ial. Even timeliness is not a
prerequisite. If it were learned to-day that a member of the United
States Senate had killed a man in 1912, the occurrence would be news and
would be carried on the front page of every paper in America, even
though the deed were committed years ago. And if it should transpire
that Csolgosz was bribed by an American millionaire to assassinate
President McKinley in 1901, the story would be good for a column in any
paper. Freshness, enormity, departure from the normal, all are good and
add to the value of news, but they are not essential. The only
requirements are that the story shall be accurate and shall contain
facts or ideas interesting to a considerable number of readers.

=38. Accuracy.=--The reason for emphasizing so particularly the need of
accuracy in news requires little discussion. _Accuracy First_ is the
slogan of the modern newspaper. If a piece of news, no matter how
thrilling, is untrue, it is worthless in the columns of a reputable
journal. It is worse than worthless, because it makes the public lose
confidence in the paper. And the ideal of all first-class newspapers
to-day is never to be compelled to retract a published statement. This
desire for accuracy does not bar a paper from publishing, for example, a
rumor of the assassination of the German Crown Prince, but it does
demand that the report be published only as an unverified rumor.

=39. Interest.=--The statement, however, that interest is the other
requisite of news requires full explanation, because the demand
immediately comes for an explanation of that elusive quality in news
which makes it interesting. In other words, what constitutes interest?
Any item of news, it may be defined, that will present a new problem, a
new situation, that will provoke thought in the minds of a considerable
number of readers, is interesting, and that story is most interesting
which presents a new problem to the greatest number of people. It is a
psychological truth that all men think only when they must. Yet they
enjoy being made to think,--not too hard, but hard enough to engage
their minds seriously. The first time they meet a problem they think
over it, and think hard if need be. But when they meet that problem a
second or a third time, they solve it automatically. A man learning to
drive a car has presented to him a new problem about which he must think
keenly. The steering wheel, the foot-brake, the accelerator, the brake
and speed