Description
Book SynopsisThis book is an expansive history of community weekly newspapers in the United States during the twentieth century. It explores such topics as ownership, business practices, employees and hiring practices, educating college students to work for weeklies, community involvement, government propaganda campaigns in small-town weeklies, syndication services, community leadership, advertising and other revenue sources, and competition for audiences with the development of radio and television.
Weeklies told the story of average American daily lives more thoroughly and in a more personal manner than the big-city dailies. In essence, the weekly publisher-editor served as author of his community's life story. Despite the problems that faced the weekly industry throughout its long and proud history, the constants that remained were identifying and utilizing survival tactics. Throughout the twentieth century an obituary had been written for community weeklies, but they found a way to fi
Trade Review
Beth Garfrerick has given us an important, seminal work. Most historians have ignored community newspapers. Prof. Garfrerick shows that they played vital roles in the lives of their readers. Her book is a major contribution to the study of journalism history. David Sloan Founder, American Journalism Historians Association
This book serves as an important corrective to the dominant narrative of American journalism, which has focused too exclusively on big-city dailies while ignoring the personal, grassroots journalism found in thousands of influential weekly newspapers around the country. It is a must-read for media scholars, who will appreciate Garfrerick’s skill in uncovering these newspapers’ economic strategies and historicizing their vital public role. Tracy Lucht Professor of Journalism History and Women and the Media, Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State University
Table of Contents
Abstract – Acknowledgments – Introduction – The Early 1900s: Consistency in Content, Appearance, and Style – The 1910s: Propaganda, Publicity, Paper and Postal Rates, and Patriotism – The 1920s: New Competition, Influence, and Commercial Success – The 1930s: Boosterism and Business Survival – The 1940s: Patriotism, Production, Professionalism, and the Postwar Period – The 1950s: Becoming Localized in News, Centralized in Operations – The 1960s: A Time to Rethink, Redefine, Recruit, and Regionalize – The 1970s: Careers, Content, Consumers, Consolidations, and Computerization – The 1980s: Technology vs. Technique; Corporate-owned vs. Community-owned; and Economics vs. Enterprise – The 1990s: Localism in Ownership and Content; the Wal-Mart Factor; Weekly/ Worker Competition; and a 24-Hour News Cycle – A Century of Changes and Challenges: Community Weeklies Come Full Circle –Index.
