Successful Euthanasia

The sprawling megalopolis of Los Angeles, where people spend much of their time carbonizing steaks on patio grills and driving 50 miles to the neighborhood outdoor movie, has never been much of a newspaper town. Of the four Los Angeles dailies still being published last year, three lost money. Faced with such harsh reality, the owners of the city's papers tried a drastic solution. Last winter two of the four dailies were summarily put to death. The survivors were left with separate morning and afternoon monopolies (TIME, Jan. 12). This double euthanasia drew cries of dismay from all over the U.S. press, and the U.S. Department of Justice threatened an investigation. But by last week it was clear that Los Angeles' drastic solution was working.

Faring as Well. The principal beneficiaries, to be sure, are the surviving mercy killers. By exterminating its afternoon possession, the Mirror, the morning Los Angeles Times jettisoned a liability that cost $20 million since it was first published in 1948, ran $2,000,000 in the red last year alone. Now the only morning paper in town, the Times has grown by 220,219 in daily circulation; its total of 772,439 makes it the nation's fourth largest daily.*

Hearst, which folded its morning Examiner into the Herald-Express to take advantage of an afternoon monopoly, has fared just about as well with its renamed Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Since 1903, when Hearst moved into Los Angeles, the chain has had trouble making a profit there; last year its two Los Angeles dailies dropped a thumping $3,000,000 between them. But Hearst's new afternoon hybrid, up to 721,026 in daily circulation (from 393,215), now claims to be making an occasional modest weekly profit.

Paying the Price. Ironically, Los Angeles' indifferent newspaper readers also stand to benefit from the loss of two papers. In the last ten months, the fat and lethargic Times, which had the habit of substituting sheer bulk for journalistic merit, has begun to show new life. It is even bulkier than before, but it is a far better newspaper. The Times has beefed up its Washington coverage and joined hands with the Washington Post in the organization of a news service. It has also added four fulltime political editors, two of them stolen from Hearst. Foreign coverage has grown from one staffer roaming Europe, to Times bureaus, either opened or opening, in Mexico City, Rio, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The Times now keeps a man permanently at the U.N., liberates reportorial teams for long, hang-the-cost investigations. These and other improvements have added nearly $1,000,000 to the paper's editorial budget, but Publisher Otis Chandler appears happy to pay the price.

Playing Second Fiddle. Hearst's Herald-Examiner remains a typical Hearst-paper, with a superabundance of lowbrow features and a superficial approach to the news. But the company has invested $1,000,000 in new mechanical equipment, added some 20 reporters to the staff and expanded its business coverage. Last week Hearst headquarters announced that after the turn of the year its Los Angeles hybrid will get a new editor to replace Herbert H. Krauch, 66, a Hearst veteran of 50 years. Krauch's replacement will be John Denson, 59, who recently quit as editor of the New York Herald Tribune after a showdown argument over editorial authority.

Historically second fiddle in Los Angeles, Hearst now aspires to make of the Herald-Examiner the daily that symbolizes the city. But with a giant's confidence, the Times rejects the Hearst paper as a serious rival in this or any other race. Instead, it keeps a wary eye on Los Angeles' newest and tiniest daily: the New York Times's month-old West Coast edition (100,000 in 13 Far West states). Said a Los Angeles Times editor last week: "As far as we're concerned, our only competitor in Los Angeles is the New York Times."

*After the New York Daily News (1,952,404), the New York Daily Mirror (851,928) and the Chicago Tribune (833,191).

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