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Show rjf rC" idea I from other editora From the Catsklll Mountain Star, Saugertles, New York: Occasionally Oc-casionally someone comes into a newspaper office and says to an editor, "Here's something to help fill up your paper." Certainly every editor hi grateful grate-ful when anyone takes the trouble to drop in and tell him a news . item of value. And every reporter likes to have help In gathering news but no newspaper needs help to "fill up the paper." Making a newspaper is dally a task of selection. Each day sees perhaps nine times as much "copy" go into the wastebaskets as ever is sent to the Linotype machines. And some excellent material is discarded, for one reason or another. an-other. The mails bring in scores of letters let-ters every day, from all over the country, from political publicity writers. Organizations hire smart and bright young men and women to send newspapers attractive and sometimes news-worthy stories, "plugging" the aims, objectives and purposes of these organiza tions. Hollywood is prolific of copy, some of which would make interesting inter-esting reading. Industry and business, busi-ness, eager for free publicity, have attractive handouts. And foreign countries, some embassies, and semi-official foreign organizations send us material that would, for one reason or another, make "good reading." At the end of the day the waste-baskets waste-baskets of every newspaper in this country are crammed, packed, Jammed full of well-written, sometimes some-times attractive stories that cannot can-not be used. The good old United States Government has agencies, commissions, bureaus and whatnot, what-not, all of which mail out reams upon reams of stuff they hope and pray will be used by some editors. Some of it is used. Most of it goes, kerplunk, into the wastebaskets, though. So please never say to an editor or a reporter "Here's something to help fill up your paper. Bless your kindly heart the problem in every newspaper is not to "fill it up," but "What the heck can I use out of all this material?" |