II
circulation of news concerning persons temporarily in foreign countries , the newspaper has added domestic and local news,29 comment on the news made by the editor, headlines to attract
attention , official notices , advertisements, the interview , special correspondence , occasional correspondence, letters to the editors, answers to correspondents , book reviews, dramatic news, art
news, musical criticism , a humorous column, a weather chart,30 a woman 's page,31 a society page, a sporting page, school news,
college news, church news, choir news, news from the army and navy , financial reports, market reports, genealogical columns, health columns, legal columns, special articles, syndicated articles,
clippings from exchanges, " fillers,” illustrations, the illustrated supplement, the comic supplement; supplements designed to interest special industries or occupations, as those of building, real estate, oil, automobiles, trade with Japan , South America, Australia , or the Orient; special interests, as fire protection , vital conservation ; bureaus to give advice on financial investments,
on the choice of schools or colleges, on travel at home or abroad ,-
every great daily vies with its competitors in discovering and developing some new interest or device that will increase its circulation and attract advertisers, and thus increase its returns on the capital invested in the plant. At one time the newspaper relied on the scoop ” to give this new interest, but this was only a passing phase. To-day the great news-collecting agencies may be said to have eliminated “ the
scoop," although it would be more nearly true to say that while they have not eliminated it, they have changed its character .
The newspaper of to -day finds an outlet for its enterprise and activity , not in securing “ a beat ” from its rival when both are interested in obtaining the same piece of news, but in devising 29 G . S . Strong says that the Syracuse Journal in 1846 was the first paper to establish a local column . - Early Landmarks of Syracuse , p . 93. 30 The weather chart was started in 1848 by the Daily News. It had its
origin in the bad harvests of that year and ceased with the occasion , but was soon taken up by the Astronomer Royal in co -operation with the
railway companies. - J. C . Francis, John Francis, I, 155 -156 . See also H . Leach , Fleet Street from Within , chap. XIII , “ Some Specialists on Duty .” 31 This has been almost entirely discontinued in American papers, but the London Daily Mail " recognizes that women readers exist." - F . A . McKenzie , The Mystery of the Daily Mail, pp . 16 –
