Another New Journalism Book
NEWSPAPER BUILDING by Jason Rogers, Editor of the New York Globe. Application of Efficiency to Editing, to Mechanical Production, to Circulation and Advertising, With Cost Finding Methods, Office Forms and Systems. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1918. $3.50 net. Reviewed by James S. Sheehy, a member of the editing class at the University of Oregon.
Any man who has spent 37 years of his life in the publishing and promotional end of the newspaper business, who has allied himself with the big issues and undertakings ii the field of modern journalism, and who has studied with extreme care during the past six years the newspaper practices and advertising conditions as they actually exist in all the important cities in the United States, is very well qualified to speak and write on the subject of the building of a newspaper.
Jason Rogers, publisher, business man, student, journalist, and editor of the New York Globe, is such a man. His recent publication, “Newspaper Building,” bespeaks that thorough knowledge of the limitless field that he has so carefully investigated. Himself a newspaper builder, he has passed down to rising journalists and editors a guide post for future voyages and voyagers into the field.
“Newspaper Building,” speaks in a matter of fact, unvarnished, untinseled way; it avoids the general and attacks the specific, and above all breathes the personality of M. Rogers from his long experience in his life work. In its every page there is a keenness of perception, an insight, coupled with a looking ahead into the future of journalism. “Newspaper Building” abounds in fact and reality—it's full of "dont’s" for those who can well use it as their guide in newspaper construction.
Jason Roges deals with the business side of the newspaper, and unravels his story step by step. The successes attained by Melville E. Stone with the Chicago Daily News, Colonel William R. Nelson and the Kansas City Star, Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World, William L. McLean and the Philadelphia Bulletin, Adolph S. Ochs and the New York Times, Hugh Graham and the Montreal Star, and the transformation of the Commerial Advertiser into the New York Globe over night under H. J. Wright and Mr. Rogers, are all related in tle opening chapter entitled, “Background of Experience.”
Honesty fair play to all, and getting all the news and using “all that’s fit to print” made for the successes of the above sheets. Mr. Rogers characterizes the present day Kansas City Star and the Montreal Star as “reflecting the best and greatest in our modern journalism—they stand as models for the background of a new newspaper edifice."
“Make your own paper,” says Rogers to the adventurer in the newspaper field——“see that your equipment is equal if not superior to that of your competitor in the field, and get hold of an almost expiring newspaper rather than busing up your fresh dollars in a new undertaking.”
How the New York Globe, with the aid of a pure, food expert on its staff,
