Newspapers: Fighting to Lose Least

In the good old Front Page tradition, Chicago is probably the most competitive newspaper town in the U.S. Four daily newspapers, owned by two companies, still battle for news beats and circulation, advertising and impact. In the morning, the late Colonel Robert R. McCormick’s Chicago Tribune stands grandly against the up-and-coming Sun-Times of the late Marshall Field. In the afternoon, the McCormick forces are represented briskly by the ex-Hearst Chicago’s American; Field Enterprises publish the once-great Daily News.

Lately, an ominous note has crept into the competition. In the past, the fight was for larger circulation gains; now much of the struggle is just to keep from losing readers. Looming is the sort of crisis that has overtaken almost every other U.S. city and reduced the number of dailies to one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Coming Closest. Over the past six years, Chicago’s papers have suffered a combined daily circulation loss of 115,892. The Tribune’s circulation has dropped more than 4% to 827,524. The News is down 14% to 464,221. The American has declined by a fraction to 443,761, though it has gained 9,605 since 1965. But in the past two years, the Sun-Times has forged ahead with an increase of 13,583, bringing its circulation to 548,162. Although both morning dailies are making money, it is estimated that the afternoon papers are losing a combined total of $8,000,000 a year. That loss is bound to grow as production costs continue to escalate and the papers pour more money into the fight.

The tabloid Sun-Times does not at tempt to carry as much news as the Trib, but what it does run is sharply written and attractively and conveniently presented. Directed at readers younger than the Trib’s, the Sun-Times pro jects more of a personality, and Editor Emmett Dedmon’s reporters are better known around town. The paper’s onceover-lightly treatment of the news appeals to commuters riding buses into the city as well as to Chicago’s growing Negro population. “The Sun-Times,” says a onetime Chicago editor, “comes closest to being a successful all-things-to-all-people product. It has an identity, something that’s harder to find in other Chicago newspapers.”

The Trib, on the other hand, is proud of its tradition, thank you. Editor Don Maxwell, 67, was handpicked for his job by the late Colonel McCormick. Maxwell, in turn, has hand-picked his successor, Managing Editor Clayton Kirkpatrick, 52. “The Tribune is what it is today,” says Maxwell, “because we have a tradition. Editor Joseph Medill instructed the directors of the Tribune in his will: ‘I hope you will always be able to remain Republican but always show good sense.’ I don’t think the Tribune will ever become flighty. Not so long as I am here. Not when Kirk takes over.” The Trib has, however, added a sprightly fashion section called “Feminique,” and in September will jointly publish a new book section with the Washington Post. Its Sunday magazine is becoming politically venturesome and occasionally thoughtful. “That magazine frightens me sometimes,” says Maxwell.

More Warmth. Before it was bought by the Chicago Tribune in 1956, the afternoon American followed the Hearst formula of crime and sex and did not even think of competing with the top-ranked News. That largely has changed under Tribune-appointed Editor Lloyd Wendt, who often beats the News on breaking stories. “I thought we ought to write short, edit tightly, emphasize things of interest to women and develop a stable of good features,” says American Publisher Stuart List. “It seems to me that if we edit for the great middle class, we put out a good paper.” The American manages to remain editorially independent of the inflexibly right-wing Trib. “I’m sure when we came out for Senator Douglas over

Chuck Percy, there was some gulping over there,” says List. “But we never heard about it.”

The unlooked-for troubles of the News puzzle everybody. With reporters such as Washington Bureau Chief Peter Lisagor and columnists such as Mike Royko, the paper has perhaps the most talent of any in Chicago. But since the 1950s, it has not been able to come to any useful conclusion about what it wants to be. Editor Larry Fanning tried to make it a quality paper with a magazine-style format. After he was ousted in 1965, his successor, Roy Fisher, strove for circulation gains with more conventional fare. That hasn’t worked either. Once again, the paper is planning a substantial change: in October an attempt will be made to give it more warmth and informality. “The News of today has a masculine image,” says Field Vice President and General Manager J. G. Trezevant. “We are going to have to make a stronger appeal to women.”

Both Field and the Tribune have the resources to fight almost indefinitely. It boils down to how long they are willing to go on taking substantial losses. At the moment, there is talk neither of merger nor of giving up—only of new and ingenious ways to continue competing. And that, at least, is in the best Chicago tradition.