$1-a-Year Man

Gossipist Walter Winchell is read by Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and on all the ships at sea--almost everywhere, in fact, except in Washington. Winchell was kept out of Washington by a simple maneuver: the Washington Post, which was not an ardent member of the Wrinchell fan club, inherited WW when it took over the Times-Herald six years ago, gradually stopped printing his column. "We just had too many Broadway and Hollywood columns," explains Managing Editor Alfred Friendly. "Winchell was a likely place to cut down. We heard no great roar of protest."

Frozen out of Washington, WW fumed. Still under exclusive contract to the Post and Times-Herald in Washington, he could not tie up with either of Washington's other two dailies. In any case, neither the staid Evening Star nor the Scripps-Howard tabloid News showed any eagerness to run him.

But as of last week, Walter Winchell was back in Washington. Finally released by the Post from his contract, Winchell took the next best opportunity in sight, a little-known tabloid political weekly called Roll Call (circ. 5,000), which is printed for Senators, Congressmen, and Government employees on Capitol Hill. "I told Roll Call's editor, Sidney Yudain, I'd be glad to pay him for the chance of getting into print in Washington again," said Winchell last week. But Editor Yudain preferred to pay Winchell $1 a year for the rights to assemble one weekly column from Winchell's political items. Says Walter Winchell hopefully: "It will reach the people who count around Washington."

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