The Havas Among the other news agencies that had already sprung into ex istence by this time were the Central News Agency, the Continental Agency, the Exchange Company, Dalziell's Cable News, the National Press Agency and the Havas Continental Agency. The oldest of these was the latter which dated back to 1835, when Charles Havas, a translator, opened an agency in Paris for the translation from English and Continental news papers of interesting news for the French press. In 1840 Havas established a carrier pigeon news service between Paris, London and Brussels. This being the first attempt at the rapid trans portation of news it naturally attracted much attention to the Havas Agency. Between this date and 1850 the name Havas became well known to the newspaper world, and more espe cially to the capitals of Europe; for the Havas Agency had kept abreast of the times and had made use of telegraph and railway transporta tion as rapidly as they had developed. Already, at this early date, Havas furnished daily news reports of a commercial, financial and political nature; and this had completely changed the nature of the news offered by the daily press. In 1856 the Havas Agency was amalgamated with the Bullier Advertising Agency; and among the patrons of the new concern were the foremost French dailies. Subagencies were opened in Madrid, Rome, Vienna, Brussels and, a little later, in various American cities. Work ing agreements were entered into with the Wolff Agency in Germany and the Reuter in London. This was followed by the planting of Havas correspondents in all the important news centres. of Europe and America and in almost every town and city of any importance in France; for the Havas Agency has always made a specialty of local French news. It was the first to make use of the principle of the mutual exchange of news between a central news bureau and the newspapers taking its service. It was also the first to furnish syndi cated material to subscribers in the form of special news features; and this part of the business it has developed very extensively. It furnishes feuilletons of a literary character, feature stories and novels written by the best known and most popular of French writers. Fully 75 per cent of the typesetting of the French country press has been done away with through the °patent° material furnished it in the form of °mate' or stereotyped metal plates. Yet this local work has not prevented the Havas Agency giving much attention to the gathering of international news, a business which it has organized on a labor, money and time-saving basis. Special trained Havas correspondents are stationed in all the capitals and other great news centres of Europe, Asia and Africa; and whenever there is a sudden need for a corre spondent the nearest Havas man is wired from Paris to go at once to the place where his serv ices are required. All these correspondents are carefully educated in the ways of the agency and they know exactly what is expected of them. When it is necessary to depart from this routine they are so instructed by wire. The Havas Agency was the first to establish and perfect a very contracted figure and word code for the transmission by wire of routine news to countries to and from which the cable rates for news were excessively high. In 1879 Havas Agency was reorganized as a joint-stock company with a capital of $1,700,000, divided into 1,700 shares of $100 each.
The Wolff Btireau and the Oversea News Service became, in 1917, a part of the adver tising machinery of the German government which purchased a controlling interest in each of them. To strengthen this strong news and advertising medium control was also secured of more than 50 per cent of the stock of some of the foremost daily papers in Germany and Austria. Among these were the Deutsche Zeihosg, Frankfurter Nachfrichten and the Lokal Anzeiger. This new combination of news agencies also secured control of the greater part of the advertising patronage of Germany, and through this control of adver tising it secured a powerful influence over the policy of the most important dailies in Austria.
The Associated Press of New York was organized prior to 1860, and the Western As sociated Press was formed during the Civil War period. The latter was a strong co operative organization, and for many years it was an important factor in the business of news gathering in this country. For 20 years the New York Associated Press and the Western Associated Press worked together in harmony. The wires of the Western Union Telegraph were utilized for transmitting reports, and thou sands of miles of leased wires were constantly in use. In 1882 the United Press was formed,
using the Postal Telegraph wires for the trans mission of news, and in 1883 a third and smaller rival, the Press News Association, entered the field. Meanwhile dissensions arose over con tracts between the New York and the Western associations, and the disputes were carried into the courts. The evidence showed that the West ern Associated Press had made contracts for franchises between January 1883 and January 1893 with newspapers in the Far West calling for payments under the contracts of $118,410: Of this amount the books showed that $85,294 had actually been paid in. One-half of this amount' was claimed by the New York Asso ciated Press as its share of the money collected from such sales of franchises. Suits and counter suits were commenced and the Western Associated Press was finally dissolved. A new Associated Press was organized under the laws of Illinois and for several years a close rivalry existed between this company and the United Press. Then dissensions arose and in 1900 the Associated Press was reorganized and reincor porated under the laws of New York State. In the meantime the Press News had died from financial mismanagement and soon afterward the United Press was wrecked. The Associated Press now began a prosperous career with no rival worthy Of the name. The New York City Press Association, a local concern, was incor porated as a part of the Associated Press, which also began an exchange arrangement with Reuter's Agency in Europe. All the New York newspapers with the exception of the Sun re caved their foreign and domestic reports from the Associated Press. The Sun organized an independent news-gathering service, called the Laffan Bureau, and from the ruins of the United Press co-operated with a number of newspapers between New York and San Fran cisco, thus building up a creditable organiza tion independent of the Associated Press. A third organization, the Scripps-McRae Press (Western service) and the Publisher's Press (Eastern service) in 1903, was serving news to several hundred newspapers. These two com panies, practically one, divide the eastern and western fields between them. The three press associations were strenuous rivals during the Spanish-American War, and special correspond ents were sent with the American fleets and the armies in the field. Reporters were also stationed at every port on the Southern coasts. An Associated Press correspondent was with Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay. All three associations maintain resident correspondents in the larger American cities, and in London, Paris, Rome and the foreign capitals. Through out the European War correspondents of the Associated Press were maintained at the front in France, where Reuter's, Havas and other news agencies were also represented either directly or indirectly. Correspondents were also maintained in all centres where war or important political news was to be had.
Newspaper Closely allied with the press associations is the newspaper syndi cate which instead of furnishing current daily news supplies special articles, correspondence, fiction and miscellaneous literary material to thousands of daily and weekly newspapers throughout the country. S. S. McClure was the pioneer in this field, followed by the American Press Association, the Bacheller and Johnson syndicate, the A. N. Kellogg Newspaper Union, the Leslie Syndicate, the Bulletin Press Asso ciation and numerous others. The syndicate is enabled, by its sales of the same article to many customers, to purchase matter quite out of the reach of the individual newspaper, and to sell it on terms that each can afford. The scheme is found to be so advantageous that practically all the leading newspapers use syndi cate matter to a considerable extent. Besides the firms engaged primarily in the syndicate business, several leading metropolitan daily newspapers, notably the New York Herald and the American, dispose of their own matter to papers published in other cities. In addition to these there are now in the United States news syndicates for almost every kind of newspaper enterprise. If one wishes to start a local maga zine, for instance, he can secure 32, 64 or 96 pages of material already printed and ready to bind in handsome cover, with or without advertising, at a very nominal price, if he pub lish the advertising; and all that is necessary is to add a few pages of local to have a finely printed and illustrated publication.