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NEWSPAPERS
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The word " newspaper," as now employed, covers so wide a See also:
See also:Juvenal speaks of a Roman See also:lady passing her See also:morning in See also:reading the paper, so that it appears that private copies were in See also:vogue
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In See also:China the Peking Gazelle, as foreigners See also:call it, containing imperial rescripts and official news, has appeared regularly ever since the days of the Tang See also:dynasty (A.D
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618-905)
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Even older than it, as is alleged, is the monthly Peking News (Tsing-Pao)—now in See also:appearance an See also:octavo See also:book of 24 pages in a yellow See also:cover—which, according to M
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Huart, See also:French See also:Consul at See also:Canton, was founded early in the 6th See also:century
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But it is not of any real moment to do more than refer to such publications as these, which have little in See also:common with the ideas of Western See also:civilization
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The -" newspaper " in its modern acceptation can only be properly dated from the See also:time when in Western See also:Europe the invention of printing made a multiplication of copies a commercial possibility in any satisfactory sense
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On the point of terminology, Mr J
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B
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W
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See also:Williams, in his History of English Journalism to the See also:Foundation of the Gazette (1908), the first scholarly account of the early See also:evolution of the Press in See also:England, describes the See also:Oxford Gazette of 1665 (the See also:original of the See also:London Gazette) as the first English " newspaper " in the precise sense, i.e. a " paper " of news;' for it was a See also:half-sheet in See also:folio, two pages, and not a " pamphlet " as previous periodicals of news had been
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A pamphlet (q.v.) was one or more
1 For the earliest known use of the See also:term " newspaper " he cites a See also:letter in 1670 to See also:
But it is hardly necessary to insist here on the distinction between a " news book " and a " newspaper," interesting as it is to See also:note that the English inclusion of newspapers among " books " for the purpose of the See also:law of See also:copyright is strictly justified by the original nomenclature
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The " newsbook " made what is for modern purposes the essential advance upon either the written " newsletter " or the isolated printed announcement of some event, in being both printed and also issued in a See also:series at regular and continuous intervals
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Yet both these forms of publication were in the See also:direct ancestry of the newspaper
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The See also:writing of " letters of news " or "letters of intelligence" was a regular profession before the printed newspaper was introduced, and lasted as such for some time afterwards, having indeed the See also:advantage of being outside the See also:necessity of obtaining a See also:licence, which hampered the printed publication; and the profession of " scrivener " naturally suggested that of the later type of journalist
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Of what used, again, to be called a " relation," i.e. a statement of an isolated piece of news, there are various printed examples as early as during the latter part of the 15th century
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For instance, an official manifesto of See also:Archbishop See also:Dietrich of See also:Cologne was printed at See also:Mainz in 1462
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A French pamphlet giving an account of the surrender of See also:Granada to See also: The effect of the Cologne Mercurius Gallobelgicus (1594) on English purveyors of " relations " is dealt with below (under See also:United See also:Kingdom); but this was rather a book than a newspaper . The earliest plainly periodical publication containing " news of the See also:day " was, how-ever, the See also:German Frankfurter See also:Journal, a weekly started by Egenolph Emmel in 1615 . The See also:Antwerp Nieuwe Tijdinghen followed in 1616; and in 1622 the history of English newspapers begins with the Weekly Newes published in London by See also:Archer and See also:Bourne . From this point we are on firmer ground, and the evolution of the modern Press in the different countries, as traced below, can be continuously followed . It is See also:worth noting that a See also:link in the history of journalism with the Roman Acta Diurna is provided by the Venetian See also:government written gazelti (from which comes our " gazette ") of the 16th century, official bulletins or leaflets dealing with public affairs, which were avowedly based on the ancient Roman See