Endurance Contest

When the American Newspaper Guild strikes a paper, it usually has to suspend publication. But when Guildsmen struck Publisher Dave Stern's New Dealing Philadelphia Record and Camden (NJ.) Courier-Post, a handful of loyal executives volunteered to put out all three papers. This week the 33-day-old strike was still on, but Stern's papers had not missed an edition. Said Record Editor Harry Saylor: "It was tough at first but it's getting to be pretty easy to do. Any newspaper in the country could do it."

As newsmen knew, the job was not the cinch that Editor Saylor made it out. At the Record, where 435 Guildsmen were out, a dozen men were putting out four regular editions. In Camden half as many put out both the morning Post and evening Courier, working staggered shifts from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. Before the strike the job had kept 70 people busy. The papers used plenty of wire association copy, covered big local stories by telephone.

Steaks & Rubdowns. It was a back-breaking job, but so far no one showed signs of cracking. Caterers brought meals in to the offices of both papers. At the Record, steaks, chops and plentiful desserts were served on linen-spread tables gleaming in candlelight. Each day masseurs came in to rub down Stern's high-priced, nonstop help. In Philadelphia the men managed to get home each night, but in Camden the Courier-Post crew slept in cots set up beside their desks, seldom saw their families. At week's end Saylor rasped: "There's nobody here getting tired. We're getting as much sleep as we always did. We're just giving up our spare time." Shrewd Dave Stern, first publisher to sign a Guild contract (TIME, Nov. 18), was far from ready to dicker on Guild terms ($100 a week for experienced reporters). He bought space in other newspapers and trade journals to announce the biggest November advertising and circulation in the Record's history.

The Guild strike against Hearst's Los Angeles evening Herald & Express for about the same terms demanded of J. David Stern ended after 83 days. The Guild had asked for a 40% pay boost, settled for 14%. Cried the Herald & Express in a front-page editorial: "It was a senseless strike . . . the workers lost money, the newspaper lost money . . . the public of Southern California was deprived of its greatest daily newspaper."

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