THE FADING AMERICAN NEWSPAPER

by Carl E. Lindstrom ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 21, 1960

This contains as clear, reasoned and articulate an explanation of the decline in number and quality of America's newspapers as is likely to be found anywhere. Newspapers are just no longer important, Lindstrom says. Now teaching journalism at the University of Michigan, the author is a widely quoted ""conscience"" of the industry and his outspokenness cost him his job at the Hartford (Conn.) Times, where he was managing editor for years. Stepped-up deadlines, increased distribution difficulties, low newsroom pay, pressure from competing media, mergers, failure to progress technically and the shift in financial control from ""editors"" to ""front-office"" types have added up to the fading of the press, Lindstrom maintains. Perhaps, he adds, as important as any factor has been a persistence in fighting ""the hopeless battle of the scoop"", which cannot be won against Radio-TV, while the news magazines have successfully exploited at their leisure the full, untold stories that might have belonged to the press. Despite its merits, however, this is an uneven, disjointed book ranging from criticism to essay to reminiscences to the technical and back again and may be of more interest to the trade than to the public. Surprisingly, in view of his other criticisms, Lindstrom is content and says so with the postwar ratio that gives only 35 per cent of most papers to news and the rest to advertising--almost the exact reverse of the prewar ratio. Only when the ""newshole"" drops into the 20 per cent bracket is the paper bad, he says.

Pub Date: Oct. 21, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION