How Does a Newspaper Survive?

In order to survive, a newspaper needs numerous subscribers, the help of the community, paid publications, the aid of the friends of education, the generosity of the nation, and the support of the societies whose duty is to sustain it. Our newspaper,¹ however, does not enjoy the privilege of having any of these things.

1. The number of our subscribers, instead of growing, is diminishing. In Salonica, we believe 10 percent of the Jewish population is registered in our book as subscribers, but in reality, it is no more than 1 percent.
2. As for our community on whose support we had counted, we did not have the fortune of the periodicals in Constantinople, Izmir, and other places [ . . . ] we hope that our esteemed community will find these arguments convincing and will not resent us any longer.
3. Until now, people did not pay to have their articles printed, unless these publications served their own interests.
4. How are we going to earn the right to get support? While there is never a shortage of things to be printed, for some reason they are sent to another press. As the Alliance² pays to have its bulletin printed every month or every other month, we propose to publish in a separate column in La Epoka its materials that have not yet appeared there [ . . . ] and at the end of every month or every two months we will print its bulletin—and all of this for the same price it pays that other press.

As for our subscribers in the provinces, unfortunately, because of the war,³ we have lost many of them, together with the payments they owed us.

In Monastir [Bitola], not only did three people refuse to pay what they owed us for last year and can- celled their subscriptions because we had asked them to pay postage, but now our agent informs us that subscribers who continue to receive the newspaper want to pay us in banknotes instead of silver.⁴

We hear the same thing from Constantinople. [ . . . ] Even though we are charging such a tiny sum, seventy gurush per year, they want to pay us in paper money! If they realize that the cost of printing fifty issues per year includes postage, stamps, workers’ wages, our own labor, money exchange fees, price of the equipment, rent, etc., they will not dare pay in paper instead of silver! [ . . . ]

How does a periodical survive? We are sustained only by the small support that we receive from some people who know and appreciate the value of education. And their kind encouragement gives us hope that our endeavor will succeed in the future.