Prev | Current Page 324 | Next

Lippmann, Walter, 1889-1974

"Public Opinion"

They represent nothing really
significant, and incidents of this sort are less common than many
critics of the press suppose. The real problem is that the readers of
a newspaper, unaccustomed to paying the cost of newsgathering, can be
capitalized only by turning them into circulation that can be sold to
manufacturers and merchants. And those whom it is most important to
capitalize are those who have the most money to spend. Such a press is
bound to respect the point of view of the buying public. It is for
this buying public that newspapers are edited and published, for
without that support the newspaper cannot live. A newspaper can flout
an advertiser, it can attack a powerful banking or traction interest,
but if it alienates the buying public, it loses the one indispensable
asset of its existence.
Mr. John L. Given, [Footnote: _Making a Newspaper_, p. 13. This
is the best technical book I know, and should be read by everyone who
undertakes to discuss the press. Mr. G. B. Diblee, who wrote the
volume on _The Newspaper_ in the Home University Library says (p.
253), that "on the press for pressmen I only know of one good book,
Mr. Given's."] formerly of the New York Evening Sun, stated in 1914
that out of over two thousand three hundred dailies published in the
United States, there were about one hundred and seventy-five printed
in cities having over one hundred thousand inhabitants.


Pages:
312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336