JAMES
MURRAY SMITHBORN at Kilmarnock 7th August, 1852, Mr. J. Murray Smith has been connected with newspapers in various capacities since early youth. He was appointed editor of the Glasgow Evening News in 1885, that paper then being an adjunct of the Conservative morning journal, the Glasgow News. A few years later, on the stoppage of the morning paper, Mr. Smith acquired the Evening News, and at once proceeded to put life and interest into it. The size of the journal was increased from four to eight pages (it is now ten or twelve), and the prejudices of politics were dropped from its columns, while interviews, special articles, and other fresh features were introduced. The News at once became more alert and vital, Mr. Smith's avowed aim being to produce "an evening paper in touch with all the varied interests of the day - free from party unfairness, full of information, personally interesting without being offensive, and giving in a lucid and attractive form all that pertains to the institutions and movements which embody the higher social aims of the community." On these lines the paper has been strenuously and consistently conducted, with obvious success. The proprietorship of the News has latterly been formed into a limited liability company, and the paper has been housed in handsome new offices in Hope Street. In its mechanical production, as in its journalistic methods, Mr. Smith's journal has remained constantly enterprising. Mr. Smith himself has a faculty for attracting brilliant men to his staff, and the result is to be seen in the popularity of his paper.