The Detroit tribune. (Detroit, Mich.) 1935-1966, 1942-12-12
The Negro
Press Today
By '. '. OAk
Wilberforce. ohio
WIDENING HORIZON

THE ADVANCE OF the Negro press
has been made in often crcdu-
lcus apng OF the white dailies. In
structure they are start ingly elm
liar TO the white papers, duplicat-
ing their good and bad features.
This cultural aping ni the dominant
race, OF course. - quite natu. al.
The Negro papers do not show any
evidence OF distinctive personality
OF their own other than their al
most one hundred per cent racial
emphasis. The Negro editors have
been so DI occupied with bringing
their papers abreast those OF The
whites that they have been unable
10 introduce new patterns into the
business OF collecting and editing
news. How we'll they are beginning
10 perfci m their task is indicated
by these indices OF somewhat In
oreasing maturity. the organization
CT press and syndicate services: tho
printing OF national and local edi-
uons: an enc gent use OF color
presses bv the more cnulent week
iies the appearance OF strong
newspaper chains. the growing
patronage II white business enter
prises evidenced bv a larger num-
Der Of ads from this source tho
creation OF extensive promotional
activities among beth their colored
carriers and the Negro public. and
the increasing space that is allof-
ed 10 foreign news that affects tho
TATE or all the colored peoples ~
the world This last internafIonal
aspect OF the prob en- Of the "col-
ored' races, first oduccd bv mr.
W. +. 3. Dubois through The
rlSis magazine as early as the
First World War. + now heine
grasped nv the better class week-
lies. The editors horizon" oh
serves Professor netweiler. "is at
FEAST as wide as hat CT n small.
town white editor and often wider.
Negro writer's are interested In
south Africa, whore there is a huge
race problem in Brazil. whore the
co'or line is indistinct: in Soviet
Russia. whittier Robeeon has zone
TO have his children educated. I'm
the Virgin Islands. Haiti. Santo
Domingo. Liberia. From Spain. to-
ward the end OF 1887. Langsion
Hughes was writing articles for the
Afro American. which sent n man
10 Russia 10 interview Stain. 10
I'm TO the the Olympice. and 10
Geneva 10 witness the appearance
OF Halle Selassie before the Leagne
Of Nations.
Credit for a large portion OF the
remaining articles is due to Pro-
fessor John Syriamaki OF Yale
university, who kindly granted the
writer permission To- rewritc his
findings and 10 use freely and ex-
iensively all statistical data gath
cred in his own study OF the Ne
gro Press in 1898" While Profess
eor Syriamaki's study Is four years
old statistical data are brought TO
date. A further study OF the pa
pers included in the original study
was also made in the summer Of
1882. and considerable improve
ment was found in the policies OF
some OF the papers during these
four years. The Chicago Bee. for
example. Is now printed In three
sections. an elght-page section on
the regular newspaper size, and two
Society and Feature" and sports
and General News" sixteen page
sections each OF thbloid size. It's
publisher. the well-known Anthony
Overton. Is ambitious TO make II a
Sunday paper modelled after the
traditional American Sunday news
paper. It's editor Miss Olive NJ.
Digs. product OF Illinois State Nor
NAL. University of Illinois. and
Northwestern university. does not
believe in yellow Journalism and Il
doing ccmmendabio work on that
paper Even though u does not
have a modern press and good TYNE
faces. Il stands among the first six
Negro newspapers from the point
Of view OF clean Journalism and
news coversge, both local and ma
tIonsi. The quality Of news and