An even more curious coincidence occurred in the case of a disreputable weekly paper, now I am glad to say, long dead. This paper throve on scandal and one week it produced a circumstantial story, which the printers for fear of being held liable for damages refused to print; the story was then elaborately altered, fresh names and places being substituted. When the story appeared in print, it proved to be substantially true of another incident, which had happened elsewhere under circumstances sufficiently similar to justify action being taken. The matter had to be settled out of court.
One peculiarly unlucky case, I remember, which turned out the other way in the end, arose out of a mistake in the advertisements. A Liverpool firm of solicitors had sent for insertion a notice of winding-up proceedings to be taken against a firm of shaky credit. A daily paper in a neighbouring town received this order and had the advertisement set up in type for Saturday morning’s paper. On Friday night very late came a telegram from the solicitors, withdrawing the advertisement, as their own claims had been satisfied. Unfortunately the compositor in charge that night made an innocent but fatal mistake; he withdrew the wrong advertisement and next morning the incriminating advertisement appeared without any authorization. The newspaper had no defence and the damages threatened to be very serious. However, finally the firm in question had been so fatally shaken in their credit by this wholly accidental revelation of the true state of their affairs, that they went into liquidation and had no money to bring an action against the newspaper. But the manager of the newspaper had an unhappy time.
A reporter’s mistake, although quickly corrected, once had far-reaching consequences. A man concerned in a petty police court case was reported as convicted, when he was really acquitted. The true version came in three minutes later but meanwhile the evening paper had gone to press. A hurried rush was made by the editor and staff to the machine room to stop the edition and to the publishing room to recover all the guilty copies. Seventeen had been sold and of these fourteen were immediately recovered from the newsboys. The remaining three did not at the time seem to constitute much danger but unfortunately one of these papers fell into the hands of the agent of an evening paper in another town, whose business it was to get news for his paper cheap by wiring all news items from early issues of his rival. This agent had already wired through the fatal paragraph, which cost his paper £500. The original mistake cost the first evening paper only £200, because they were held to have caused less damage than the other.
Besides editorial matter, which includes both political, social and decorative items, and besides the news “stories,” the ordinary newspaper has to include correspondence from the provinces, from abroad and special correspondence, of which by far the most important and sensational kind is war correspondence. But before passing on to consider correspondence in general we must note one form of newspaper enterprise, the invention of American ingenuity and now universally employed everywhere, the interview, which does not exactly fall under any of the above categories. Interviewing has acquired a bad name, first because undoubtedly, when maliciously or stupidly done, it may be an annoyance or a serious nuisance to the individual interviewed; secondly, however, because human vanity, desperately afraid of detection, often proclaims the institution a bore, when in reality it is of the greatest value to the person concerned by enabling him to give forth his views on important occasions without being under the necessity of seeking publicity or being compromised, as he would be by a considered written statement. There is a great deal of interview matter now formally disclaimed under circumstances not entirely justifiable, as the mistake really lies with the person, who has changed his views, and the discredit would fall on the interviewer, if newspaper authorities were not fully aware of the weaknesses of public and semi-public characters.
There is hardly any need for describing what interviewing is, as it is a conspicuous feature of the press, but there may be some interest to the public in realizing what an extremely difficult art it is. The interviewer has to bring all his experience and art to bear to correct the errors or deceptions of his subject; he must be prepared to conquer his reticences and check his exuberances; to remember beforehand what he himself wishes to know and to render faithfully afterwards what information he has acquired. An experienced American journalist lays down the following rules, for what is perhaps the most difficult branch of all newspaper work. “Interviewing is hard work. Finding your man sometimes is the worst part of the task, but more often it is still harder to get him to talk. People to be interviewed are of three kinds; those who talk too much, those who talk too little and those who will not talk at all. And after you do get your man to talking it takes the concentration of all your mental powers to do your part of the work. You must pay the closest attention to what he is saying, grasp and remember the points he makes, take notes on the statistics he may quote, jot down some of his striking sentences, keep up your end of the conversation and at the same time bear in mind all the other questions, which you still must ask, for it will avail nothing to think of a neglected point afterwards. Before approaching your man be sure you have outlined clearly in your mind just what questions you wish to ask him. Impress each thought upon your mind when it is uttered and when you return to your desk you will be surprised to see how much of your conversation you can reproduce from memory. An important trick in interviewing is to be on the look-out for any pet phrase, which the speaker is in the habit of using and to work this into the article once or twice. It gives a lifelike touch to the story. As you proceed with the body of the article, take care not to be too rigidly verbatim. Wherever there is any part of the talk that is dull and wordy, give the pith of the matter in your own words and then drop into direct quotation again. A well-written interview with a prominent man on an important subject is a thing of which any reporter may be proud.” One may add to this that the most delicate tasks in interviewing have often to be done without shorthand notes or pencil and paper, lest the subject should be liable to nervousness and be checked in the current of his (or her) conversation.
