New Stars & Stripes

Alexander Woollcott, "Harpo" Marx, Grantland Rice, F. P. A., Mark Watson (Sunday editor of the Baltimore Sun), Harold Ross (New Yorker editor), Stephen T. Early (Presidential press secretary) would make quite a staff for a weekly paper. Once they did. They and other rank-&-filers (officers were outlawed) made journalistic history in World War I by publishing the A.E.F.'s Stars & Stripes, which ran its circulation to over 500,000, won praise in Pershing's memoirs as the biggest morale builder of the A.E.F.

Last week the War Department announced that the Stars & Stripes will have a World War II successor. Its name: Yank. "Publisher" will be ex-Stars & Stripesman Egbert White (vice president of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn). Like its famed model, Yank will be edited by soldiers who prefer putting together a paper to wearing Sam Browne belts. Ad-less, like its predecessor, it will probably sell for 3-c-.

Differences are that Yank will be a tabloid, carry photographs. Still bigger difference will be the problem of distribution and reporting, from Ireland to Australia. Contributions from Yank's world network of soldier reporters will go to Manhattan headquarters, where a staff of about 40 will put it together. Forces overseas will receive their copies via destroyer. Where editions can be printed locally, mats will be flown from Manhattan. With readers in all quarters of the globe, its big editorial problem will be to match the rank-&-file intimacy of Stars & Stripes, whose editors worked within hearing distance of the shooting.

First A.E.F. reaction to the announcement of Yank was a squawk. U.S. troops in Australia griped at the title. They have already had fist fights with Aussies who insist on calling them Yanks. Most of those who got into scraps were Southerners, but other U.S. troops down under don't like the gritty name any better. To avoid unnecessary bloodshed, some Australian commanders have ordered their troops to lay off "Yank."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.