The Press: The Negro Press: 1955

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Losing Battle. Most Negro magazines are also waging a losing battle since they tend to appeal to the reader as a Negro first, and only secondarily as a member of the larger community in which he is rapidly winning a place. For example, Our World, one of the glossiest Negro magazines, has frequently featured articles on Negro life in Africa and other parts of the world. Last week, after dropping nearly 100,000 circulation since its 1952 peak of 251,599, Our World Publishing Co. went bankrupt.

To survive, Negro publications may have to follow the example of Ebony and Atlanta's Daily World, the only Negro daily in the U.S. The World has prospered by consistently giving its 17,000 weekday readers full, even-tempered news coverage. This year it has a 45% advertising gain over 1954. Says the World's Managing Editor William Gordon, 36, a 1952 Harvard Nieman fellow: "We aren't in business just to fight for racial equality. The Negro today wants to be well and accurately informed. With desegregation. I can see no decline in the need for a Negro press."

On the other hand, many Negro newsmen feel that rising living and educational standards will continue to lessen the demand for a Negro press. But few of them believe that the Negro's interests will be wholly integrated with those of the white man for at least another half-century. Says Ebony's Johnson: "When that happens we'll gladly go out of business."