22,000 Deserters

Last week at Chicago newsstands some 22,000 readers of William Randolph Hearst's morning Herald & Examiner picked up that paper, paused, put it down again, walked angrily away. Reason: the Herex had upped its price from 2-c- to 3-c-.

Angry also was Publisher Merrill Meigs of Hearst's Evening American when he observed in his own newspaper an advertisement promising that the costlier Herex would contain new features, ''plenty of interest and entertainment for evening reading in your home. . . ." Feeling that any Hearstian reading matter consumed by Chicagoans in the evening should be supplied by his American, Publisher Meigs peremptorily deleted the offending paragraph.

The Herex price boost was the work of bustling Victor Henry Polachek, circulation director of the whole Hearst chain, who has been giving his expert attention to the Herex all winter long. The price increase added more than $2,000 daily to the paper's depleted income. As for the 22,000 deserters, Director Polachek confidently expected that their places would soon be taken by new home-delivery readers to be snared in an aggressive campaign.

Sure enough, last week Herex's home circulation had risen by 4,000, a possible good omen for new Publisher Emanuel Levi, who is going from the Louisville Courier-Journal to make the Herex hum (TIME, March 9).

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