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Show WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS GROWING EVERY DAY IN POWER. Recent suspension of a weekly newspaper in New York state gave rise to the remark by a contemporary con-temporary daily that "the day of the weekly ha? passed." This statement, of course, did not g( unrcfutcd. On the contrary, n number of publishers pub-lishers of weekly newspapers immediotely cami to the defense of their publications, which, as a matter of fact, need no defense at nil, for thej cover a field which the daily cannot touch. Ar the editor of tho Drydcn (N. Y.) Herald justh says, weekly newspapers are local papers, hand ling the news of their immcdlato localities. The serve their readers and their advertisers as effi ciently as other newspapers, nnd in many caser moro so. Tho wideawake publisher of a weekly news paper is highly satisfied with his lot and hns al' reason to bo so. It is most encouraging to set the manner in which they speak up of thci newspapers. Supplementing the remarks of the Drydcn Herald, M. V. Atwood, publisher of thr Groton (N. Y.) Journnl, defines the position of the weekly paper thus: 'Tho weekly publishers who arc confininr themselves to their field hnvo no complaint tc make of tho competition of tho daily paper. Wlicr the rural free delivery was started some nessi mlstlc individuals immediately proclaimed thr downfnll of the weekly newspaper because, they said, people on the rural routes would all abandon aban-don their locnl paper for tho daily. "But how has it worked out? Tho farmer? havo by no means thrown ovcrbonrd their home papers. Mnybo somo of them did for a time, but It was not long before they enmo back in the fold. Why 7 Because they soon saw that the city paper was not looking after their interests tho way their locnl paper was. It did not take tho people long to realize that, while they enjoyed en-joyed tho few local features they might find in the dnily paper, these did not by any menns take the place of the detailed and satisfactory way the homo paper handled the local news. "If tho people think that the local paper is on its Inst legs let them tako a glance nt the advertising adver-tising columns. Tho nntionni advertisers, the ones who use tho magazines, nro not getting aboard n sinking ship. A few years ago the country weeklies were used almost not at all by firms like tho Standard Oil company, the International Inter-national Hnrvcstcr company, mnkers of prepared foods and the like. Now every year hccs an increase in-crease in this kind of business. "Local merchants who used to think they wore advertising when they carried an inch card in the locnl paper now use pages and half pages. Why 7 Not to help the publisher tho self respecting publisher docs not want business on thnt basis but bccnUBo tho merchants find thnt the advertising adver-tising pays. Maybe not any ono particular advertisement, ad-vertisement, but thnt tho business that is kept boforo tho peoplo In season nnd out of seiiBon Is tho business thnt is going to succeed. Nay, kind friends, shed no tears for the poor country publisher pub-lisher whose business is doomed to die, for it Isn't." This mnn Atwood shows the, spirit that counts to advantage in all affairs of life. So long as the weekly newspaper is in such hands and thcro nro thousands of publishers liko him tho weekly week-ly paper will grow and become more powerful thnn ever. |