The Press: Systematic Editor

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Most of last week the city editor of the Cleveland Press (Scripps-Howard) had his hands full answering long-distance telephone calls and letters from other editors who wanted to know how he did it. The city editor was tall, 35-year-old Norman Shaw. Magically, it appeared, within an hour of the grim news of the Java Sea Battle, he had produced a five-column, page-one spread of pictures and biographies of local boys on the cruiser Houston. Most editors had thought themselves lucky to be able to identify the Houston's Commander. How had Editor Shaw got his list of the cruiser's personnel? How picked out the Clevelanders? And, above all, how rounded up photographs of all—in uniform to boot?

Simple, said Editor Shaw. Pearl Harbor inspired the idea. Clevelanders were invited in December to fill out a coupon in the Press describing the servicemen they were interested in, giving name of unit, home address, names of kin, anything else of interest. In return the Press promised to tell them any news it had about the servicemen concerned. Over 5,000 coupons have rolled in, usually with photographs. Keeping the file is a fulltime job for two staff members. But it has paid off handsomely in circulation.

No proponent of melodrama in the local room, City Editor Shaw (a graduate summa cum laude of Oberlin, and son of the Plain Dealer's longtime chief editorial writer Archer Shaw) gags when he hears about The Front Page brand of city editor. He made his reputation as a City Hall reporter who had a great knack for making interesting sense of municipal affairs.

His editor in chief, Louis B. Seltzer (who took over in 1928 at the age of 28), believes in a big local staff, fewer comics, serials, contests, syndicated features. His brightest stunt in local coverage was aimed at Cleveland's numerous foreign-born: a reporter, sent to Central Europe each spring and summer, carried thousands of messages from Clevelanders to relatives in the old country, brought back news of their doings for the Press. The Press has increased instead of diminishing local coverage, even in wartime.

As argument for this policy, Editors Shaw and Seltzer point to the Press's rise from 181,625 circulation in 1933 to 241,109 in 1941. Since Pearl Harbor the Press has picked up about 14,000 circulation. In the same period the opposition News gained only 4,000.