The correspondence of a paper from outlying districts, from the provinces and largely also from abroad has been almost completely taken from the shoulders of individual papers both in America and in the United Kingdom by the great newsagencies, which we shall consider in the next chapter. So also has the recital of ordinary incidents in the streets of the capital town, those for instance, which do not merit special attention from the home corps of reporters. This has been especially the case in London, where twenty years ago the man, who made his living by selling short “pars” to a dozen papers, flourished greatly under the name of “penny-a-liner.” He has almost completely disappeared. The paragraphist of to-day is a much more elegant person, well educated and with some expert knowledge, of which he can make a monopoly. He flourishes chiefly on the needs of the metropolitan evening papers and on the well established institutions, known as the London letters of the leading provincial papers. By a man of this class and education the calling is not followed as a career in itself but as an aid to literature or the professions or sometimes, in between jobs, by the trained journalist. On the other hand the London press does not reciprocate the compliment; there are no provincial paragraphists and little provincial news in any London paper, except perfunctory paragraphs at the bottom of a column. I was told the other day on good authority that the Times for twenty years had no important article on the Manchester Ship Canal, one of the most extensive engineering enterprises of twenty-five years ago.
There is probably no respect, in which individual newspapers in this country differ so much as in the copiousness, merit and character of their foreign correspondence. This arises from the fact that the mere news is covered almost entirely by the wealthy foreign telegraphic agencies. In the case of America this is only partially true, because there is a peculiar circumstance, which renders telegraphic competition between daily newspapers for foreign news almost unnecessary over there. Owing to the difference in time between European cities and especially between London and New York, American newspapers can present to their readers at the cost only of Atlantic “press rates” all the news of the world from the London papers. London is thus the capital of the world in the matter of international news. She has an hour’s advantage or a little more from Berlin and Vienna; with Paris she is in constant touch by telephone; so that all that New York or Chicago has to do is to keep a bright newspaper man in London to run through the early editions at 4 a.m., and send the pick of it through to his paper. The only competition in foreign news within the reach of American correspondents in London is either for exclusive political news, which seldom comes their way and is not much wanted by the American public in any case, or else the manufacture from European sources of some ordinary newspaper “story.”
On the other hand the London papers and one or two provincial British papers find the question of foreign news a great problem. The public services of foreign news are now so comprehensive that to supplement them effectively requires great and permanent resources. A newspaper can easily spend £10,000 or £15,000 a year in this direction without adding appreciably to its attractiveness and a more important consideration appears in this sphere, that any open rivalry attempted can seldom be begun and afterwards dropped, without serious loss of prestige. It follows therefore that the majority of daily papers in the United Kingdom have almost completely withdrawn from avowed competition in foreign news. Their practice is to rely on agency news altogether in ordinary times and on occasions of special excitement to supplement these services either by sending an expert in foreign politics to the centre of disturbance or by forming a combined news service with other papers or by both. These resources are habitually used during war by most of the provincial press and by the weaker London papers.
The richer London papers still avowedly keep their salaried correspondents in the capitals of Europe and America and arrange for occasional letters and telegrams from locally appointed correspondents in the East and in the British colonies and dependencies. In this respect the London Times occupies a unique position in the world. It has correspondents regularly appointed everywhere and is probably the only newspaper independent of Reuter, except the New York Sun, which for special reasons has to be. It never prints less than a full page of foreign news, much of it special to itself and most of it telegraphed. It is the only paper, which has continuously scored important “beats” on news of first-class international importance. Of these probably the most vitally influential on the course of foreign politics was the secret information obtained by De Blowitz of the intended military pressure by Germany on France in 1875, which perceptibly affected the mutual relations of various powers, and the most sensational was his carrying off a copy of the draft Treaty of Berlin from the Conference in his hat. De Blowitz had arranged to meet his informant in the diplomatic corps every day at a club or restaurant and without recognition or salutation to exchange hats with him in the corridor every day as a regular habit. The hats thus offered a secret and sure method of communication of documents without the dangers of open intercourse.
The other London papers do not aim so high as the Times. The Morning Post has a corps of serious students of affairs abroad, whose news is sent on a consistent plan to enable the paper to maintain an independent attitude on foreign politics. The Daily Telegraph spends vast sums on the regular transmission of paragraphs from Paris and Berlin on lines similar to the London letter of a provincial paper. This regular fare is varied by sensational telegraphed descriptions, when occasion arises. But it can hardly be said to aim at any consistent scheme of policy with regard to foreign affairs. The succeeding changes in the editorial control of the Standard have rendered its policy in this respect somewhat erratic but its reputation abroad still stands very high. The foreign correspondence of the halfpenny London papers is spasmodic and liable to very considerable variations in extent. In the case of the Daily Chronicle not very much special foreign matter is given, but the paper has organized a syndicated service of some independent value in connection with one or two provincial papers. The Daily News maintains its traditional special consideration of foreign affairs, treated however in a manner closely adapted to the views and policy of the paper. The Daily Mail and Daily Express practically treat their foreign news, as American papers treat all their news, that is, according to its sensational value, but the former on special occasions will lavish expenditure quite on the most magnificent scale and will make almost any sacrifice in order to get a “beat.”