Tabor City tribune., 1963-08-14
Weekly Newspaper Future
Bright; Says UNC Professor


CHAPEL HILL - The fut-
ure of Americas weekly news
papers is Brighter than ever
before"
Kenneth r. Byerly, journ-
alism professor at the Univers-
lty of North Carolina and long
time publisher of weeklies and
small dailies, stressed this in
the lead article in the current
special edition of GraSsrOOts
Editor, quarterly publication
of the International Confer
cncc of Weekly Newspaper
Editors. which is devoted 10
Weekly Newspapers Today"
He cited the "ever-growing
dollar volume" weeklieS gross.
This is not a mercenary mea-
Suring stick" Byerly said.
THE money spent for and in
weeklieS stresses the needs
and interests of readers and
advertisers.
Money. some say, should be
the last consideration in a
newspapers operation. This is
Short-Sighted," Byerly said.
High and ever improving
news and editorial standards
cannot be maintained without
it, so let's consider money
first, he wrote III the pubIica-
ton which is edited by Dr..
Howard r. Long, chairman of
the Department of Journalism
at Southern Illinois UniSvre-
ity.
"A small weekly in l949 did
an annual volume of less than
$4,000 and a large one more
than S25,OOO," said Byerly.
who is also author of the text
book, Community Journalism.
BY 1861, these figures had
jumped To. under $4,000 ard
over $4,000.
MANY wceklicS now gross
more than 100000 a year,
some S250,000 and a few mere
than S500,000 so weekly
newspapers have grown rapid
ly III staff, volume and equip
| ment.
They are a far cry from he
one-man, hand-Set, little week
lies that were SO common in
the early decades of the 10th
century. There are t ever
wecklies now, but they repre-
sent much bigger overall
operation and investment than
they did in 1910 or 1920"
He said the decline in week
ly numbers from 1905 1880
To l963's 9,3l9 is not a sign
that they are fading in the
United States.
Most OF the thousands of
small weeklieS that once exist
ed in hamlets that couldn't
support them are now gone:
and single strong paper eX-
lists now in most larger weekly
towns instead of two or three
competing ones that used to
struggle for existence. New
vigOr has resulted from the de-
cline in numbers"
Byerly says the cessation and
consolidation of wccklieS has
about ended. and that the
number of WCckliCS has re
manned almost even in the
United States in recent years.
He pointed To an increase in
the number of Canadian week
lies during the past decade,
after many years of decline.
and suggested that the trend
would also be upward again in
the United States soon.
Growth in the number and
circulation of suburban week
lies has been a factor in the
recent trend. Byerly said, but
"this talk of Suburbia's surge
has tended to give a false i'm
preston that wCekliCS in rural
America are fading, which is
true only for hamletS and COM
pcting wccklicS.
Surviving weeklieS gener-
ally in towns of $500 or more
(Smaller in many county seats
have grown in financial
strength and circulation since
World War H. Byerly said.
He pointed out that paid
circulation of the nations
weekly, Semi-weekly and tri-
weekly newspapers climbed to
record high in 1862. for the
ninth straight year, according
to tabulationS by William Nc
I - i