Part 18 (1/2)
”Bought the paper.”
”You needn't have gone down town to do that. It comes to the office.”
”You don't understand. I've bought the 'Clarion,' presses, plant, circulation, franchise, good-will, ill-will, high, low, jack, and the game.”
”You! What for?”
”Why,” said Hal thoughtfully; ”mainly because I lost my temper, I believe.”
”Sounds like a pretty heavy loss, Boy-ee.”
”Two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Oh, the prodigal son hasn't got anything on me, Dad, when it comes to scattering patrimonies,” he concluded a little ruefully.
”What are you going to do with it, now you've got it?”
”Run it. I've bought a career.”
”Now you're talking.” The big man jumped up and set both hands on Hal's shoulders. ”That's the kind of thing I like to hear, and in the kind of way it ought to be said. You go to it, Hal. I'll back you, as far as you like.”
”No, sir. I thank you just the same: this is my game.”
”Want to play it alone, do you?”
”How else can I make a career of it?”
”Right you are, Boyee. But it takes something behind money to build up a newspaper. And the 'Clarion' 'll take some building up.”
”Well, I've got aspiration enough, if it comes to that,” smiled Hal.
”Aspiration's a good starter: but it's perspiration that makes a business go. Are you ready to take off your coat and work?”
”I certainly am. There's a lot for me to learn.”
”There is. Everything. Want some advice from the Old Man?”
”I most surely do, Dad.”
”Listen here, then. A newspaper is a business proposition. Never forget that. All these hifalutin' notions about its being a palladium and the voice of the people and the guardian of public interests are good enough to talk about on the editorial page. Gives a paper a following, that kind of guff does. But the duty of a newspaper is the duty of any other business, to make money. There's the principle, the policy, the politics, ethics, and religion of the newspaper in a nutsh.e.l.l. Now, how are you going to make money with the 'Clarion'?”
”By making it a better paper than the others.”
”Hm! Better. Yes: that's all right, so long as you mean the right thing by 'better.' Better for the people that want to use it and can pay for using it.”
”The readers, you mean?”
”The advertisers. It's the advertisers that pay for the paper, not the readers. You've got to have circulation, of course, to get the advertising. But remember this, always: circulation is only a means to an end. It never yet paid the cost of getting out a daily, and it never will.”
”I know enough of the business to understand that.”
”Good! Look at the 'Clarion,' as it is. It's got a good circulation. And that lets it out. It can't get the advertising. So it's losing money, hand over fist.”