THE NEWSPAPER EPIDEMIC.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3906, 5 March 1881, Page 2

THE NEWSPAPER EPIDEMIC.

I [hokttika stab.] There ■ are times and. . .seasons , when epidemics are more prevalent than at others. How they come is unaccountable — generally they appear unexpectedly, and disappear suddenly. Just now there seems to be a mania for starting newspapers, not in districts unblessed with organs of public opinions, but in towns where all shades of politics, are represented by newspapers, and where the inhabitants, who are badgered by canvassers for advertisements to keep the mill going, do not look upon the press privileges tbey enjoy as an unmixed blessing. At present we hear cf no less than three morning newspapers about to be started in the Colony, in towns in which firstclass papers, well supplied in telegraphic and local news, as well as being carefully edited, are already established. Those towns are Christchurch, Timaru, and Grey mouth- The most favored mode of commencing newspapers now-a-days is by means of companies, bo that the public may bear the brunt, while the promoters have the privilege of slinging ink and enjoy lug good salaries, as long as the shareholders' money lasts. Now, if there is any company that seldom or never does pay, it Jb a newspaper oompany. We do not know of any such company in the whole Colony, although they are numerous enough, at present paying a dividend to its shareholders ; and we do. not think the reason is hard to find. Simply, because such newspapers are not started for the pnbljc good, but are generally to represent the interests of some party, or are the outcome of some petty malice entertained by a minority against the proprietary of the newspapers already established. Another reason why newspaper companies do not pay lies in the fact that the shareholders know nothing whatever about the internal arrangements of a newspaper office, and are entirely at the mercy of the various managers and head clerks, who draw large salaries and do little or nothing for them; while the other employees take no interest whatever in the success of the newspaper, but generally look upon the company as a milch cow, always ready and willing to be milked. We are atrpngly_of opinion that: -if -the motives! whiob prompted the establishment of 1 the three papers in question were inquired! into, it would appear that pique and the ! suppression of some quaint and antique: views held by a section of the community had a good deal to do with it. ' But poople generally go into business in 1 these enlightened days to make money; but what hope can the shareholders have even of meeting expenses, leaving out o the question obtaining a profit, in a business which is already overdone in the town in which it is proposed to commence operations. Take Christohurch, for instance, which has Beven newspapers there already — two morning dailies, three evening dailies, and two weeklies j or Timaru, with its limited population, having one morning daily, one evening daily, and one weekly ; and laitly, Greymouth, two daily papers and a weekly. Surely those are papers enough to represent the various shades of opinion in the respective towns ; and undoubtedly they are and would be, but for the existence of a few discontents,' who, having little or nothing to lose themselves gull the publio into a venture they have no knowledge of, and stern experience oan only teaoh them. But, we think, it would be well, if those wfeo are willing to take shares in tfc« proposed , companies were to rodkou the cost before

they committed so rash an act. The first cost of publishing a newspaper may be estimated at from LSOO to LSOOO, according to the status it is intended to oconpy ; but this is a mere bagatelle in comparison with the expense likely to be incurred in establishing a newspaper wfareothers are already in existence, or in other words, ati4kin£>:Mt -.a paying concern. No estimate can . be given, of. this. In most instances a direct expenditure of capital is required for years, amounting in the aggregate to thousands of pounds ; and after all the money that can be raised or expended, it generally happens that the proprietors get tired of their expensire bantling, and it drops into an untimely grave " unwept, nnhonored, and unsung." Our advice to those who are inclined to enter into such unwise speculations, founded upon personal experience, 1b " Dont't," It is better to endure the ills we know, than fly to those we < know not of. No good ever- comes from those papers started for special'purposes; but on the contrary, adirect low of money is the- almost certain result j qg^ after a few months of great anxiel^QL; project is abandoned, leaving the jirbp Je* tors wiser but sadder men. /,''■ [WJSSI OOABX TIMES.] '.'/ ■ ' '-" We are not desirous of damping the ardour of any persons, or of throwing cold water on any enterprise great or small which our neighbors may see fit to undertake. So far from this being the case we hope there will be room found for this journalistic bantling, and that he may come heartily through; the ills which affect infancy and growth robust maturity, But it , is as well, jto point out that the promoters of ;thisf lundertaking have a very serious straggV- before -thenk.olf they intend toi bring ont a first class morning paper Ihey mustifiSeu? * weekly expenditure which ' will' leave them no profit for years to come. There is j( an amount of outside support which is alwayß accorded to an old established newspaper, which the new venture cannot poroibly obtain. But the mosHmport&nt point is whether there is room for the new paper. Will the Geby Rivb&Abots and the Westland Herald 1 find' sufficient nourishment in the district to keep them both alive 3 We doubt it very much, The obvious consequence must be^the decease of one or the other. ExperU ence in Hokitika and elsewhere shows the invariable result of newspaper opposition in places where there is scarcely support for a single 'journal, to be the collapse of one, usually the younger; and serious injury to the other. ' r ' -'