James E. Pollard

President Truman and the Press

The author of The Presidents and the Press brings the record up to date with this account of Presidential press relations during Trumans first six years in the White House. Dr. Pollard is director of the School of Journalism at Ohio State University, and also author of a standard work on newspaper management.

Truman and the Press: Final Phase, 1951-53

Through eight difficult years the President maintained generally good relations with the newsmen at the White House, despite his quarrels with publishers and with the press as a whole. Director of the School of Journalism at Ohio State, Dr. Pollard is author of the standard work on this subject, The Presidents and the Press.

Spiraling Newspaper Costs Outrun Revenues 1939–1949

f; IN HIS JULY 13 FIRESIDE TALK ON the economic state of the nation, President Truman began by observing, It is a good thing to stop and think about where we are, where we are going . . . The same observation might be made about the newspaper industry in America. For it is exactly a decade since the onset of World War II and in that brief span the world has seen more major economic and political changes than in any other similar period in its history. These changes inevitably have left their marks on newspaper publishing in the United States as they have on other forms of business enterprise. But this major industry has been affected to a greater degree than some others, partly because the whole communications picture is changing rapidly, partly because of its own peculiar nature, and partly for other reasons. The economic condition of the newspaper in a

Book Review: Editorial Treatment in the American Press.Editorial Treatment in the American Press. By FosterCharles R.Jr.Cambridge: Harvard University Press.1938. xviii + 304 pp.

250,000,000,000 economy is quite different from what it was in the

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100,000,000,000 economy of only a little while ago. There have been notable advances in certain respects. There is no question but that todays U. S. newspaper is a better product than that of 10 or 20 years ago. But the advances have not been uniform and certain important questions are unanswered. It is the problems produced by these economic facts of life which make the future look doubtful in some respects. It is these same cold, inescapable facts which give the lie to those theorists who decry newspaper monopolies, mergers, the absence of competition in a growing number of American cities, and the general tendency of the individual newspaper to become big business even on a local scale. The evidence, as will be seen, seems fairly clear. In terms of revenue U. S. newspapers have thrived greatly since the war. But spiraling costs have outrun revenues and, where the latter show signs of slackening, there is no indication that costs will not rise still further. This is especially true in two important areas-the cost of newsprint and mechanical department wages. It is a condition, therefore, and not a theory which many publishers face and with which they must reckon in their plans for the future. Whether new equipment will come on the market in time to enable them to lower production costs is a question. Whether economies in respect to newsprint can be effected, as some claim, is at least debatable. Whether greater production can be had from present equipment and manpower through improved methods or other means remains to be seen. The hard fact remains that for a decade it has been increasingly apparent that the tendency is for publishing

Statutory Definitions of the Newspaper

treatment of the point has been largely neglected, for the social scientist has frequently been content to deplore the lack of information in the press while ignoring the scientific data it presents in the form of folkinterpreted life history documents. Human interest iri. the newspaper then is a function of the cultural environment. But environments differ, and it is to be regretted that Mrs. Hughes has relied so heavily on the metropolitan press for both historical and current source material. New York City gives her the Hearst-Pulitzer feud, the reporting of Lincoln Steffens, the tabloid invention and the differentiation of newspaper function which can all too easily be taken as typical of the country at large. As a matter of fact, N ew York is unique. Decrease of the number of dailies in this country makes the survivors, . outside of -New York, more and more common denominators, appealing to all classes for circulation. They imitate the New York leadership, to be sure, but often with little thought as to the function. of adapted techniques in the community newspaper. Recognition of the respective places of news and the story in the paper shows the futility of the item· that is the traditional news shell emptied· of its literary human interest content, the uselessness of the H. I. story hacked to bare facts so more can be crowded on Page 1. Justified by this study as a social mechanism, the ,true folk story need not shame the city editor who tells it well.

Advertising Copy Requirements of Representative Newspapers

A T LEAST forty-two states have statutes defining a newspaper for legal purposes; but in general these statutes are neither uniform, complete nor satisfactory. For further guidance there are court decisionS, official opinions and established practices. The statutoQ definitions touch upon many points. but no two are quite alike and they vary with local needs and CQnditions. Many seek to lay down general principles rather than to go into extensive detail. Yet some suffer from oversimplification or silence; others are long, complicated and ambiguous; Some were perhaps adequate when passed but have become obsolete or ineffective. In all, some twenty-five specifications are listed among the statutory qualifications of newspapers competent to print public notices. Some occur more often than others and some are covered in blanket fashion by the fairly common requirement that such a newspaper must have (or be eligible to) second class mailing privileges. Some specifications overlap, but the importance of others is not always to be judged by the frequency or infrequency of their occurrence. For example, only twelve of the forty-two states require that publication must be in English.

Book Review: Lincoln and Greeley.HornerHarlan H., Lincoln and Greeley. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1953. viii+432 pp.

A charge of those who like to throw stones at news› papers is that most advertising is designed to take advantage of the public and that the newspapers are a knowing party to the conspiracy. These critics assert further that if the newspapers have any conscience in the matter it is either dulled by their zeal for profits or by pressure from advertisers. No one would insist that all ad› vertising is beyond reproach or above suspicion, nor would anyone who knows anything about them contend that newspapers are perfect. Being human institutions, they are heir to human frailties and their very na› ture holds them up for all the world to see. But the truth is that the con› science of the newspaper is more highly developed than the public generally realizes or than the critics are willing to concede. It is also true that the better newspapers are in› creasingly aware of their responsi› bility to the public and to honest advertisers. These facts are emphasized by the results of an inquiry recently com-