Mortality of 1940

The vital statistics of newspaper publishing in 1940 last week became available.

There was a distinct drop in the death rate. Whereas 50 U. S. dailies folded in 1938, and 75 in 1939, the mortality of 1940 was only 39. Other facts:

> Europe's war and the Presidential campaign helped bring a rise of almost 5% in circulations. Advertising revenues also went up 3%.

> The tendency of rival papers to combine went on unchecked: of the 39 that folded, ten disappeared by merger.

> Of the rest of the 39, 13 survived as weeklies.

> Most of the year's notable casualties were in the South: Memphis, Nashville, Richmond, Mobile, Montgomery became cities with one-newspaper management.

>Nine small towns (e.g., Lexington, N. C., Pana, Ill., Safford. Ariz.) were left without any daily newspaper at all.

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