1940: Newspaper Business

Compared with the four or five previous years, 1940 marked a period of progress, increased prosperity and relative tranquility for newspapers. That was true, despite the excitement and technical difficulties of covering not only war activities in many parts of the globe, but also a Presidential election at home. Daily newspapers, generally speaking, ended the year with recovery of their 1937 peak in circulation, and with a gain of about 4 per cent in total advertising.

No important daily newspapers ceased publication during 1940. In the smaller towns, however, approximately 50 either suspended publication or changed from daily to weekly status. The reason generally assigned was inability to operate as a daily newspaper under the overtime requirements and short work-week schedule of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Since weekly newspapers are specifically exempted from that law, daily newspapers that were seldom more than marginally profitable found themselves in better case as weeklies.

For the first time in many years, a new daily newspaper was established in New York in June. Entitled PM, it was projected as a newspaper which would depart from stereotyped methods and controls of the established press, presenting the news according to its genuine importance rather than its passing interest. It proclaimed that it would accept no advertising, but would report the offerings of the New York stores as news. The new publication, which appears evenings except Saturday, and Sunday, is of modified tabloid form, printing many pictures, and employing a printing process never before applied to daily newspapers. Ink, supplied as a solid, is reduced to a liquid by heat and is kept liquid until it strikes the cold surface of the printing paper. It then solidifies immediately, providing a surface which the manufacturers claim will not rub off on hands or clothing, offset or strike through on other parts of the newspaper, and which will permit the better printing of illustrations. Insufficient time has elapsed for judgment as to the place of this form of journalism in the metropolitan picture; the difficulties which have been encountered to date have been of the sort to be expected with a new departure. Another experiment, using the offset printing process, was started as the Newsdaily, in Hartford, Conn., during March. Like New York's PM, it was a five-cent paper, against the three-cent price of the established dailies. Newsdaily appeared for three months, then suspended pending reorganization, which has not been consummated at this writing. No other marked departures from accepted practice were noted.

Labor affairs were comparatively tranquil. The only prolonged strike affecting newspapers was that of the American Newspaper Guild (CIO) unit in Monroe, La., against the News-Star and World. This was settled at the end of the year after a nine-month course. At this writing, the Newspaper Guild is not engaged in any newspaper strikes. During the year, it signed several new contracts and renewed others. It faced new competition in the establishment of editorial room organizations in New York and Chicago under auspices of the American Federation of Labor. The Chicago unit of the latter signed a year-end contract with the Herald-American; the New York unit to date has no contractual relationships. The American Press Society, a professional, non-union editorial organization, marked time during the year. Difficulties with the printing trades unions were infrequent and unimportant.

Newsprint paper prices remained stable throughout the year and are assured for the first half of 1941 — a factor of great importance in newspaper economy. Deliveries of new machinery to newspapers were on a larger scale during 1940 than in several previous years, but it seemed likely that the facilities of equipment manufacturers would be increasingly occupied with orders for defense mechanisms. Several were already enjoying a large volume of that business before the year ended.

Not to be overlooked in the year's chronicle was the final reorganization of the Bureau of Advertising, American Newspaper Publishers Association, for an expanded campaign for the promotion of newspapers as an advertising medium. With an increased budget and staff, the Bureau produced approximately 25 'Continuing Studies of Daily Newspapers,' an intimate analysis of the reading attention commanded by every item in every column. These studies are continuing. The advent of frequency modulation in radio transmission caused a number of newspapers operating radio stations to apply for licenses to experiment with the new process. This development is still in infancy, but it is believed to hold important possibilities for the extension of radio facilities to the small city daily.

With approximately 66 per cent of the daily press, holding 75 per cent of the total circulation, opposing the re-election of President Roosevelt, his success at the polls produced a recurrence of the criticism that the press no longer influences public opinion. This charge was quickly rebutted by newspaper spokesmen, both in the press and on the air, and little has been heard of it since Dec. 1. The critics who most strongly attacked the domestic policies of newspapers were high in praise of the coverage of international news, unprecedented difficulties since the conquest of France and the bombing of Britain — the principal clearing points for foreign news.

As this is written, the press looks forward to a year in which both domestic and foreign affairs will require coverage hitherto unparalleled. It expects also that income from both advertising and circulation will be ample for the adequate execution of the job.