Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/353

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City, coincided with the breaking-out of the Spanish-American War. Big headlines, and news displayed in larger type, served to advertise the latest reports, which the public eagerly sought. The climax of large headlines is found in two metropolitan newspapers which announced the declaration of hostilities with the single word "WAR," spread over the whole of the front page. Banner heads in red and black, and large headlines two and three columns in width, that are now not uncommon in newspapers as a means of advertising the news, had their beginning in the Spanish-American War days.

The Growth of Cities. The growth in the population of cities, partly as a result of the movement from the country to the city, and partly as a result of immigration, has made possible large increases in newspaper circulation. New papers have not been established generally to meet this growth in population; existing papers, rather, have added to the number of their readers. The result has been that a few large papers are to be found in all the big cities of the country rather than an ever-increasing number of small ones. In great centres of population, like New York and Chicago, the influx of foreign immigrants has also been a factor in the development of so-called "yellow journalism." With a limited knowledge of the English language and of American institutions, this foreign element has been attracted by large, striking headlines, sensational news stories, diagrammatic illustrations, and well-displayed editorials, and has become a considerable part of the total number of readers of the "yellow journals."

The Development of Features. Hand in hand with the remarkable growth of advertising in newspapers has gone the development of important features in the editing of them. The success of department store advertisements, for example, depends to a considerable