The Press: Publisher at Bay

As a newspaper publisher, Glenn McCarthy operates on the same theory as he does when he is wildcatting for oil: if at first you don’t succeed, just pour in another hundred thousand or so. Five years ago, McCarthy bought up the Citizen chain of nine neighborhood throwaways in Houston and put his theory into practice. For some time the going was rough; Citizen bill collectors went knocking on advertisers’ doors the day their ads appeared. But McCarthy, undaunted, poured $1,000,000 into his chain, expanded into Houston suburbs as well as south into Texas City and the Freeport area. With lots of neighborhood news of Boy Scouts, schools, garden clubs, etc., he distributes 158,000 papers a week, last February finally got into the black.

Last week Publisher McCarthy ran into more trouble. With its regular Wednesday edition, Jesse Jones’s big (circ. 183,000) Houston Chronicle issued five special sections, crammed with McCarthy-style news and aimed at the various Houston neighborhoods covered by the Citizen. The Chronicle’s new weekly sections, each with a staff of its own, were the Jones answer to the circulation and advertising inroads made by McCarthy and by Scripps-Howard’s Press (circ. 114,346) and Oveta Culp Hobby’s Post (circ. 170,000). Glenn professed no surprise at the Chronicle move, said Jones had tried to buy the Citizen from him months ago.

McCarthy had a typical solution. He arranged a sizable loan from Dallas Rupe & Son’s investment firm, and planned expansion into other Houston areas, and possibly other cities.