Star Witness

When the Government began a criminal antitrust suit against the Kansas City Star Co.. President Roy Roberts called the indictment a "shotgun" blast. Last week, in Kansas City's U.S. District Court', President Roberts, 67, got a chance to fire back. He was the chief defense witness against Government charges that the Star and its morning edition, the Times, used their monopoly position to kill competition and keep their own circulation and ad rates high (TIME, Feb. 14). On the witness stand Roberts testified that the papers' success was the result of "efficient management," not monopoly position.

Roberts, who was backed up by testimony from Star executives and outside admen, testified that the combination ad rate, by which advertisers are forced to take space in both the Star and Times, and cannot buy an ad in one alone, was already in force when he came to the Star in 1909. Actually, said he, both the papers are published as two editions of the same daily. The Star and Times operate out of the same plant and use the same mechanical staffs. It is perfectly reasonable, he suggested, that ad contracts with the papers should cover their round-the-clock publication schedule. "By operating that way," said Roberts, "we can give the people of the community the best service on news, the best service to readers, and the best service to advertisers at the lowest price." To prove the point, the Star Co. brought up a witness who testified that for the size of the paper's circulation, the Star's ad rates were among the lowest in the U.S. As to the Government's charge that the Star waited to drive the competing Journal-Post out of business before it increased its subscription price in 1942, Roberts testified flatly that the charge was not true. The Star, said he, had planned the increase before the Journal-Post went under. Like every other daily in the U.S., the Star was hit by rising costs and taxes, had little choice but to raise its price. The combination subscription rate which forced Star readers to buy the Times too was actually a service to Kansas City, said Roberts. By buying both papers together, he added, readers got them at a lower price than if they could have bought each one separately.

After Roberts finished, Star lawyers moved that the Government's case be dismissed. But Judge Duncan ruled that the case should go to the jury. This week the jury gets a chance to decide the biggest criminal antitrust suit ever filed against a U.S. newspaper by the Government.

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