition almost ovory hour till 10 o'clock to the _•**•""aing. This necessarily entails very high pressure and a great strain on editorial staff and reporters. The telephone, which has been brought to such perfection in the great American cities, is much used by the newspapers. Early in the afternoon a reporter will telephone in his report of a meeting, even though His office is only a quarter of a mile away. When questioned about this, tae editor calculated the time required for trams and lifts, and showed that tho reporter had saved quite four minutes by telephoning. As a matter of fact, in this peculiar instance the four minutes made all the difference between catching and missing tho 2.15 p.m. edition. What the telephone can accomplish is strikingly illustrated by an advertisement appearing in the (Jmcago "fcxaiui_er u under tne heading, 4, lhe .i-V*; aminer' War Information Bureau. The advertisement runs: '-all Franklin 6210. Do you wish to know the very latest news from tho Mexican war? Call up Franklin, 5210, at any time between 6 o'clock in the evening and midnight and you will receive it. Every detad of the day's developmentis condensed into short, snappy bulletins. These are placed in tho hands ot a corps of expert telephone operators, who will repeat to you their contents as fast as you call. Call Franklin, 5210." Ficture a New Zealand editor inviting the general public to call up his office for war news I. The "Chicago Daily News," by tho way, sent four men down to Mexico, having two stationed at Vera Cruz and two at Galveston. The war.added about 100,000 to its daily circulation, sending the total to 440.000.. The "New York Times" managed to cover the whole field very satisfactorily with but one man at the front. The pressure in New York, on the morning dailies, at least, is not nearly so great as on the Chicago evening papers. The "New York Times," for instance, brings out its first, edition for distant centres at 1 a.m. The suburban edition is brought .out at 2 a.m., and the final city edition appears at 3 a.m. Almost all tho men are paid by space, at a rate of seven dollars a column, and they appear to be allowed ample time for their work. Tliis' is tho custom with the New York papers, the "Tribune" being probably the only ono which pays fixed salaries. A time rate of 50 cents an hour acts as a minimum wage, but a man's space work is almost invariably worth much moro to him than that. As in Chicago, and other large centres, a central news bureau undertakes all the routine "work, such as the reporting of courts, fires, and meetings of public bodies, and supplies copies to all the city dailies. In the office of the "Times," which] las a'staff of about 35 reporters, these \ copies are chiefly used by the re- | lorters for purposes 'of comparisor.r, : vith their own work." The report-; ire sent out'- by the. bureau instan- . taneously, through pneumatic tubes, to : ,ho various offices. Shorthand is alnost unknown among .American reoorters. Among the 50 employed ■by tho Chicago News Bureau not two could write it. The editor explained this by remarking that -pace iv a Chicago newspaper is valuable. .The fact is jfchat verbatim reports aro not wanted! and the customary thing is a short, little descriptive sketch, in which:.tho reporter follows hi_ judgment, or , his fancy, in isolating and emphasising some' particular point'that catches his •tteb-ion. When he attempts to. re■■oroduce exactly a sentence or two from -•a speech his. lack of. shorthand is occasionally painfully obvious. Moreover, newspaper men are too expensive to be _ot to work taking and transcribing notes. The big Chicago dailies will not spend: time training men, and they have no place on their premises for "cubs." Salaries range from 22 or 25 dollars to.as high as, 60 dollars a .veek, and if verbatim reports are ever , -quired they .can be obtained much more cheaply through some professional, shorthand and typewriting agency. Though the papers are issued every day in the week the-men can count on getting one day free,, and they are not usually -worked more than seven hours a day. Every staff has two or.three "re-write men, whose duty it is to put a better'"lead'\ or introduction to unsatisfactory stories handed in by reporters. "Re-vfrito''' men also take copy from correspondents over the telephone. A large proportion of the reporters have specialised work, such as courts, shipping, finance, real estate, fashions, automobiles, and ■ various branches of sporting to attend to, while others are free for any assignments that may be made from hour-to aour.-. ~ '•

American.telegraphic news is largely in the hantkv of various press agencies, of which the Associated Press seems to bo" the most, prominent. The large offices keepstaffs of as many as ten oca dozen telegraph operators engaged on the premises. Curiously enougn, » in a land where the telephone has been brought to such extraordinary perfection, the telegraph is sometimes used ,in preference to* 4 it, .even .for local messages Thus at the New York City News office tho ''Times" has an operator stationed every evening to telegraph to ' it any_ special news that .may come in. J This is said to be, not, only more' re- j liable,.but quicker than 1 the telephone j A telegraph message can be taken dmvn j on a. typewriter, but a'telephone mesyage cannot. To New Zealand . readers the weakest'point of American newspa[>ers must always appear to be the absence of foreign news.' Reference to such a burning question as Home Rule for Ireland and the possibility of civil war could only be "detected "very occasionally m some obscure corner. The "Chicago Daily News,"' with offices in Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna, Rome, and Tokio, .claims to have the most extensive cable service in the world, but it is difficult to see what use it makes of it. Certainly many New Zealand j country newspapers daily make a far j more extensive and valuable display of i cable news. It must be admitted, how- ' ever, that the New York papers kecr their readers thoroughly well in touch with Europe. The comic skctchfe* that adorn sc many American papers torm anothe. feature that- fails completely to appeu to strangers. A leading paper will no hesitate to devote nearly half a pa_<. . ot its very valuable space to a series ocrude sketches depicting the various stages in' the fall of a Houso painte; from his -caflEokling into a paint pot. The various Americanisms to wnich __ gives utterance during this process arc all faithfully recorded on the picture. Such humour the visitor can-only pas*by sadly, with the reflection that it must be American. ! Speaking generally, two .commentmay be made with. some confidence. American newspapers are not quite as bad as they are reported to be, and they improve on acquaintance. As rai as the personnel of the staffs is con earned, the rarious visitor may "count on' the utmost courtesy, kindness, and attention wherever he goes. j