The Press: Home-Town Daily

On her bedside table at a rundown Cleveland rooming house, a friendless old woman scrawled a note just before she died: "The only thing I own is my dog. Please take it to the Press. Ask them to find a home for it. I know the home they find will be a good one." Such confidence in the Cleveland Press (circ. 310,858) is neither misplaced nor unusual. Seven out of every ten people in the Cleveland area, boasts the Press, read the paper. Politicians curry its favor, mothers raise children from booklets on child care supplied by the Press, teen-agers dance at its free parties, and every year hundreds of oldsters (decked out in boutonnieres and corsages provided by the paper) celebrate their 50th wedding anniversaries at a party thrown by the Press. The Press puts its relationship with its readers simply: "Four members in your family? There are five. The fifth is the Cleveland Press."

Last week the Press, the oldest and one of the most successful dailies in the 19-paper Scripps-Howard chain, celebrated its 75th anniversary in real family style. All Cleveland was invited to the party in the city's biggest auditorium, where Toastmaster General George Jessel led an array of stars in a "Salute to Cleveland." Throughout the week visitors streamed through the paper's aged plant (to be replaced by a lakefront building) and tributes poured in from all over the world. "If Cleveland has grown great," glowed Ohio's Governor Frank Lausche, "a good deal of the credit goes to this worthy and distinguished newspaper."

Heard Around Town. If the Press itself has grown great, a good deal of the credit goes to the paper's bouncy, bantam-sized (5 ft. 5 in., 128 Ibs.) editor, Louis Seltzer, who started on the Press at 18 as a police reporter, and at 56 is Cleveland's leading citizen. Even the rare Clevelander who does not read Seltzer's paper or support his crusades can hardly avoid the sound of Seltzer's persuasive voice. He is such a popular public speaker that he delivers as many as seven speeches in one day, this year alone has made 246 public addresses. Known to most of Cleveland and to all his staff simply as "Louie," Seltzer relies on "what I hear around town" to set the paper's course, records what he hears in a notebook always handy in his pocket.