The Press: Not Well Enough

Scripps-Howard's Roy Howard, who got his start in journalism in Indianapolis 63 years ago, had a special fondness for his old paper, the Indianapolis Times. Roy, it was always said, would never kill the Times. Last year Roy Howard died at 81, and last week Scripps-Howard quietly folded the money-losing, 77-year-old Times.

In some ways, the Times was doing about as well as it ever had, but that was not well enough. Circulation stood at 91,235, a slight gain over last year. Ad revenue was up 6% over the year before. However, payroll and production costs had risen far more sharply. Like other Scripps-Howard papers, the Times pinched its pennies and overworked its reporters but still could not turn a profit. "This was one of the smallest towns in the country with three papers," said Managing Editor Irving Leibowitz, agonizing over throwing 420 people out of work. "The fight was lost in much larger cities long ago."

The loss of the Times leaves Indianapolis to the morning Star (circ. 224,000) and the afternoon News (circ. 173,000), both owned by Eugene C. Pulliam. While the Star often sees the news in the light of its owner's conservative political views, it is also a hard-digging, aggressive paper, which readers seem to enjoy even when it makes them furious. In fact, Pulliam's politics are not all that predictable. The Star, for example, supported winning Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Roger Branigin.

Now down to 18 papers, the Scripps-Howard chain is tending to drop big-city papers while picking up others in smaller communities.