Classic Competitors

When St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Writer George Hall dines with certain friends, he knows that he is welcome--but his paper is so detested that it is not allowed over the doorstep. When St. Louis Public Relations Man Harry Wilson has an important news item for the press, he is torn between releasing it in time for the morning Globe-Democrat or the afternoon Post-Dispatch--either way, one of the papers is sure to squawk. When Globe Food Editor Marian O'Brien was writing a column recently, she got carried away by the combative sense of loyalty that seems to infect both dailies: "Our paper is so different from its so-called competition that I have readers come up to me and say they couldn't face the day without their copy of the Globe."

Such intense feelings are all too rare in these days of declining newspaper competition. Yet in St. Louis, rivalry is still very much alive--which is all the more surprising considering that the papers appear on the newsstands at different times of day. As in other cities where there is no competition in the morning or evening, the papers could simply settle down and enjoy their profits. Instead the Globe and the P-D choose to fight it out. And the citizens of St. Louis fight right along with them. "Some swear by the Globe," says former Mayor Raymond Tucker, now professor of urban affairs at Washington University, "and some swear by the Post-Dispatch." And some swear at them. "Unfair, reactionary, hip-shooting" are epithets commonly hurled at the Globe. "Sluggish, effete, unpatriotic" are some of the names the Post-Dispatch is called. "The kindest word our critics use is liberal," says P-D Architectural Writer George McCue.

To Join or Not to Join. One cause of competition is publishers. Except for the fact that both went to Harvard, they have virtually nothing in common. The Post-Dispatch's Joseph Pulitzer Jr., 54, grandson of the founder, is urbane, aristocratic, international-minded and remote. Globe Publisher Richard H. Amberg, 55, who was brought in from Syracuse by Sam Newhouse when he bought the paper in 1955, is hard driving, domineering, locally oriented and a joiner. He is reputed, in fact, to have joined more civic organizations than any other publisher in the U.S., and he is constantly supporting local causes in his paper. "He gets into every nook and cranny," says Pulitzer, an art collector whose own local activities are confined pretty much to cultural causes. "If he sees an opening, he's in there. I try to be careful to disassociate myself from boards and committees that could distort my news judgment." Retorts Amberg, who has just raised more than $1,000,000 for a Herbert Hoover Boys' Club he is sponsoring in a Negro neighborhood of St. Louis: "How can you tell what's going on in a community unless you're part of it?"

In every way, the papers reflect their publishers' tastes, though Pulitzer is not so much involved in day-to-day operations as is Amberg. Maintaining a competent seven-man Washington bureau and often dispatching correspondents overseas, the Post-Dispatch fills long, long columns with national and international news. It supplements its own correspondents' efforts with the New York Times News Service. With two men in Washington, the Globe concentrates on St. Louis. Its current motto, displayed on its delivery trucks, is "Fighting for St. Louis"--with the implication that its rival is too preoccupied with the rest of the world. That was not always the case. In times gone by, the Post-Dispatch kept its readers in an emotional turmoil over civic misdoings, while the pre-Newhouse Globe seemed to strive for soothing vapidities.

Hawk v. Dove. The papers are equally at odds over national policies and politics. Once again they have reversed their roles. Post-Dispatch editorials used to thunder, while Globe editorials put people to sleep. Today's angry Globe editorials, many of them written by Amberg, inveigh against Vietniks, beatniks, and handcuffing the police. The more thoughtful, sedate Post-Dispatch editorials plead for individual rights, consumer protection and dissent. Scarcely any other U.S. daily is as hawkish on Viet Nam as the Globe, or as dovish as the Post-Dispatch. The Globe wants to mine Haiphong harbor and stop talk about negotiations; the Post-Dispatch wants to stop the bombing of North Viet Nam and negotiate with the Viet Cong. "We've considered every means to extricate the U.S. honorably from Viet Nam," says Pulitzer, who was in Geneva last week to observe the hapless Pacem in Terris conference. "My hero is anyone who is going to win the war," says Amberg, who recently returned from a meeting of the board of consultants to the National War College.

Often the papers agree on local issues; both, for instance, have given enthusiastic backing to the city's extensive redevelopment program. "Yet much of the time," says a local TV newsman, "if one paper has a story, the other disputes it or ignores it." Each has its pet crusades, conducted with special zeal for issue after issue. The P-D has recently been exposing irregularities in contract-letting at city hall. The Globe is hounding the criminally tainted Steamfitters Union. Does the Globe want to tear down the massive, Victorian post office building? The Post-Dispatch wants to save it. Did the Post-Dispatch approve of Mayor Cervantes' plan to bring the Spanish Pavilion from the New York World's Fair to St. Louis? The Globe did not think much of that idea. Why not trade the post office for the pavilion?, the Globe suggested.

Anti-Austerity Kick. Any conversation with a St. Louis newspaperman is likely to begin with a long list of complaints about the other paper. Post-Dispatch staffers ridicule the amount of space the Globe allots to Amberg's activities. "It has to," contends Globe Managing Editor George Killenberg, "because he's not going to get it in the other paper." Killenberg was furious at Post-Dispatch coverage when Amberg won the St. Louis award for civic achievement last year. The Post-Dispatch put the news in a small frontpage box. which was relegated to the back pages in later editions. After the Post-Dispatch found fault with an all-star high school football game sponsored by the Globe, it went ahead and asked the Globe for free press passes anyway. The request was turned down flat. "Serves them right," said Amberg.

The rivalry shows no sign of cooling off, and has not hurt either paper. P-D circulation has recently grown to 375,000 on weekdays, 601,000 on Sunday. The Globe, which publishes a Saturday weekend edition but no Sunday paper, has slipped a bit lately, but is up over the long run to a daily circulation of 315,000. In the past five years, P-D ad linage has risen 32%; Globe ad linage has increased 27%. The big gain in prestige has been for the Globe, which the P-D didn't consider a competitor ten years ago. Pushed by the Globe, the Post-Dispatch is now stepping up its local coverage and hiring more reporters. "We're trying for more informality and less austerity," says Pulitzer. "Our typography is stodgy, and we're taking a hard look at it." On the other hand, the paper takes pride in its tradition and its reputation, though it is not quite what it used to be. "We have some of the characteristics of an old institution that doesn't change very fast," says its articulate editorial-page editor, Robert Lasch. "We're not going to do anything revolutionary," agrees Pulitzer. "We don't want readers to wake up some day and say this isn't the Post-Dispatch."

Prone to be slapdash and sensational at times, the Globe is more brightly written than its rival and better to look at.

It has become livelier since Killenberg, who has a keen sense of the city, took over last year as managing editor. Underneath all their irritation with each other, both papers recognize the value of the superheated competition. "A choice is good," says Pulitzer. "In fact, it is indispensable."

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