Page:Columbia Journalism Review volume 2 issue 1.djvu/9

 famous name had two assets: considerable reading matter in a full-size format and UPI service. It printed up to 300,000 papers a day on offset presses.

Standard: This tabloid, published by the Uni-Serv Corporation (credit cards), was designed to be the major interim newspaper. It had an editorial staff of about 50, drawn largely from the morning news- papers, and an advertising staff of 25 that disappeared (like its advertisements) when the Post resumed pub- lication. It was first issued, after hair-raising produc- tion difficulties, on January 6, and immediately gained the display and classified advertising that had been held in abeyance, thereby putting a constant squeeze on editorial material. It claimed a peak circulation of 400,000 before it ceased publication on March 24.

Chronicle (later Independent): This effort dif- fered from others in several respects: It was the only one published outside the city (in Mount Kisco), it was the only one that did not have the sponsorship of a previously existing organization, and it attempted with considerable success to introduce makeup in- novations. With a staff from the Times and the Post, it began to publish on January 23 and suspended on January 27. Later it was reborn under the aegis of the publisher of Town & Village and lasted from February 24 to March 8. It printed about 200,000 copies a day.

Among magazines, the most extensive effort was made by Life, which put out a weekly “New York Extra” of pages added to the front and back of the national edition. Highly pictorial, they were not a newspaper substitute, but rather a suggestion of Life as a rather noisy local magazine. Life claimed sales of 900,000 copies, enough to encourage continuing the edition after the strike.

The interim press offered a number of lessons in the hazards of starting new newspapers in a city:

The obstacles to starting a paper, given such an opening as a strike, were not the usual tangibles of capital and equipment. With immediate revenue, these could be arranged. Far worse were the less ob- vious hazards — corruption in the distribution system, the unwillingness of the wire services to supply emer- gency service, and, finally, the problem of trying to penetrate a huge metropolitan area with tiny resources.

2. Many readers preferred to buy nothing at all in preference to something new. Completely sold press runs were exceptions for the interim papers.

A staff of experienced newspapermen by itself did not assure quality. As in established papers, character was determined by those who held editorial responsibility. This was clearly seen in the differences among, say, the Standard, the Metropolitan Daily, and the Chronicle.

Standard closed March 24, assuming strike was over

Last to go: Daily Report lasted until day before settlement Spring, 1963