When Freedom Came to Lima : a Case Study
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WHEN FREEDOM CAME TO LIMA: A CASE STUDY by JOHN DAVID MITCHELL A. B., Oberlin College, 1950 A THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF SCIENCE Department of Technical Journalism KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE 1959 LP ii Kim f 2. TABLE 07 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 FREEDOM COMES TO LIMA 4 The Background 4 The Lima News 4 R. C . Holies and Freedom Newspapers 7 Sale of the News ' 13 Mechanics of the Sale 14 Reaction to the Sale 15 Changes after the Sale 19 Editorial Polioy 20 Personnel Changes 24 Changes in Physical Appearanoe 28 Changes in Operating Praotices 29 Summary and Evaluation 31 THE LIBRARY BOND ISSUE CAMPAIGN 32 The Significance of the Campaign 32 The Background to the Campaign 33 The Campaign for the Library 35 The Methods Employed 35 Endorsements and Sponsors 36 News and Publ icity 40 The Campaign Against the Library 46 News Coverage 46 Letters to the Editor 52 Editorial Opposition 58 iii Evaluation and Conclusion 68 OVERTURE TO A STRIKE 72 The Background 72 Holies and Labor 72 The Guild 79 The Printers 84 The Pressmen , 85 The Stereotypers 85 Organized Labor in Allen County 86 Summary 88 The Negotiations 91 The 1956 Contract 91 Contract Enforcement 92 Pre-Negotiatlon Activity 99 Negot iati ons 101 THE GUILD STRIKES 107a Finances 108 Public Relations Ill Union Cooperation 117 Eoonondo Support 118 Publishing 120 Saturday Editi on 124 Circulation 125 Promotion 129 Reporting the Strike 132 Editorials 139 Personnel 143 iv and Evaluation . 145 Summary , TWO-NEWSPAPER TOWN 148 Birth of the Citizen 148 Origins 148 Development 150 Finanoes 150 Personnel • 152 Mechanical Equipment 154 Promotion 155 Circulation 156 Summary and Evaluation 157 The Competitive Situation 157 Circulation and Promotion 161 Advertising 166 Public Relations and Promotion 168 Response to Competition 170 The Citizen ' s Campaign 173 CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS 177 The Strike 178 The News 181 The Citizen 185 Prospects 187 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 191 PIATES 193 LITERATURE CITED 194 APPENDICES 203 INTRODUCTION This thesis is a study of one particular newspaper situation: one in which the author was personally involved before he entered the aoademio side of Journalism and one in which his interest deep- ened as he beoame a teacher and formal student of journalism. It is a case study of the newspaper situation in Lima, Ohio, over a period of approximately three and a half years Basically it is a study of that situation from the announcement on a Saturday in Feb- ruary, 1956, of the impending sale of the Lima News to the Freedom Newspaper group until July 1, 1959> the second anniversary of Lima as a two-newspaper city. The study was undertaken with two proccnoeptlons in mind: first, that a factual account of the Lima newspaper situation was in and of itself worth attempting and, second, that the develop- ments in Lima pointed lessons that have a validity outside that particular journalistic situation. The purpose of this thesis, then, is to tell the story of what happened in Lima and to see what lessons that account might have for other newspapers, other communities, other persons. The method, as already indicated, is that of a case study. That is, the attempt is to draw on primary sources, including the author's personal knowledge, as much as possible for a specific ac- count of what happened. The emphasis in the study itself is on what happened. Consideration of why it happened and what it might mean is, as much as possible, reserved for clearly indicated sum- mary and conclusion sections of the thesis. The treatment is essentially chronological. It starts with the purchase of the New3 by the Holies organization, goes into a study of a major editorial campaign in which the viewpoint of the Hoiles-owned News was repudi- ated by the community, through the strike against the News , through the founding of the Lima Citizen as a competitive afternoon daily newspaper, through the developing competitive situation, and into the launching of an intensive anti-News oampaign by the Citizen . Major conclusions drawn from the study are r< served for the final chapter. Although the author did not know it at the time, speoiflc re- search for this study probably started in May, 1952, when the author resigned from the editorial staff of the Rockford, Illinois, Morning Star to join the staff of the Lima News as a reporter- deskman. Research in the form of familiarity with the Lima situa- tion continued for four and a quarter years until the author re- signed to go to Kansas State University as a temporary instructor in technical