The purpose of this book is to bring together in convenient form a number of significant contributions to the discussion of the newspaper and its problems which have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in recent years. Although these articles were intended only for the readers of that magazine at the time of their original publication, they have permanent value for the general reader, for newspaper workers, and for students of journalism.
Practically every phase of journalism is taken up in these articles, including newspaper publishing, news and editorial policies, the influence of the press, yellow and sensational journalism, the problems of the newspaper in small cities, country journalism, the Associated Press, the law of libel, book-reviewing, dramatic criticism, “comics,” free-lance writing, and the opportunities in the profession. For readers who desire to make a further study of any of the important aspects of the press, a bibliography of such books and magazine articles as are generally available in public libraries has been appended.
Most of the authors of the articles in this volume are newspaper and magazine writers and editors whose long experience in journalism gives particular value to their analysis of conditions, past and present. Brief notes on the journalistic work of the writers are given in the Appendix.
For permission to reprint the articles the editor is indebted to the writers and to the editor of the Atlantic Monthly.
W. G. B.
University of Wisconsin,
January 12, 1918.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Introduction. | Willard Grosvenor Bleyer | [ix] |
| Some Aspects of Journalism. | Rollo Ogden | [1] |
| Press Tendencies and Dangers. | Oswald Garrison Villard | [20] |
| The Waning Power of the Press. | Francis E. Leupp | [30] |
| Newspaper Morals. | H. L. Mencken | [52] |
| Newspaper Morals: A Reply. | Ralph Pulitzer | [68] |
| The Suppression of Important News. | Edward Alsworth Ross | [79] |
| The Personal Equation in Journalism. | Henry Watterson | [97] |
| The Problem of the Associated Press. | “An Observer” | [112] |
| The Associated Press: A Reply. | Melville E. Stone | [124] |
| Confessions of a Provincial Editor. | “Paracelsus” | [133] |
| The Country Editor of To-day. | Charles Moreau Harger | [151] |
| Sensational Journalism and the Law. | George W. Alger | [167] |
| The Critic and the Law. | Richard Washburn Child | [181] |
| Honest Literary Criticism. | Charles Miner Thompson | [200] |
| Dramatic Criticism in the American Press. | James S. Metcalfe | [224] |
| The Humor of the Colored Supplement. | Ralph Bergengren | [233] |
| The American Grub Street. | James H. Collins | [243] |
| Journalism as a Career. | Charles Moreau Harger | [264] |
| Bibliography | [279] | |
| Notes on the Writers | [290] |