THE "INTERCOLLEGIATE PRESS"

An interesting tendency in college journalism is marked by the recent establishment of The Intercollegiate Press, an organization to give "News and Editorial Service" to college papers. The service seems mainly to consist of retailing news items and topics of interest for college editorial writers. The information distributed is gathered from college papers and from other periodicals treating of college subjects. Material considered suitable for reprinting is also included.

While it is obviously desirable for college journals to keep in close touch when one another, it seems doubtful whether the new Intercollegiate Press Service, as now conducted, will accomplish much in this direction. Issued weekly, it cannot hope to distribute news items with the promptness that makes them valuable, and news that is not of immediate interest is usually useful only for comment. Thus the whole service must virtually become a sort of Baedeker for the editorial writer. And if an editorial staff is incapable of making its way successfully without a guide, it is doubtful whether it could use one to advantage. At best it would be difficult to preserve individuality.

Nevertheless it is obvious that an efficient news service whereby important items could be systematically and promptly relayed between colleges would be extremely useful...But such a service can hardly be carried on satisfactorily by an agency that merely selects suggestive miscellaneous items from papers several days after they appear. Even this can be done more thoroughly by individual papers for themselves through direct exchanges. The Intercollegiate Press, of course, has the advantage of being in touch with a larger number of colleges than any one journal can be, but at present that touch appears to be too remote to be of much concrete value.