Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/319

 A LABORATORY EXPERIMENT IN JOURNALISM 303

promised to produce the edition at actual cost. This was an encouraging beginning. Next the news services must be secured. The Associated Press and the City Press Association, with the hearty consent of their Chicago members, 3 agreed to supply copies of their complete reports, with the understanding that the paper should not be published before noon. The city editors of the morning papers were equally friendly, promising to give access to their assignment books, and to send out students with their own reporters. The sum needed to cover the cost of bring- ing out the paper was quickly secured from friends who took advertising space to the amount of three columns.

These preliminaries settled, the class. set about the further preparations with enthusiasm. The staff had already been organ- ized with the editor-in-chief of the college daily as managing editor, two student reporters as news and city editors, and the Associated Press employee as telegraph editor. All the usual departments finance, society, sport, art, literature and the drama, exchange, etc. had been assigned to responsible editors; a cartoonist had been selected, copy-readers appointed, and now the original staff of reporters was enlarged by volunteers among friends of the class, and from one of the university courses in English composition. The complete staff numbered nearly forty, each having clearly defined duties, and responsible to a designated superior.

The following important points were decided upon after full discussion in the class. The name the Daily Times was adopted. The policy and tone of the paper were to be Republican in national affairs, with a somewhat independent attitude toward state and municipal politics ; to be dignified in the treatment and display of news, avoiding sensational methods and smartness; to aim at accuracy, abjuring "fakes" and "pipe stories." Only by fixing a policy in this way would it be possible to make a consistent and homogeneous paper. While the usage of the office in which the

3 Acknowledgment is due to Mr. A. C. Thomas and Colonel C. S. Diehl, of the Associated Press ; to Mr. H. L. Saylor, of the City Press ; and to the following members of these associations : Mr. R. WV Patterson, of the Chicago Tribune; Mr. F. B. Noyes, of the Record-Herald; Mr. G. W. Hinman, of the Inter-Ocean; and Mr. H. W. Seymour, of the Chronicle.