also:model . See also:Italy indeed originated not only the See also:title " gazette " (probably derived from the Gr. ya4"a, i.e. See also:treasury of news), but also that of " coranto " (Fr. courant; also early anglicized as " current," i.e. a " See also:running " relation), both of which are See also:familiar in the history of the English and See also:foreign Press . The See also:art and business of journalism, as now understood—taking " journalism " here in the sense of the See also:production of the literary contents of a newspaper, and not the production and See also:distribution of the printed sheet itself—is a /omur.na/-See also:combination of the mere recording or reporting of news and of its presentation in such a way, and with such comment, as to See also:influence the minds of readers in some particular direction . The history of the " leading See also:article " as a See also:great See also:factor in the shaping of public See also:opinion begins with See also:Swift, See also:Defoe, See also:Bolingbroke and Pulteney, in the many English newspapers, from the See also:Review and the Examiner to the Craftsman, by which was waged the keen political strife of the years 1704-1740 . There is no See also:counter-part to it in See also:France until the Revolution of 1789, nor in Germany until 1796 or 1798 . It was a Frenchman who wrote—" Suffer yourself to be blamed, imprisoned, condemned; suffer yourself even to be hanged; but publish your opinions . It is not a right; it is a See also:duty." It was in England that the course so pithily described was actually taken, in the See also:face of See also:fine, imprisonment and See also:pillory, at a time when in France the public had to depend upon foreign See also:journals illicitly circulated, when its own See also:chief writers resorted to clandestine presses, to paltry disguises, and to very poor subterfuges to See also:escape the responsibilities of avowed authorship, and when in Germany there was no political publicity worthy to be named . When the Mercure de France (1672), after a See also:long See also:period of mediocrity, came into the hands of men of large intellectual See also:faculty, they had the most cogent reasons for exerting their See also:powers upon topics of literature rather than upon themes of politics . True political journalism dates in France only from the French Revolution (see, for instance, See also:MALLET D11 See also:PAN), and it then had a very brief existence . It occupied a cluster of writers, some of whom See also:left an enduring See also:mark upon French literature . A term of high aspiration was followed quickly by a much longer term of frantic licence and of literary See also:infamy . Then came the long See also:rule of a despotic censorship; and cycles of licence followed by cycles of repression . In 187o indeed the democratic government at See also:Bordeaux issued against journals of high aims and of unspotted integrity, but opposed to its pretensions, edicts as arbitrary as the worst acts in that See also:kind of See also:Napoleon I., and unparalleled in the whole course of the government of Napoleon III . In all the other countries of Europe political journalism, in any characteristic sense, was the creation of the 19th century—somewhat earlier in the century in See also:northern Europe, somewhat later in See also:southern . The Ordinarie Post-Tidende of See also:Stockholm dates indeed from 1643, but until See also:recent times it was a mere news letter . See also:Denmark had no sort of journal worth remark until the foundation in 1749 of the Berlingske Tidende, and that too attained to no political See also:rank . The Gazette (Viedomosti) of St See also:Petersburg—the See also:patriarch of See also:Russian newspapers—dating from the 16th of See also:December 1702, is a government See also:organ, and nearly synchronizes with the See also:Boston News-Letter (1704), the first. successful See also:attempt at a newspaper in the British colonies in See also:America . Journalism in Italy begins with the Diario di See also:Roma in 1716, but in politics the See also:Italian press remained a nullity for all See also:practical purposes until nearly the See also:middle of the 19th century, when the newspapers of See also:Sardinia, at the impulse of See also:Cavour, began to foreshadow the approach of the influential Italian press of a later day . In See also:Spain no rudiments of a newspaper press can be found until the 18th century; the Gaceta de See also:Madrid started about 1726 . As See also:late as in 1826 an inquisitive See also:American traveller recorded his inability to See also:lay his hands, during his See also:Peninsular tour, upon more than two See also:Spanish newspapers . While originally the newspaper depended entirely on its own reporters and correspondents for news, and still largely does so, the widening of the field of modern journalism is largely due to collective enterprise, by which outside organizations known as " news agencies " send a common service of news to all papers which arrange to take it . The first of the great See also:collecting and distributing news agencies, See also:Reuter's Agency, was founded by See also:Julius Reuter, a Prussian government-messenger, who was impressed by the common interest roused by the revolutionary movements of 1848 . In 1849 he established a news-transmitting agency in See also:Paris, with all the appliances that were then available . Between See also:Brussels and See also:Aix-la-Chapelle he formed a See also:pigeon-service, connecting it with Paris and with See also:Berlin by See also:telegraph . As the wires extended, he quickly followed them with agency-offices in many parts of the continent . He then went to London, where his progress was for a moment held in check . Mr See also:Walter of The Times listened very courteously to his proposals, but (on that first occasion) ended their interview by saying, " We generally find that we can do our own business better than anybody else can." He went to the office of the Morning Advertiser, which had then the next largest circulation to that XIx . 