The Press: Did Horace Turn?

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The game of publishing did not backslide during the year of 1923, but the goddess of fortune failed to bestow her favors promiscuously. Statistics on the number of publications in the U. S. at the beginning of 1923 and the beginning of 1924 were made public. The weeding out of the unfit reduced the number of periodicals of almost every kind without decimating any one group.

A comparison of the two years:

1923 1924

Dailies 2,313 2,310

Tri-Weeklies 82 77

Semi-Weeklies 481 473

Weeklies 13,482 13,267

Bi-Weeklies 95 107

Semi-Monthlies 290 280

Monthlies 3,352 3,393

Bi-Monthlies 136 162

Quarterlies 389 392

70

71

Miscellaneous

Total 20,691 20,531

Every class of paper except bi-weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies, held more funerals than christenings. The heaviest mortality was among the weeklies, and very properly so, for the U. S. is overstocked with them. The increase of bi-weeklies is probably due to the conversion of some debilitated weeklies. The increase of monthlies and bi-monthlies may be attributed to the fact that they can be established with less capital, and carried on with smaller staff-overhead expense than periodicals issued at lesser intervals, and at the same time the price of the magazine can generally be greater.

A sidelight on the newspaper situation, which illustrates how much that field can be enlarged on a nationwide scale, is the situation among dailies in New York City. Throughout the country about one newspaper is sold daily for every three inhabitants. In New York City the proportion is almost one newspaper to every inhabitant.

Within greater New York there are 77 dailies. Of this number:

17 circulate generally.

32 are foreign language papers.

7 are borough papers.

7 are financial papers.

12 are class papers.

2 are college papers.

The total circulation of the 77 is more than 5,000,000 daily. They are sold for upwards of $100,000 a day; the newsdealers take in over 500 tons of coppers a day; 15,800 people are directly employed.

Hearst Wins

A month ago Count Ludwig Salm von Hoogstraeten married Miss Millicent Rogers, of Manhattan, who was generally considered a likely heir to many Standard Oil millions. The Daily News, Manhattan gum chewers' sheetlet, made a series of grand stories out of what it termed "Count's Gold Tinted Love" (TIME, Jan. 21). It performed a feat for its kind of journal, a feat that almost challenged William Randolph Hearst to equal it. Doubtless, the News chuckled. But last week the Hearst press began to laugh last and best. It began to publish serially: "HOW I WOOED AND WON THE $40,000,000 ROGERS HEIRESS" By Count Ludwig Salm von Hoogstraeten.

Said the Count:

"Like all my family, I am a nomad by nature. But in my wanderings over the earth, one longing has always burned before me like a star, the need of a single, great consuming love. I have been constant to my ideal of womanhood. Now that ideal is realized in my marriage, do you wonder that I am the most joyful man in the world? . . .