“It is the writers of newspapers that cause the people to desire to read these newspapers. While the universal curiosity of humanity is such that all men desire news items, still it is a fact that newspapers that are merely purveyors of news have no chance at all in competition with other publications which give less news but occasionally publish articles of news value (or of no news value) which have a strong appeal to the emotions and common instincts of humanity.
“I recall my youthful experiences on the Detroit News, Cleveland Press, and Cincinnati Post – all newspapers which quickly achieved great popularity. I know that in the case of our first newspaper, the Detroit News, one man, a writer of great ability, supported by two reporters of somewhat less ability – all three of these men being peculiar geniuses, much given to idleness and only occasionally contributing rather startling articles – were the real authors of the success of this paper. I doubt if there was an average of more than one or two a week of these popular articles published.
“The man who carried the Cleveland Press through was a $15-a-week, morphine-eating, whiskey-drunk reporter….
“It was a wild-eyed, eccentric, ex-Methodist minister, who had been excommunicated, who did more to make the Cincinnati Post a success than all the rest of us put together ….
“I think the really great editor is the man who can secure and keep on his staff one, two, or three writers whom he permits to express themselves with the least possible restraint.”
From E.W. Scripps, “Concerning the Founding of New Newspapers,” April 23, 1922
(Originally published Jan. 13, 2022)
Roland Klose 