18of The Times, and had better success . He entered into an agreement with that and afterwards with other London journals, including The Times, and also with many commercial corporations and firms . The newspapers, of course, continued to employ their own organizations and to extend them, but they found great advantage in the use of Reuter's telegrams as supplementary . Within a few years the business is said to have yielded the founder some £25,000 a See also:year, and in 1865 it was transferred to a limited See also:company . In later years this type of news-agency operating all over the See also:world was repeated by others, and also by agencies operating mainly or exclusively only in one See also:country . It is no longer possible nowadays to confine the meaning of " journalism " merely to the See also:work of those who write for the Press . Properly it may be said to include the whole intellectual work comprised in the production of a newspaper; and although the designation of " journalist " is generally applied only to editors and to writers, and would not be extended at all to the purely See also:mechanical See also:staff—the compositors, foundry-men and machinists—nor even to the See also:proof-readers, whose See also:sphere is analogous rather to the sub-editorial than to the mechanical departments, the modern tendency has nevertheless been, not only to install mere reporting (q.v.) in a See also:place of high importance, but to give increased See also:weight in journalism to those who occupy what may be called the " managerial " offices, the business See also:side of making a paper pay having itself See also:developed into an art on its own account . To be a great " journalist " was once, but is hardly now, the same as being a great " publicist." The publicist proper is he who delivers his views on public affairs in the Press; but the excellence of his articles may nevertheless be consistent with the journal being a disastrous failure, and his reputation as a journalist is then but poor . The great journalist is he who makes the paper with which he is connected a success; and in days of competition the elements necessary for obtaining and keeping a hold on the public are so diverse, and the factors bearing on the See also:financial success, the business side, of the paper are so many, that the organization of victory frequently depends on other considerations than those of its See also:intrinsic literary excellence or sagacity of opinion, even if it cannot be wholly See also:independent of these . The modern newspaper, moreover, depends for its financial success no longer primarily on its receipts from circulation, but on its receipts from advertisements; and though these can only ultimately be secured on the basis of circulation (the number of See also:people who buy and read the paper), the See also:establishment of the paper as the organ of a large See also:body of readers for whose See also:custom it is desirable to advertise often involves other capacities than those of the great publicist; and even in so far as the circulation depends on the attractiveness of its " news," the direction given to the See also:supply of news may be managerial rather than editorial . Thus, in the See also:division of labour, the editorial functions, formerly supreme and all-embracing, because the excellence of the contents of the paper made its success, have gradually, by a fissiparous See also:process, yielded some of their authority to the managerial functions, and these have grown into an in-dependence which—since editorial possibilities ultimately depend on financial resources—has given increased importance in journalism to the business side . It must suffice here to say therefore that the work of journalism may be broadly divided into its editorial and managerial sides . And apart from exceptional cases of a working proprietor who is both editor and manager, or of a managing-editor, or of a great manager who exercises editorial functions, or a great editor who exercises managerial functions, the ordinary course is to keep them fairly distinct . The managerial side involves the business work of a paper, including the obtaining of advertisements and all the operations directly connected with producing it and making it pay as a commercial enterprise . The editorial side is engaged—however much managerial exigencies may dictate its policy—in providing the " reading See also:matter " which forms its contents, other than such as is of the nature of advertising . The editorial staff includes editors and assistant-editors, sub-editors (in Great See also:Britain a term usually restricted in daily journalism to those engaged in the " news " oeparements) . See