For America, as for the rest of the world. the period of immense expansion in journalism began about 1830. on the establishment of the great New York dailies. The Dai/g Nun (1833), the first penny paper in the United States, was among the pioneers. Reorganized by Charles A. Dana in 1868, it gained wide repute for concise news items and brilliant editorials. The Beraid (1835). founded by James Gordon Bennett, has long been noted for its exclusive foreign news. often obtained at lavish expense. The Tribune (1841), for thirty years under the management of Horace Greeley, was distinguished for its vigorous editorials, It still remains one of the cleanest and most reliable among newspapers. The Timesp, founded in 1851 by Henry James Raymond. has always aimed at sane and eonser vat ive comment on contemporary fittest low:. Among other New York dailies of high standing are the Ereniny Post (1801). nn independent pnper somewhat on the English type, and eon taining solid and trustworthy book reviews; the Oon met-vial Ad err! iscr (evening). which is most favorably known for its financial and literary comment ; the awl Ea-press (evening): and the Press. founded in the interests of the Repub. Hem Party. The latest phases of modern journal. ism are represented by the Maria/ and the ./ouraerf or .1101(Tirll PI Expellent dailies are also published in I lerman. French, and Italian. New York has found ithlispensable a few dailies and 'roes weeklies devoted to finance and each important braneh of trade. Such are: the Pinaneial News (daily); the Journa/ of Com m crer ((illy); Bradstreet's; the Iron Age. etc. Each depart ment of knowledge and each profession also has its weekly. Of the many illustrated journals Harper's Weekly is the oldest. Among others are Collier's MTN!, anal Frank Leslie's Illus. horted Peeper. 1n IS75 the Oraabie was the only illnstrated daily. Now a daily without illustra tion is rare. American humor finds expression in Purl.% Judge. and Life: eritieism in the Vation. in many other weeklies. and in the Saturday or Sunday editions of the dailies. The Times pith li?lies a Saturday supplement composed wholly of kook reviews and literary eollialeat. A g re j ,,,,, which often inelnde literary criticism. are the Obserrer (Presbyterian) ; the Churchman, (Episcopal) ; the Christian ildrocalc (:\lethodist) ; the E.t.a/0)1c/. (Baptist) ) the hidk pfc\dent and the Outlook (liberal) ; the Ciakofie Review: the Catholic American; and many He brew weeklies. Spurt, art, scienee. the dranm, fashion and society—each has its own periodicals. Public ()pinion presents a of current thought. New York still leads the American press. But what has been said of her journals is largely true of Boston, Philadelphia, Balti more, Cincinnati, Chicago, Saint Louis, and San Francisco. And from certain other cities, smile times small, are issued newspapers which have gained a national reputation. Such are the springlield Republican, thi‘ Detroit Free Press, the Louisrille Courier-Journal, and the New Orleans Picayune. The last years of the nine teenth century witnessed the rise of the Sunday issue of the great dailies. These immense Sun day magazines, sometimes running above a hun dred pages, with colored illustrations, are now published in all the larger cities.
TEE AfAr.INO OF THE NEWSPAPER. For a con ception of the wonderful progress of the press, one must leave mere annals and enter the work shop. The newspaper such as Defoe edited was nothing more than a brief chronicle of news gathered haphazard, concluding with the ad vertisement of a quack doctor. Next came the reporter. The special correspondent here and there appeared in the seventeenth century, but he did not gain his place till the Crimean War, and in the United States not till the Civil War. Nov every great daily has its hundred corre spondents scattered about the globe. This has been rendered practicable by the cable. For sav ing expense, news agencies have been formed in Europe and America. Renter's (1858) was the first for England. The Associated Press of the United States dates from 1849. Though these serve for the smaller papers, they are to the larger papers only hints to be followed up by their own agents. The telegraph, indispensable for gathering news, has been reinforced by the telephone, which is now finding its way into every village. These new sources for obtaining news
have revolutionized the office. The editor who personally superintended the issue of his paper is of the past. There can never be another Greeley or Dana. The editor-in-chief of certain papers finds no time even to write a leader. The work of making the paper must be divided and subdivided. A 'city editor' directs the reporters in gathering news. A 'news editor' keeps in touch with outside cor respondents through the telegraph and the tele phone. What pours in from the press associa tions and a paper's own avenues must lie thor oughly sifted by 'copy editors.' who now throw out far more than they put in. For important news articles there are usually special writers. 'Exchange editors' read other periodicals with scissors in band, clipping what they think will interest the publie. Comment on the news of the day is in the hands of a trained corps of editorial writers. All these and other departments re ceive their general instructions from the editor in-ehief. whose place has shifted from the old editorial desk to the telephone. There are, more over, editors for finance, commerce, and sport, and critics for music, the theatre, and litera ture. Nally papers also now employ a woman. with a corps of assistants, to gather the news especially interesting to women. Finally, there is the 'night editor.' who makes up the paper, arranging all the articles and the headlines. The Sunday issue is under the direction of a special editor, who has his own stall' of correspondents. For providing the Sunday newspapers with stories by popular novelists, syndicates were formed just after 1890. The syndicate purehases the manuscript from the author and sells the right of simultaneous publication to one news paper in ((ay]) of the great cities, thus making a handsome profit. The pieceeds from the trans action have tempted Stevenson, Kip1Mg, and many other well-known novelists. Aluck miscel laneous manuscript now passes through syndi cates. The counting room of the newspaper we can enter only to remark that an expert is re quired to look after the advertisements. The in mime from once insignificant, is now so great that even the 'wealthiest daily could not long survive a serious quarrel with its pa trons.
Great as all these developments are, the mar velous changes await one who enters the mechani cal department. Down to 1S14 all papers were printed on hand-presses. Then the cylinder press of keening, run by and printing about a thousand copies an hour, was introduced by the London Times. In the hands of Sir Rowland 11 ill, Richard Hoe. and other later inventors, the so-called 'web-perfecting, press' has reached a stage in its development where it will print, fold, paste, and count more than 100.000 copies of eight-page papers an hour. The most recent presses will also print a sheet in six distinct colors. These improvements have been accom panied by quicker means of stereotyping. Plates may be made and clamped on the press within twelve minutes. In the last decade of the nine teenth century hand typesetting, gave way to the Linotype machine, which, besides reducing the expense of composition by one-half in New York and by One-third in certain other cities, brought the interval between the reception of the latest news and its publication down to less than half an hour. Between 1875 and 1000 paper suitable for print decreased in cost from 12 to 2 cents a pound. New processes in photography have also made easy the rapid reproduction of pictures. The interval between a snapshot and the printed picture is less than two hours. Electricity is dis placing steam. The automobile has been pressed into service for getting newspapers on the street; and for wider circulation special trains are em ployed.
No observer can fail to notice that under the new ri(gime, where the editor-in chief counts for less, the press of the rafted States is becoming less personal and more and more independent. True, nearly all Ameriea 0 papers are the voice of some party, lint they are not its slaves. Cer tainly public questions are now discussed with a sanity and calmness rare in earlier years.