The Perennial Struggle of the Local Press
A century and a half ago, Seattle editors were already trading barbs about the 'eternal fitness' of readers who sponge news and merchants who refuse to advertise.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
We know of nothing that is more soul-elevating to the publisher of a newspaper than to see a man refuse to take his local paper, and all the time sponging on his neighbor for the reading of it. When we ask a man to subscribe for our paper, we do so simply because it makes our heart 'flop' from one side of our breast to the other with joy when we hear him say: 'I take more papers now than I read,' and then find him seated on his neighbor’s doorstep eagerly watching our carrier to get a glimpse at the local page before the owner of the paper takes it into the house. There is also an 'eternal fitness' in seeing a merchant or mechanic refuse to advertise in his home paper, and then consider himself justly entitled to a share of the trade which a newspaper brings to town.
“There is also an 'eternal fitness' in seeing a merchant or mechanic refuse to advertise in his home paper, and then consider himself justly entitled to a share of the trade which a newspaper brings to town.”
This editorial from 1878 echoes the modern plight of local journalism, where the disconnect between the value a paper provides to a community and the financial support it receives remains a central tension. Just as editors then complained about 'sponging' neighbors, today's newsrooms struggle with the 'free-rider' problem in the digital age.
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