Milford chronicle., 1960-12-09

| One of the most exciting and
| significant trends today-both for
working newspaperwomen and for
women who read them-iS the de-
velopment of the 'women's interest
pages and sections of papers in
nearly all circulation brackets.
These pages and sections are
! getting so good that many highly
| talented young women reporters
who once accepted women's page
jobs only to get professional toe
! holds, and then escaped as fast
as they could to general assign
ment reporting, now prefer to stay
with those jobs.
The prestige of women's pages
received a boost in June of this
year when ]. C. Penny Co., the
department store chain, announced
grant to the University of Missouri,
which is the home of the nations
oldest journalism school, to estab-
| lish a series of awards for eXcell-
ence in general women's interest
and fashion reporting.
Importance of these pages and
sections to the publication of to-
days newspapers is underscored
by the fact that there are many
more business and professional
women now than there were 15
years ago, or even one year ago.
Again the US. Census Bureau will
show that more than 100000 busi-
ness and professional women were
reporting to well-paid jobs in
commerce and industry in 1859.
Because these competent women
are actively concerned with the
affairs of politics and business
and International relationships and
government, they have become
more avid newspaper readers than
men.
A Bureau of Advertising survey
over the last 10 years shows that
II per cent of the women queried
read all the general news, sports,
society and women's pages in a
newspaper, while only 81 per cent
of the men sampled could make
the same boast
Thus, it is obvious that women
writer's with intelligence, imagina-
tion and craftsmanship are re-
quired to know what appeals to
the readers of these women's in
terest pages, and produce it for
these sections.
Back in 1886, when woman was
expected to be decorously seen but
not heard, the revolutionary Ladies
Morning Star was founded in New
York City and aimed Exclusively
at women" Merchants doomed it
to an early death by withholding
all advertising until the word
Ladies" was deleted from the
masthead. Remembered, too is how
James Gordon Bennett, who lam
ched his brilliant New York Herald
in 1885, used to stalk through the
editorial rooms growing, who are
these females? Fire themi"' And
for many years Editor Carl V. Van
Anda of the New York Times
would turn away women who SOU
ght reportorial work with the gen.
tie admonition that the Times could
not possibly risk sending a woman
out after dark.
But the women refused to be
daunted And they had their own
subtle, or brash, methods for
breaking down the ancient pre-
judice against the fair sex in the
fast-breaking, brawling newspaper
business. Fearless Ann Royal
stopped at. nothing to get a story.
When interviewing President John
Quincy Adams she sat on his clothe
as he bathed in the Potomac, re-
fusing to bulge until he answered
her questions. The great Joseph
Pulitzer finally had to yield TO
Nellie Bly's persuasive arguments
and the New York World won
even greater fame through the
exploits of this international STUNT
reporter.
Several generations of readers
followed faithfully the advice to
the lovelorn penned by that kindly
soul of the women's department.
Dorothy Dix, who had won her
early reportorial spurs in the tough
field of court reporting. She had
covered the murder trial of Harry
K Thaw in 1907 and larded on
sympathy so heavily she was label
ed the first sob sister" That
word is now part of everyday
language.
Many of the present-day women
newspaper leaders made their way