journalism. It was while at Kansas State that the de- cision was made to make the Lima situation the subject of a thesis. It was then that deliberate research was started. The researoh continued during two years at Kansas State in the form of collect- ing materials from periodicals, including both Lima newspapers and materials issued in oonneotion with the strike against the News and the founding of the Citizen . Material also was reoeived from friends and acquaintances, both in Lima and elsewhere, who knew of the author's special interest in the subject. In late August and early September of 1958, a special trip was made to Lima for three weeks of on-the-spot research. This inoluded examining the files of both newspapers, examining files of the Lima Newspaper Guild, Looal 166, American Newspaper Guild (AFL-CIO, CLC), and interview- ing a number of persons directly and indirectly involved in the situation. The gathering of material through newspapers and other periodicals and through personal correspondence was continued after the author joined the faoulty of the College of Journalism at the University of Colorado in September, 1958. The reader should be warned of one particular aspect of the author's relationship to the situation studied in this thesis. That is that the author had worked for the Galvin raanagement and had been an active Lima Guild member for nearly four years at the time the News was purchased by the Holies organization. He was among thoso who looked upon that sale and the editorial and manage- ment polloies of the new owners with something less than approval. It might be argued that this means the author has a bias which can- not avoid coloring his study of what happened in Lima. To any who raise that point, he can say only that as he approached this study he was exceedingly ccnsoious of that possibility and did his best to avoid it—or at the leaot to minimize it. In some seven years of full-time work he learned that a reporter's personal predilec- tions need not color his reporting of events or personalities; that frequently a reporter consoious of his contrary biases will be more suocessful in nullifying them and presenting a balanced, fair, valid report than will the reporter who is favorably predisposed toward the subject being reported. It is hoped that is the case here. K FREEDOM COmS TO LIMA The Background The Lima News. The Lima News, bought into on the proverbial shoestring and prospering through absorption of the competition, had by 1956 been Lima's only daily newspaper for marly a genera- tion. For 58 years it had as a principal owner a member of the L. S. Calvin family—first Leroy Spahr Galvin, then his daughter and his wife as his heirs. Founded in 1897, the News was purchased in 1898 by Calvin, E. W. Taokson, and J. R. Finnell. In 1908 Gal- vin bought out Tinnell's interest and in 1909 the N9W3 merged with Der Lima Courier, a German -language paper. Adolph Weixelbaum of the Courier became president of the firm that resulted from the merger, and Galvin became vioe president, publisher, and general manager. When Weixelbaum retired in 1930, Galvin purchased his holdings in the company and became president of the Lima News Pub lishing Company. By this time the News had merged with another - competitor {the Tlmas Demoorat , in 1920) and had absorbed its last two competitors (the afternoon Republican-Gazette and the morning 2 Star ). L. 3. Galvin also was associated with his brother, W. J. Galvin, 1. "Sals of Lima News Slated This JJlonth," news story, Lima News , Feb. 12, 1956, p. 1. A popular account has it that Galvin bought into the News with $200, primarily motivated by a desire to "show" his father-in-law, who did not fully approve of L. S. as the man to take his daughter's hand in marriage The News management now claims 1959 is the paper's seventy- fifth year, but this claim involves tracing the origin of the News back to the founding in 1884 of one of the papers it absorbed, the Lima Times - Democrat ("Linaland Shows Big Interest in Papers," news story, Lima News , June 28, 1959, Section DD, p. 2). 2. In his entry in Who ' s Y/ho, L. 3. Calvin listed himself as "founder, 1897, since editor k pub. Lima Evening k Sunday News." Who's Who in America, 1958-59, p. 1,301. in the Galvin-bros Corporation, which held interests in the Lima News and the News-Gazette Printing Company, a companion commercial printing firm (both owned and operated by the Lima News Publishing Co., Inc.), and newspapers in Circleville, Logan, Van Wert, Wash- ington Court House, and Wilmington, Ohio. It was through this asso- ciation that, after L. S. Galvin died in March, 1952, his daughter, Catherine Richie Galvin, became president and principal stockholder in the Lima Hews Publishing Company while W.