"How else can I make a career of it?"
"Right you are, Boyee. But it takes something behind money to build up a newspaper. And the 'Clarion' 'll take some building up."
"Well, I've got aspiration enough, if it comes to that," smiled Hal.
"Aspiration's a good starter: but it's perspiration that makes a business go. Are you ready to take off your coat and work?"
"I certainly am. There's a lot for me to learn."
"There is. Everything. Want some advice from the Old Man?"
"I most surely do, Dad."
"Listen here, then. A newspaper is a business proposition. Never forget that. All these hifalutin' notions about its being a palladium and the voice of the people and the guardian of public interests are good enough to talk about on the editorial page. Gives a paper a following, that kind of guff does. But the duty of a newspaper is the duty of any other business, to make money. There's the principle, the policy, the politics, ethics, and religion of the newspaper in a nutshell. Now, how are you going to make money with the 'Clarion'?"
"By making it a better paper than the others."
"Hm! Better. Yes: that's all right, so long as you mean the right thing by 'better.' Better for the people that want to use it and can pay for using it."