Evening star., 1960-09-29
TALKING OF BUSINESS
KipIinger's Daring Reporting Style
Marks Top Journalistic Enterprise

to a weekly letter for many
clients.
Branches Out
AS his Washington Letter
began to show profits, Mr.. Kip.
linger launched other varietie!
with a narrower scope, e. g.. {
Tax Letter, Agricultural Letter
Foreign Trade Letter, and Flor
ida Letter. His original brair
child, however, which now SELL
for $24 a year and has a cir
culation Of some 200, 900, includ'
ing free trial subscriptions, is {
mainstay in profits.
Changing Tim e S. a monthly
magazine, pushes 100000 cir.
culation and crosses around s.
million. Other publications in.
clude a book club.
All are put together in thu
10-story So million editoria
building on H street, thel
printed in another facilit!
known as Editors Park" com
pleted by the company in Jul,
in Prince Georges County, Md.
eggs" and Scoops"
Predictions are an importanr
ingredient in the Kiplingel
formula, and the hazards o.
this activity have scared LESSEE
men out of business. In l948
for instance, Changing Times
laid an egg-along with a gooc
many rival publicationS-on the
election results: it ran a cover
story titled What Will Dewey
Do?" the day after Truman
won, too late to scrap the
article. Worse yet, full-page ad.
plugged the scoop. But on the
plus side, Mr.. Kiplinger hal
many accurate forecasts to hi
credit, including details of the
Marshall Plan four months
ahead of public announcement
Kip threw away the rulebook
in interviewing public figures
From the start. he never
quoted a source, a practice
that looked pretty high.
handed at the time to other
neWsmen, since it raised doubts
he'd talked to anybody. But
the method had one big advan-
tage; if readers had faith ir
your honesty, you could often
get the truth from high ur
sources on an anonymous basis
Today the background story
is common in all reporting, but
it sounded radical in the 1920s
How They Put 1t Together
Outsiders are frequently baf-
fled by the way the famed
weekly Wash Letter" is put
together. ITO newspapermer
we seem like a bunch of worms
crawling around among each
other" Kip jokes.
A piece, say, on United States
exports starts out with inter-
views by a staff member, who
may suggest an article. At con-
ferences the idea may come
under heavy fire.
ITO U.S." explains Austin Kip
linger, w. MS 42-year-old son
who is president of the con-
Germ, news is a raw material
We have to carry it on ano
reach a Judgment about it. II
we don't, we feel we haven't
done a job. If the reader asks
so what?' and can't find the
answer, then the article is al
fault"
AS a result, the barrage o.
$50 whats?" and What does
that mean to me?" in staff
meetings ScuttleS about nine
tenthS of articles before they
ever get into print. 1T doesn't
make for placid working" Aus
tin admits.
After running this gamut
the writer will compose a 800.
word piece. 1t usually ends or
the senior Mr.. Kiplinger's desk
(He still writes or edits most oi
the Washington Letter.
Sometimes he will boil the 800
words down to two lines on his
25-year-old Underwood type.
writer. Other times the piect
will appear in a process XIII
calls "shingling," where install
ments on the topic will be pub.
lished for four weeks running
Kiplinger writer's are we'll.
paid Cranging from a minimum
.of $4,000 a year up to $30,000)
and a dozen of them are as.
signed to the weekly letters
with another dozen working or
Changing Times.
Talks Way He Writes
Despite his uncanny knacE
for making millions, Kip re.
mains a publisher who talks
Just as he writes, offhand
jocular, full of slang ('My first
issue was pretty lousy'D and 6
curious combination of bluff.
ness and modeSty.
One anecdote he tells con-
Germs a visit he made to Chicago
a few years ago, where his Sor
Austin had achieved fame a.
the ABC announcer who
scooped other networks with
news of Alben Barkley's with.
drawal from the 80 campaign
"Kiplinger?" people asked
YOU'RE Austin's father, eh:
And what do you do for g