The Daily Newspaper: The History of Its Production and Distibution

by Anonymous

ADDRESSING MACHINE.

Those who read this account will understand how it is that sometimes papers go astray. It would be wonderful if, out of nearly a hundred thousand names always in type at the Witness office, while changes are constantly being made in the lists, there were not some mistakes, and it is creditable to the system adopted by newspaper publishers that the number is comparatively so small.

As will have been observed, the type from which the Witness is printed when in the turtles assumes a rounded shape. Readers of that paper know that on many occasions it is embellished with wood cuts, and that wood engravings are ordinarily cut on a flat surface. They may have wondered how the difficulty is got over. In the Witness all the engravings are electrotyped. To perform this operation an impression of the engraving is first made in a sheet of wax by means of a powerful press. The wax is so fine and the pressure so great that the finest lines are reproduced. The wax is then blackleaded with graphite, made especially fine for the purpose, and the waxen plate is inserted in an battery in which is a strong solution of copper. In a few hours a thin film of copper, the exact counterpart of the engraving, is formed. This is laid on its face in a hot iron pan and over the back a covering of tin foil is placed to give it consistency, the heat causing it to melt and fill all the finer interstices of the engraving. Over this again is poured a "backing" of lead or type metal, which is shaved down to the exact thickness required. This is again backed with wood, to raise it to the height necessary for printing. This wood has been curved to the shape of the press and the electrotype is bent to correspond. Some papers stereotype the whole form—a shorter process, but one impracticable for an afternoon paper in editions, as, in the latter case, even fifteen minutes' delay would be more than could be spared.

Thus having disposed of the mechanical branch of printing, we will next resort to another matter of the greatest importance to a daily newspaper—that of advertising. The Daily Witness is sold at a cent a number, a sum which hardly pays the cost of paper alone; so that out of the advertisements inserted must be met the expenses for printing, publishing, editing, etc. If an ordinary newspaper, published in a small city such as Montreal practically was twenty years ago, be examined, it will be found that nine-tenths of the advertisements, measured by the space occupied, come under one of the following categories: advertisements of liquors and tobacco, of groceries including liquors and tobacco, or of places selling liquors; advertisements of theatres and other questionable amusements; advertisements of questionable medicines; advertisements of questionable reading matter; advertisements of other quackeries. To avoid all such was the firm determination of the Witness from the beginning, so that it had, as it were, to create its own advertising business. Another custom against which it set its face was that of using large and varied type in advertisements, seeing that when all do this they neutralize each other in point of prominence, and get much less value out of their space,—besides making a very ugly and vulgar looking paper. It was held that among advertisements printed in uniform type, a small number printed prominently would be worth a great deal to those who chose to pay for them, and more in proportion to the fewness of them. This end was gained by charging double to all who thought the prominence worth the price. Instead of putting difficulties in the way of making changes in advertisements, the Witness does its best to get the advertisers to put in new advertisements every day, believing that were this to become universal the advertising columns would be as much studied as the reading columns. Here are one or two points not understood by all advertisers: one, that it is of no advantage to draw attention to commodities that are not worth the money they are sold for. If purchasers are disappointed, the more attention drawn to the goods the worse for the business,—those swindling concerns that live on first transactions always excepted. Another thing is that it is better to have an advertisement where it will be looked for by those wanting the article than to have to draw the attention of everybody to it. To get people into the habit of looking into certain quarters for certain things should be the primary object of all advertisers and advertising mediums. Some Montreal men are proving adepts in the art of advertising and making it very profitable, while, on the other hand, there is no way of throwing away money faster than by unwise advertising.

Some idea of the amount of business which is done in advertising may be obtained from the fact that in 1877-78, one of the dull years, twenty-four thousand two hundred and ninety advertisements were received in the Witness office, a daily average of seventy-nine. This was obtained almost without any canvassing. A business that depends largely on canvassing must necessarily adopt prices that will cover canvassers' commission.

ANSWERING AN ADVERTISEMENT.

There are many traditions in the Witness office in regard to remarkable answers to advertisements. A gentleman, one bright summer's day, lost a favorite canary, and hurried to the Witness office to make his loss known. His advertisement was immediately sent up to the compositors' room to be set up, and while this was being done the bird flew in through the window and perched himself on the case immediately in front of the young man who was putting the advertisement into type. Birdie was caught, and soon the owner was happy again. It is well that all lost articles do not, in a similar manner, find their way into printing offices, as the character of the profession might then be subject to suspicion.

The subject of curious advertisements is an endless one, and has been fully entered into in Sampson's "History of Advertising." There is the kind in which the sentences are, to say the least, ambiguous, as that of the lady who advertised for a husband "with a Roman nose having strong religious tendencies." Then there was "to be sold cheap, a splendid gray horse, calculated for a charger, or would carry a lady with a switch tail,"—hardly as curious an individual as the one spoken of in the following announcement: "To be sold cheap, a mail phaeton, the property of a gentleman with a movable head as good as new." A travelling companion to these would be the following: "To be sold an Erard grand piano, the property of a lady, about to travel in a walnut wood case with carved legs." But what can compare with the specimen of humanity referred to by a chemist in the request that "the gentleman who left his stomach for analysis will please call and get it, together with the result!"