A practical acquaintance with the technique of the editorial side of newspaper production is of the greatest value in newspaper management. That is why journalists occupy so many managerial positions.
The editorial side has its own special problems to solve, but some of them are problems which are also closely allied with the function of management. There is, for instance, a good deal more supervision of advertising than there used to be, and it is not uncommon thing for a considerable amount of business to be turned down because the management is not satisfied that it is absolutely bona fide, or because of dissatisfaction with the manner in which it is presented.
A newspaper has to spend so much money to gain new readers that it cannot afford to lose them through advertising which does not keep its promises. A dissatisfied reader can do quite a lot of harm.
Sometimes a single advertisement may cause much trouble in this way. This aspect of advertising is dealt with elsewhere at greater length-; suffice it to say here, that a good many knotty problems come to the managerial executive from the advertising department.
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Then there are special problems associated with staff management. Newspaper staffs have increased considerably in recent years; and in big offices it is not uncommon to find the number of employees running into several hundreds when all departments are taken into account.
Surrounding the employment of a staff in any kind of business are innumerable legal responsibilities and trade union and commercial obligations, which have to be constantly remembered and carried rigorously into effect.
Scientific Management of Modern newspaper
All these considerations apply as much to the management of a newspaper as to any other concern. In the building-up of an efficient machine the careful selection of the human element is of the greatest importance.
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In recent years much attention has been paid to industrial psychology, and those who control businesses of almost any description, and particularly those which are associated with actual productive processes, now take a practical interest in it.
The principles of scientific management are largely based upon industrial psychology which embraces wide field of research and from which a considerable amount of valuable data has already been gathered.
Its application to the editorial side of newspaper work is obviously limited to ordinary considerations of careful organization and supervision, but on the technical side it can be carried further. The study of “time motion,” for instance, has already been applied experimentally to the operation of a linotype machine, and has yielded interesting and useful results.
Regard has been paid to similar principles in the “lay-out” of modern newspaper offices, in which the arrangement of the various departments, particularly those concerned with the actual production of the paper, presents an instructive contrast with conditions based on older ideas. Many offices have recently been completely rearranged to bring them into line with modern practice.
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Much depends, of course, upon the floor space and general accommodation available, and where these are restricted, modernization is retarded, and the “forward motion” which characterizes modern processes of production cannot always be applied.