The Press: The Trib in Transition

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For seasoned readers of the Chicago Tribune (circ. 877,636) the announcement on the editorial page last week was something of a shocker. Under the headline NEW DEPARTMENT, the Trib said matter-of-factly: "That its readers may have the benefit of other views in judging issues of national and international policy, the Tribune is instituting a department on this page designated 'The Other Side,' [reprinting] editorials from other newspapers which generally reject judgments sharply opposed to our own."

Readers were understandably surprised since the Trib customarily brooks no "internationalist," "pro-Eisenhower" or "leftwing" nonsense in its pages. For 30 years, the paper has faithfully expressed the views of its eccentric publisher, Colonel Robert R. McCormick. It still runs no syndicated political columnists because there are none whose views would fit day to day with the views of the colonel. But last week, to prove that it meant what it said, the Trib ran a series of editorials from such sources as the Fair Dealing New York Post and Nashville Tennessean and even Britain's Manchester Guardian.

Changing Times. Is the Trib changing its ways? There were signs that it is. Recently the paper printed an editorial saying that its longtime hero Joe McCarthy had begun to "irritate" too many people. Even the paper's front-page cartoons, which often showed a runty, Ike-faced figure, idly playing golf while bigger tasks went undone in the background, have been replaced by nonpolitical cartoons. More and more readers detect a hint of reasonableness in Trib editorials for some of the opinions of the other side. Apart from politics, the colonel has ordered dry-runs on a gossip column for the Trib, although in the past he has scorned such things as the work of "keyhole peepers."

Changing Circulation. The changes are all the colonel's doings. In his Tribune Tower office, the colonel has learned from the business office figures that the methods that made the paper successful are no longer working as well. Circulation has dropped almost 20% since 1946 (although a big circulation campaign has recently made it turn upward again slightly), while John Knight's Daily News has steadily gained, and Marshall Field's Sun-Times has edged into the black.

Old (73) and ailing, the colonel was so busy with the Washington Times-Herald, until he sold it four months ago to the Washington Post, that he had less time for the Trib. But now he is back on the job again and his handsome, outspoken wife, Maryland McCormick, has accurately read the signs, as have top Trib executives. From staff and distaff side, the colonel has been gently urged to make changes in the paper. Says Maryland McCormick: "The odds seem to be against the extreme right wing. It's very sad, but true, and why not face it?"