A History of Weekly Community Newspapers in the United States
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A HISTORY OF WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS IN THE UNITED STATES: 1900 TO 1980 by BETH H. GARFRERICK A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Communication and Information Sciences in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA. ALABAMA 2009 Copyright Beth H. Garfrerick 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This study is an examination of community weekly newspapers in the United States during the period beginning in 1900 and ending in 1980. For this dissertation, the weekly ―community‖ newspaper is defined as a newspaper operating in small towns and rural areas that placed an emphasis on local news. This study analyzes the nature of the weekly community newspaper and how it reflected American society throughout most of the twentieth century. Despite all of the problems that faced the weekly newspaper industry throughout its long and proud history, the constants that remained were survival tactics in terms of reactive versus proactive responses to content, commercial, and professional concerns. Several times throughout the decades an obituary had been written for community weeklies. But they always found a way to fight back and happen upon a means, a method, or a message that resonated with audiences and advertisers enough so as to allow them to keep their doors open for another business day. Community weeklies told the story of average American daily lives more thoroughly and in a more personal manner than the big-city dailies. In essence, the weekly publisher-editor served as author of his community‘s life story. ii DEDICATION To Bob, Andrew, Adam, and Aaron iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am so grateful for the support and guidance of my committee chair, Dr. W. David Sloan, who introduced me to the study of journalism history and inspired me to choose it as my concentrated area of research. Thank you also to my committee members, Dr. Kari Frederickson, Dr. Karla Gower, Dr. Meg Lamme, and Dr. Wilson Lowrey, who offered helpful guidance and suggestions throughout this project. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii DEDICATION iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 The Early 1900s: Consistency in Content, Appearance, and Style 13 CHAPTER 2 The 1910s: Propaganda, Publicity, Paper and Postal Rates, and Patriotism 39 CHAPTER 3 The 1920s: New Competition, Influence, and Commercial Success 67 CHAPTER 4 The 1930s: Boosterism and Business Survival 94 CHAPTER 5 The 1940s: Patriotism, Production, Professionalism, and the Post-War Period 121 CHAPTER 6 The 1950s: Becoming Localized in News, Centralized in Operations 154 CHAPTER 7 The 1960s: A Time to Rethink, Redefine, Recruit, and Regionalize 187 CHAPTER 8 The 1970s: Careers, Content, Consumers, Consolidations, and Computerization 226 CONCLUSIONS 264 BIBLIOGRAPHY 274 v INTRODUCTION Historical works on American journalism have given little attention to weekly community newspapers after the period when most newspapers in this country fell into that publication category. Despite the rapid rise of the daily metropolitan newspaper in the early twentieth century, weekly community newspapers continued, although many historians viewed them as insignificant and hard to label. Critics considered weekly newspapers, also referred to as ―grassroots journalism,‖ the ―country press,‖ the ―rural press,‖ or the ―community press,‖ as nothing more than smaller, low quality versions of their larger daily counterparts.1 Perhaps the problem comes in defining what a weekly community newspaper is. An obvious category would be those newspapers published only once a week. But the term ―community‖ separates those into further categories, because some weeklies served a small geographic area, while others reached out to a special interest audience, such as labor and religious publications. These special-interest weeklies served readers who shared an interest or cause but not a geographical community concern. Some weeklies were published in suburban communities and urban neighborhoods; so they would not qualify for the designation of ―country‖ or ―rural‖ press. For this study, attention will be given to weekly ―community‖ newspapers in small towns and rural areas that placed an emphasis on local news. This study will explore the nature of the weekly community newspaper and how it reflected American society throughout most of the twentieth century. Community weeklies told the story of average 1 The terms ―weekly,‖ ―community,‖ country,‖ ―rural,‖ and ―grassroots‖ are used interchangeably throughout this study to describe the small-town community weekly newspapers referred to in this study. 1 American daily lives more thoroughly and in a more personal manner than the big-city dailies. Sensationalism was largely avoided; and a community‘s life story was told through birth, marriage, and death announcements, the comings and goings of the social elite, the accomplishments of local students, and the gatherings of community clubs, business and professional organizations, and church groups. The period under consideration in this study begins in the year 1900, a time by which most metropolitan dailies were established and a definite line of divergence was drawn between big-city newspapers and small-town, community-oriented publications. Technological innovations dictate the concluding period of this study to be the end of the 1970s, at which time offset printing and the advent of computerized, desktop publishing changed the face of the publication industry and made it possible for the explosion of specialized and issue-oriented non- dailies, such as ―shoppers,‖2 that took on some characteristics of the community weekly. The twentieth century community weekly encompasses the cultural, political, and technological changes taking place in other aspects of American life. This study will incorporate the business, technological, and governmental considerations of operating a weekly community press. It will also explore politics and the important role of the crusading editor.3 As some community weeklies grew in circulation and advertising revenue, they merged with other weeklies to become daily newspapers. But others, despite expensive and problem-prone equipment, small staffs, and revenue shortcomings, continued publishing as community weeklies. Profit appeared to become the dividing line between dailies and community weeklies, 2 This term refers to a newspaper, usually tabloid in size, designed specifically to display classified and retail advertising. Some newspaper operations printed their own separate shopper, but most shoppers were in direct competition with general-news weeklies for advertising revenue. A majority of the shoppers were circulated free of charge, relying heavily on advertising revenue for profits. 3 Throughout this study, references to a weekly publisher and/or editor are most often referred to in terms of ―he‖ or ―him‖ to reflect a large majority of the articles written by or about weekly publishers and editors during a period in which males held a high percentage of those positions. 2 as dailies entered the world of big business and profit motive while community weeklies focused on public service and idealism in the face of financial uncertainty. However, new business practices introduced in the latter half of the century allowed more community weeklies to become profitable enterprises. For much of the twentieth century, small-town weekly newspapers connected with more small towns and villages on a regular basis than did the country‘s metropolitan newspapers. For example, in large sectors of the country the nearest metropolitan newspaper was located hundreds of miles away. A decade into the twentieth century, only fifty-one percent of Americans lived in metropolitan areas. The weekly newspapers of small communities played an important role in keeping the citizenry informed on local and national news. While a growing number of rural residents subscribed to both metropolitan dailies and their community newspaper, it was the weekly community paper that contained the news relevant to those in the immediate geographic area. The introduction of radio, television, and mega-merged metropolitan dailies with ―community news‖ inserts did not supplant the weekly community newspaper as the main source for local news. Because of the inherently ―localized‖ nature of the community weekly, the accepted standards of ―professional‖ practices in journalism do not apply in full to community weeklies. They differ in content, context, and purpose from daily newspapers, responding to the specific needs of residents sparsely populated regions. Despite the fact that most journalism historical works have considered weeklies and dailies together when referring to newspapers, this study intends to show that weekly community newspapers deserve a category of their own and attention rather than avoidance when it comes to explaining the role of newspapers in everyday lives. 3 Weeklies and dailies shared similar day-to-day operations and duties, although the differing size and scope of their readership, business relationships, and operational concerns dictated differing responses and problem-solving measures. There were many commonalities among weeklies and dailies in terms of general standards of practice in newsgathering and revenue-generating models. However, small and large newspapers differed extensively in their approaches to editorial content and community activism. Weekly publishers and editors were often under the threat of government intervention