Downhold!

The appeal came down to Miami News staffers from Editor Bill Baggs: ''Please do not hide any more suits on the expense account." Baggs' quip was characteristic of the front-office reaction of the nation's newspapers to the recession: concerned, but far from desperate.

Generally, circulation has held steady. But for the first four months of this year, newspaper ad linage was off 7.8% from 1957 figures.*Coming on top of the general postwar rise in production costs, the recession was squeezing tighter yet the thin profit margins of many a publisher.

Around the nation, editors are trying to ride out the recession without major cutbacks by intensive downhold drives that are paring extras to the bone. The Denver Post dropped a Sunday pictorial section, got the cooperation of unions in cutting expenses and overtime, is now putting out the paper with 3,000 fewer man-hours per week than before the recession. In San Antonio the Express Publishing Co., owner of the morning Express and afternoon News, combined the two Saturday papers into one fat morning Express-News. Few newspapers are hiring; few are even replacing newsmen who quit. As a result, only 50 of some 600 International News Service newsmen, photographers and technicians dropped after the merger of INS with United Press to form United Press International (TIME, June 2) have found new jobs.

But not all papers are pinching pennies. Far from retrenching, the Atlanta Newspapers Inc.'s Journal and Constitution are spending more money. Explained Journal-Constitution Executive Editor Gene Patterson: "It was either retrench or increase expenditures and try for a better product that will sell. We thought the latter would be more rewarding."

*Magazine ad linage was off 7.7%, and television ad revenue was up 14.1% for the first four months of 1958 compared with 1957 figures.

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