also:leader-writers, critics,'reporters (more narrowly considered part of the " sub-editorial " staff), &c . The actual owner of the paper, the proprietor, may or may not take part in either side, but in law his authority is delegated to those who produce it . The older ideas of journalistic management survive in making the editor, publisher and printer, but curiously not the " manager," liable in a See also:writ for libel, contempt of See also:court, &c:, together with the proprietor in English law . But no satisfactory legal definition of " editor," still less of " manager," is possible, since their positions and powers vary according to circumstances . So far as the general relations of the staff of a paper with its proprietor are concerned, we may briefly note that engagements are contracts for See also:personal service; they will not therefore be specifically enforced, and the remedy for injury is dismissal or See also:action for See also:damages; and they must be in writing and stamped, to be See also:evidence in law, if for a year or longer . The editor is the See also:agent of the proprietor, and binds him for acts within the See also:scope of editorial authority (which includes, the insertion of any matter in the paper) . Being an agent he can have no See also:power as against the proprietor, but unreasonable interference on the latter's part may entitle an editor to an action for See also:breach of See also:contract or for damage to his professional reputation: while See also:gross misconduct on the part of an editor might similarly entitle the proprietor to damages . Letters, See also:manuscripts, &c., come into the editor's hands as agent for his proprietor, and are the latter's See also:property . Uninvited contributors send him articles at their own See also:risk, but the sending to them of a type-set proof has been held to be evidence of See also:acceptance . Apart from See also:special terms, the editor is entitled to " edit " such articles, i.e. use them wholly or in part, or alter them; he has a See also:free hand to do so in the See also:case of See also:anonymous articles; in the case of signed articles it is clearly his duty to keep them free from libel or illegality, but the right to edit is limited in so far as his alterations might attribute to the writer anything which would give the latter a claim for damages . Though the highest See also:function of an editor is embodied in the See also:etymology of the word (a " bringer forth " or producer), as one who acts as the literary See also:midwife in the literary setting forth of ideas, it is probably his use of the proverbial See also:blue-See also:pencil, altering or deleting, which is generally associated with the word "to edit." Each aspect, however, of editorial work has its own importance—the organization and See also:inspiration on-the one hand, the moulding into shape on the other . And " See also:good " editing is necessarily relative, depending to a certain extent on the See also:character of the paper which it is intended to produce . See PRESS LAWS, LIBEL, COPYRIGHT, &c.; and generally, for law, See also:Fisher and See also:Strachan, Law of the Press (2nd ed., 1898) . The history of the Newspaper Press is told for various countries of importance under their respective sections below . The practical development of the 'modern newspaper is indeed due to a See also:union of causes, largely mechanical, that may well be termed marvellous . A See also:machine (see PRINTING) that, from a See also:web of paper 3 or 4 M. long, can, in one See also:hour, See also:print, See also:fold, cut and deliver many thousand perfected broadsheets, is, however, not so great a marvel as is the organizing skill which collects See also:information by conversation, post or telegraph, from all over the world, and then distributes these communications in cheap printed copies regularly every day to an enormous public, sifted, arranged and commented upon, in the course of a few See also:hours . But for a high ideal of public responsibility and duty, conjoined with high culture and with great " staying-power," in the editorial rooms, all these marvels of ingenuity—which now combine to develop public opinion on great public interests, and to See also:guide it—would be nothing better than a vast mechanism for making See also:money out of See also:man's natural aptitude to spend his time either in telling or in See also:hearing some new thing . A newspaper, after all, is essentially a business, conducted by its proprietors for gain . That the commercial See also:motive is a danger to honest journals is obvious, were it not indeed that here as elsewhere honesty is in the long run the best commercial policy . The example of American journalism has so greatly affected the developments in England and other countries since about 1890, that it is important to realize the conditions under which, in the United States, the newer type of journalism arose.' In substance very much the same causes produced very much the same effects, though at a slower See also:rate, in England; but British conservatism operated here as elsewhere . Several circumstances combined in the last See also:quarter of the 19th century to Promote The account which follows is reproduced from Mr Whitelaw See also:Reid's article in the loth edition of the Ency . Brit.great changes in the See also:condition and character of American newspapers . (I) Paper was enormously cheapened . Before and during the See also:Civil See also:War it cost large New See also:York newspapers at times 22 cents per lb for even a poor quality . In 1864 it cost 16 cents in See also:February, and ran up a cent every See also:month till in See also:mid-summer it touched 21 and 22 cents . As late as 1873 it was still sold at from 12 to 13 cents . As new materials were found and machinery was improved, the See also:price slowly declined . When the manufacture from See also:wood-pulp was made commercially successful, the profits tempted great investments of new See also:capital; bigger See also:mills were built, competition became keen, and new inventions cheapened the various processes . Thus in New York in 1875 the See also:average price for the year for See also:fair " news " paper was 8.53 cents per lb; in 1880, 6.92; in 1885, 5.16; and in 1890, 3'38 . At last, about 1897, large contracts for a good average quality, delivered at the press-See also:room, were made in New York at as See also:low a figure as 1.5 cents per lb . Subsequently advances in raw materials, one or two dry seasons which curtailed the See also:water-power, and combinations resulting from over-competition, caused some reaction . Yet it could still be said in 1900 that prudent publishers could buy for $I as much paper as would have cost them $3 twenty years earlier, or $Io about 1875 . (2) Printing machinery for great newspaper offices was transformed . Instead of the old See also:cylinder presses fed by hand, with the product then folded and counted by hand, See also:machines came into common use to print, fold, cut, See also:paste and See also:count and deliver in bundles, ready either for the See also:carrier or the See also:mail, at rates of See also:speed formerly not dreamed of . The See also:size of the paper could 'be increased or diminished at will, as late news might require, within an hour of the time when it must be in the hands of its readers . Instead of cutting down other news to make room for something late and important, more pages were added, and this steadily increased the tendency to larger papers . Devices were also found for printing the same sheet in different See also:colours at the same rate of speed; and in this way startling headlines were made more startling in red See also:ink, or a piece of news for which special See also:attention was desired was made so glaring that no one could help seeing it . (3) Hand-setting (for great newspapers) was practically abolished . Instead of the slow gathering of single types by hand See also:separate lines were now produced and See also:cast by machines, capable when pushed to their utmost capacity of doing each the work of five average compositors . Thus between 1880 and 1900 there were reductions in the cost—(1) of the raw material for the manufacture of newspapers from two-thirds to three-fourths; (2) of printing, at least as much; and (3) of See also:composition, at least one-half, while the facilities in each See also:department for a greater product within a given time were enormously increased . The obvious business tendency of these changes was either a reduction in price or an increase of size, or both . See also:Electricity became the only news-carrier . New ocean cables See also:broke down the high rates charged at the outset . The American news appetite, growing by what it fed on, soon demanded far See also:fuller cablegrams of See also:European news; and the See also:wars in which Great Britain and the United States were involved accelerated the See also:movement . The establishment of a strong telegraph company, capable of efficient competition with the one which practically controlled the inland service in 1880, likewise cheapened domestic news by telegraph and increased its See also:volume . The companies presently recognized their interest in encouraging See also:rival news associations, and so getting See also:double work for the wires, while promoting the establishment of new papers . See also:Wild competition between news agencies was thus encouraged (even in the cases of some already known to be bankrupt) to the. extent of credits of a quarter or half a million dollars on telegraphic tolls . The rapid spread of long-distance See also:telephone lines further contributed to this tendency to make the whole continent a whispering See also:gallery for the press . Every great paper had both telegraph and telephone wires run directly into its newsroom . See also:Photography and See also:etching were added to the office equipment . Various " process " methods were found, by which the popular See also:desire for a picture to make the news clearer could be gratified . Drawings were reproduced successfully in stereotype' plates for The influence of American journal-ism . the fastest rotary presses . The field of political See also:caricature had heretofore belonged exclusively to the weekly papers, but the great dailies now seized upon it, and commanded the service of the cleverest caricaturists . Newspapers found a way to put the " half-See also:tone " etching of a photograph, such as had heretofore been printed only on slow See also:flat presses, bodily into the stereotype See also:plate for the great quadruple and octuple presses; and there-after portraits and photographs of important See also:groups on notable occasions began to appear, embodied in the |