Survival of a Free

NOTE ON CHARTS I AND II

(See pp. 10 and 11)

Taking 1880 as a base year, with 100 representing the index figure, by 1910 the literate population of the United States had more than doubled, and by 1940 more than tripled. The number of daily newspapers available to this greatly increased group of potential readers. more than kept pace with increased number of literates until 1910, but then a startling decline occurred reducing the number of newspapers to less than that available to a much smaller literate population in 1910.

The increase in circulation of daily newspapers greatly exceeded the rate of growth of literates and was much greater than the growth of number of newspapers from 1880 to 1910. But that phenomenal development, attesting the reader popularity of the daily press, was also pronounced from 1910 to 1940, at a time when the number of dailies was actually declining: Thus, while more newspapers are read by more people than ever before, there are decidedly fewer different newspapers available to them.

In the weekly newspaper field, where so many of the small local and rural papers are found, the increase in number of papers from 1880 to 1910 was substantial but not at a sufficient rate to keep pace with the growing number of literates in the country. And from 1910 to 1940, there was a grievous loss in number of weekly papers, reducing them to only 40 percent above their number 60 years before.

NOTE ON CHART IV

(See p. 13)

Although most of the dailies remaining are in the smaller cities anp towns, they are sparsely located over the country, with almost no competition among them. The bars in the chart indicate the sharp drop in number of papers as you move from the smaller to the larger communities. The "pies" underneath show graphically that the only place where diversity of ownership is still strong is in the largest cities. About 1 in every 40 towns with fewer than 10,000 people still has competition. The competitive proportion increases slowly right up to the 200,000 to 300,000 population group; in one out of three of those cities there is competition among dailies. Then there is a sharp break into the next two groups, which include cities from 300,000 to half a million people. Here there is competition in two of every three cities. And the few cities which have populations of more than half a million are the only ones in which daily newspaper competition is universal.

It should be stressed that "competition" means only the presence of two newspapers, owned by different persons or companies. Even though, for example, there are two separately owned papers, one of which appears in the morning and the other in the evening, they are still considered "competitive." Or if they have the same policies, they are nevertheless included as still "competitive" in this tabulation.

CHART I

POTENTIAL AUDIENCE AND CIRCULATION ZOOM; DAILIES AND WEEKLIES FALL 1880-1940