The Press: Year

When an adman named Baldwin H. Ward became a wartime Marine lieutenant, he put out a picture history of the Marines’ Pacific battles. Its success gave him an idea: Why not put out an annual picture book of the year’s news? After the war, “Baldy” Ward settled in Los Angeles as FORTUNE’S West Coast advertising manager. With $25,000 of his own and $50,000 from friends, he hired part-time editors, and in 1948 put out the first edition of Year, a LIFE-like 192-page summary (with 700 pictures). It sold 15,000 copies, won critics’ kudos, but lost $7,500.

The next year’s Year lost money, too, but last year’s, an ambitious review of the half century, sold 60,000 copies and netted $39,000, enough to erase earlier losses.

Ward had also learned how to stretch his financial shoestring. He got experts, who became interested in Year, to do part-time work for little pay, wangled many free pictures, and, for 1951, got Historian Arnold J. Toynbee to write a foreword, simply by writing and asking for it.

When Ward’s fourth Year came out last week, its 224 pages were crammed with 1,500 pictures and bright, sharp text on everything from the Russian menace to beauty queens. With 55,000 copies in print (retail price: $5.95) and paper on hand for a further 20,000, Baldy Ward hoped this would be Year’s year.