New Papers
In the pious, highly literate city of Columbus, Ohio, enough Sunday newspapers were printed last week to build a dam of comics, features and news across the Olentangy River. A phenomenon in modern U. S. journalism had taken place: two new full-size Sunday newspapers were started on the same day in the same city.
Long before the church bells rang, perspiring circulation men dumped at least one of the fat papers free on every Columbus doormat.
The new Sunday Citizen was put out by Scripps-Howard's well-established evening Citizen. The new Sunday Journal was published by the 127-year-old conservative Ohio State Journal ("Columbus' 'Good Morning' Newspaper"). The Journal is owned by the rich, powerful, publicity-shunning Wolfe family, which also owns all the remaining newspapers in Columbus--the 1-c- evening Dispatch, the 10-c- Sunday Dispatch, the 5-c- Sunday Star.* Reigning head of this clan is paunchy, big-jowled Harry Preston Wolfe, 66, who is reported to have sworn he would run the Citizen out of town.
Little over a fortnight ago Harry Wolfe heard the Citizen was secretly planning a 5-c- Sunday paper to cut into his 10-c- Sunday Dispatch. Instead of dropping the price of the Dispatch, which takes in 140,000 dimes in Central Ohio, he boldly announced the 5-c- Sunday Journal, ordered his editors to get it on the street the same day as the Citizen. Syndicate salesmen and jobless Ohio newshawks had a field day as the two new papers got under way.
First run for the Citizen was 121,000, for the Journal 35,000. This week the Citizen planned to print 100,000, while the Journal moved up to 45,000. Spokesmen for the Dispatch and Star claimed their circulations (141,000 and 115,000 respectively) had not been damaged. This meant that some 400,000 Sunday papers were being printed in a city of 310,000 people --probably a record for the U. S. Both the new papers planned to continue to deliver Sunday editions free "as long as necessary."
Behind this newspaper circus was the longstanding determination of Harry Wolfe & kin to dominate Columbus journalism as they now dominate its banking and business life. The Wolfe millions are founded on low-priced shoes (Wolfe Wear U Well), now made in three factories and sold in 4,000 stores in 38 States.
Harry Wolfe and his brother Robert ("Old Bob") bought the venerable Journal in 1902. (One story is that Bob fell in love with the Journal because it defended him when somebody tried to blackmail him.) Bob Wolfe was a huge bear of a man, forceful, shrewd, hard-drinking, hard-cussing. He served a penitentiary term for shooting a man who insulted a lady he was escorting, personally broke into every boathouse on Buckeye Lake to aid rescue work during the 1913 flood, used to spout memorized poetry by the yard. He died in 1927.
Quiet and aloof, Harry Wolfe is the opposite of Bob. Other present-day Wolfes are Old Bob's son, Edgar, and Harry's three sons, Robert, H. Preston and Richard. Each has an equal voice in running the family shoe business, banks (BancOhio Corporation) newspapers and radio station (WBNS). Only unanimous decisions are acted upon. The Wolfes also own Ohio Agricultural Lands, Inc.--5,536 acres of choicest farmland in nearby counties, where they raise 12,000 hogs, 2,000 cattle, feed 10,000 sheep a year.
The Wolfe pack lives mostly on aristocratic East Broad Street, pays little attention to Columbus society. Fifteen miles outside the city is the famed "Wigwam," which the Wolfes also share in common-- a big wooded tract dotted with rustic lodges, a reception hall, movie theatre, swimming pool. Here Wolfes and their families gather in complete privacy for wholesome fun. Parties at the Wigwam sometimes run to several hundred guests. Herbert Hoover has been there often; so have Alf Landon, Frank Knox, Michigan's Senator Vandenberg.
Until 1931, Wolfes and Scripps-Howard shared Columbus in comparative amity.
Then the Citizen opened fire on a 55-year-old probate judge named Homer Bostwick, accused him of blackmailing a 24-year-old girl into returning such gifts as a diamond ring, an automobile. Judge Bostwick was a friend of Harry Wolfe, who defended him vigorously in the Dispatch.
When the Citizen forced Judge Bostwick off the bench, Publisher Wolfe was so hopping mad he slashed the price of the Dispatch to 1-c-. It is still there, one of the few remaining penny papers in America. The Citizen stayed at 2-c-, has some 80,000 circulation (Dispatch: 168,000). Scripps officials believe their new Sunday paper will make money, insist the Wolfes' retaliation will be a boomerang. Said one Scripps spokesman: "They are only cutting their own throats."
Other Cities. From Jan. i, 1930 to June 30, 1938, according to a bulletin recently issued by the International Typographical Union, 320 new dailies started in the U. S., 319 were suspended. Most of the new papers were born in places like Goose Creek. Texas, Aliquippa, Pa. and Lead, S. D. The dead included such sizable city dailies as the New York American, Toledo News-Bee, Rochester Journal, St. Paul News.
Most promising field for starting new papers apparently is in cities where mergers and losses have created a one-paper or one-publisher monopoly. Last week in Omaha, where the World-Herald has been all alone since the Hearst Bee News folded its wings last year. Russian-born Publisher David Blacker announced he was stepping up his weekly Post to a semiweekly, would make it a daily by January 1 "or quit." The Post was started two months ago after 25,000 Omahans took a chance and subscribed. It is said to be selling around 50,000 copies.
In Rochester, N. Y., the three-month-old Evening News (TIME, Aug. 1) made even better progress in breaking the monopoly inherited by Publisher Frank Gannett when Hearst withdrew in 1937. Although the News was not expected to break even until Christmas, last week it was reported to have $6,000 of profits in the bank.
*A sexy weekend tabloid published on Fridays, and specializing in headlines like "Barefoot Blonde in Nightie Caught in Husband's Room."
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.