Get the news, get all the news, get nothing but the news.
Copy nothing from another publication without perfect credit.
Never print an interview without the knowledge and consent of the party interviewed.
Never print a paid advertisement as news-matter. Let every advertisement appear as an advertisement; no sailing under false colors.
Never attack the weak or the defenseless, either by argument, by invective, or by ridicule, unless there is some absolute public necessity for so doing.
Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth or the only truth.
Support your party, if you have one; but do not think all the good men are in it and all the bad ones outside of it.
Above all, know and believe that humanity is advancing; that there is progress in human life and human affairs; and that, as sure as God lives, the future will be greater and better than the present or the past.
In other words, don’t loaf, don’t cheat, don’t dissemble, don’t bully, don’t be narrow, don’t grouch. Mr. Dana’s maxims were as applicable to any other business as to his own. In a lecture delivered at Cornell University in 1894—three years before his death—Mr. Dana uttered more maxims “of value to a newspaper-maker”:
Never be in a hurry.