Monday, Oct. 22, 1923
M'sieu le Depute
Le Petit Parisien (1,800,000 daily circulation, nearly three times greater than any American newspaper) is the most widely read journal in France. It is printed in 15 separate editions. The first edition comes off the press at 5.30 a. m. of the day before and is shot to the provinces furthest North. The last edition leaves the machines at 6 a. m. for the grand boulevards.
Paris and vicinity within 60 miles absorb half the circulation, so that even as a metropolitan paper it is twice the size of an American daily. Within this radius the papers are distributed by small cars and cyclists to thousands of cafes. These cafes, opening early in the morning, make their profit by feeding the news agents and news vendors who come for their supply of Petit Parisiens. A corps of 15 super-inspectors and 60 district chiefs is on the move from dawn till sunset to keep the circulation booming in every quarter of Paris.
Out of town Le Petit Parisien deals with 18,000 news agents. Agents are credited with copies which are returned unsold. At Clichy (suburb of Paris) a special service checks these returns, the cost of this service being barely covered by the cash derived from the sale of the returns as waste paper.
The publishing genius who sits atop this circulation is Monsieur le Depute Dupuy. He is en route to the U. S., accompanied by the editor of one of his smaller properties, L'Excelsior.
The Deputy says he comes to learn. Always the Frenchman, always the delightful flatteur.