The Press: Rescue in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Daily News seemed on its deathbed ten months ago when former Democratic Congressman Clinton D. McKinnon bought the paper (TIME, Jan. 4). It was about $2,000,000 in debt and losing at the rate of $1,500,000 a year. McKinnon set out to woo "militantly Democratic readers," pepped up the writing and reporting and aggressively went after new advertising. He succeeded in cutting the daily losses of the News from $4,600 to less than $1,000 a day. But McKinnon's remedies were not enough.

Last week the News got the kind of medicine it needs most. McKinnon announced that Robert K. Straus, a member of the family that controls R. H. Macy & Co., heads a group that is planning to help finance the News—by putting an estimated $500,000 into the paper. A New Dealer and lifelong Democrat, Straus, like McKinnon, wanted to come to the aid of the only Democratic daily in Los Angeles. His investment is as much an act of political devotion as a way to make money in the newspaper business. Buying into the News, says Straus candidly, "is not like buying General Motors stock."