Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

Photo; Cassell & co., Lai. IN THE SUB-EDITORS’ ROOM, “ DAILY NEWS ” OFFICE. 204 THE PRODUCTION THE morning newspaper as it comes to the breakfast table still damp from the press represents less an industry than a triumph of industrial organisation. In its production the telegraphist, the postman, the writer, the compositor, and the printer have all played their part, but behind these stands a great army of men whose skill and inven- tiveness have made it possible to utilise the work of the others. In no direction has engineering made greater advances, and in none have the results come so near perfec- tion as in the building of the modern print- ing press. The paper maker achieves some of his greatest triumphs in the almost endless rolls from which a newspaper is printed. A modern newspaper office has become, at the behest of the engineer and the machinist, not so much a literary workshop as a great factory throbbing with intricate engines. In 1846 fourteen daily newspapers were published in this country, and few had a circulation of more than hundreds daily. Now 250 papers are issued every clay, and in the whole country there are 2,500 newspapers. Even with such vast expansion OF A NEWSPAPER. the production of a newspaper cannot rank with the greater industries. Probably 60,000 persons are directly engaged in newspaper offices, of whom 10,000 are writers. They are responsible for every kind of sheet, from the obscure weekly with its staff of two, who are at various times compositor, reporter, and editor, to the great London or provincial daily, in the preparation of which hundreds of men find employment. Indirectly, newspapers probably enable as many more persons to earn a livelihood. The vast army of news-boys, of news-agents, and of bookstall-keepers has grown up as journalism has developed. The manufac- ture of printing machinery, of type, of type- setting machines, and of paper engage many thousands of persons. But to trace the in- dustry through all these ramifications would be merely to illustrate the infinite complexity of modern conditions. The office of a modern daily newspaper is divided into many separate departments, each complete in itself, and yet each in close touch with and dependent upon the others. Editors, sub-editors, reporters, and the army