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ISI‘UDY or A SUBURBAN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
IN COMPETITION WITH A- URIYmSlTY DAILY NEWSPArm
Win: the Dogma of EA.
IUIEIRAN STATE UNIVERSITY
PETER JEREMIAH RONAGRUE

 

: JUN-221999

 

 

 

Accepted by the faculty of the School of Journalism,
College of Communication Arts, Michigan State University, in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree.

 

Director of Thes s

ABSTRACT

THE EAST LANSING TOWNE COURIER:
STUDY OF A SUBURBAN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
IN COMPETITION WITH A UNIVERSITY DAILY NEWSPAPER
35’

Peter Jeremiah Donaghue

In the thirty years since the end of World War II, the growth
of suburban communities, usually at the expense of central cities,
has significantly altered American newspaper publishing patterns.
This movement to the suburbs has been reflected in rapid growth
of the suburban press during a period in which metropolitan daily
newpapers have been merging and declining in number, while perhaps
not coincidentally becoming more regional in scope.

The Towne Courier is a weekly newspaper serving East Lansing,

 

Michigan, a suburb of Lansing and also the site of Michigan State

University. The university State News, published by students

 

daily during the nine-month academic year, is devoted primarily
to coverage of the university but does cover East Lansing city
affairs to some extent.

The Towne Courier therefore finds itself in the unique

 

situation of being a suburban weekly newspaper in indirect competition
with a partially-subsidized university daily newspaper.

Purpose of this study is to determine what kind of a commun-
ity East Lansing is, to take an overview of suburban and community

newspapers in general, and to look specifically at the Towne Courier

 

editorial policies and practices. Included in this study is a content

analysis of the Towne Courier and its editorial page, a look at its organi-

 

zational chart and work flow, and exploration of the publisher's editorial

philosophy, and some conclusions which can be gathered from these observations.

THE EAST LANSING TOWNE COURIER:
STUDY OF A SUBURBAN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
IN COMPETITION WITH A UNIVERSITY DAILY NEWSPAPER

By

Peter Jeremiah Donaghue

A THESIS

Submitted to the
School of Journalism
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

1975

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author has been working for newspapers full and part-
time for twenty-five years, and twenty-three of these have been spent
on weekly newspapers, both in-city and suburban. When he came to East
Lansing to do graduate work in journalism, his interest naturally turned

to the local community weekly newspaper, the Town Courier.

 

This interest developed into the study presented on these
pages. Although this study is focused on one newspaper, similar
conditions may exist in college suburbs elsewhere, and perhaps some
observations made here may be applicable in other situations..

A particular debt of gratitude is owed to Mrs. Vivian F. Oates,

editor and publisher of the Towne Courier, for her cheerful, efficient,

 

and complete cooperation with the author's research.

The author is also deeply indebted to the entire faculty of
the School of Journalism at Michigan State Univeréity for making this
past year one of the most stimulating, educational, and memorable ones
it has been his pleasure to enjoy. Special thanks are due the thesis
adviser, Dr. George A. Hough, 3rd, for his helpful suggestions, keen
criticism, and hours of consultation, reading, and editing of this
manuscript.

But most of all, to the only one who really made it possible,

Marge.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................ ii
LIST OF TABLES ........................ iv
LIST OF FIGURES ........................ v
LIST OF APPENDICES ....................... vi
Chapter
I. EAST LANSING AS A SATELLITE CITY ............ l
II. WEEKLY AND SUBURBAN NEWSPAPERS:
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............... l4
III. TOWNE COURIER BEGINNING, OWNERSHIP
PRESENT STAFF, AND NEWS OPERATION ........... 33
IV. CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE TOWNE COURIER
FOR TEN-WEEK PERIOD FROM
OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, l974 ............. 45
V. THE EDITORIAL PAGE AND COVERAGE
OF TWO UNIVERSITY-CITY ISSUES ............. 59
VI. ROLE OF THE TOWNE COURIER
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER ................. 74
VII. THE TOWNE COURIER AS A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER:
Conclusions ...................... 8l
FOOTNOTES .......................... 85
APPENDICES ......................... 9l

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................... 95

Table

01-wa

ll.

12.

l3.

I4.

15.

LIST OF TABLES

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN CENTRAL CITIES,
SUBURBS, AND NON-METROPOLITAN AREAS, l940-l97O ...... 2
EAST LANSING POPULATION GROWTH FROM l940-l97O ...... 8
TRENDS IN NEWSPAPER OWNERSHIP, l880-l968. ... . . . . l6-l6a
NUMBER OF DAILY NEWSPAPER, l946-1973 .......... l8
WEEKLY NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION
AND ESTIMATED READERSHIP, l955-l975 ........... l9
PERCENTAGE OF SUBURBAN READERS WHO
PREFER A SUBURBAN WEEKLY FOR CERTAIN TYPES
OF NEWS COVERAGE IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY ......... 26
NEWSPAPER READERSHIP HABITS ............... 29
DUPLICATION OF NEWSPAPER READERSHIP ........... 3O
PAID AND FREE CIRCULATION OF TOWNE COURIER, l970-74 . . . 36
ASSIGNMENT, EXPERIENCE, AND EDUCATIONAL
BACKGROUND OF TOWNE COURIER EDITORIAL PERSONNEL ..... 39
ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL SPACE OF THE
TOWNE COURIER BY ISSUE FOR THE TEN-WEEK PERIOD
FROM OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, l974 ........... 48
TOWNE COURIER NEWS RATIO ACCORDING TO CATEGORY
DURING TEN-WEEK PERIOD OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4,l974 . . . 52
TOWNE COURIER NEWS RATIO ACCORDING TO CATEGORY
EACH WEEK FROM OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, l974 ...... 55-56
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF TOWNE COURIER
EDITORIAL PAGE ARTICLES BY ISSUE
FROM OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, 1974 ........... 6O

MEASUREMENT OF LOCAL EMPHASIS OF
TOWNE COURIER EDITORIALS IN TEN-WEEK PERIOD

 

FROM OCTOBER 2 T0 DECEMBER 4, 1974 ........... 68

iv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

I. ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF THE TOWNE COURIER
DEPARTMENT HEADS AND EDITORIAL STAFF ........... 37

 

2. TOWNE COURIER CARTOON JULY 17, 1974
ON UNIVERSITY HOUSING DECISION .............. 7la

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page

A. QUESTIONS AND REPLIES TO
TOWNE COURIER READERSHIP SURVEY ............. 9]}

 

vi

CHAPTER I
EAST LANSING AS A SATELLITE CITY

The suburban phenomenon as we know it is a comparatively
recent development, receiving its initial impetus in the post war boom
immediately following World War II and continuing unchecked through the

1 reported in 1960 that

19505. The Committee for Economic Development
almost one-half of all the population of Standard Metropolitan Statis-
tical Areas (SMSA) used by the Bureau of the Census to measure urban
trends lived outside the central cities of those areas, and if that trend
continued "a majority of all American will live in Suburbia before the
year 2000."

Table l shows the growth of suburban areas, listed as "outside
central city" in the table, from l94O to 1970. The 1970 census for the
first time showed more people living in suburban areas than either in
the central cities or non-metropolitan, or rural, areas.

Even though all suburbs have some general similarities, the
idea that there is only one kind of suburb muSt be discarded as quickly '
as the notion that there is only one kind of city. Scott Donaldson2
defines a suburb as a community lying within commuting distance of a
central city, usually but not always dependent on the central city
economically and culturally, and usually but not always independent
politically of the central city.

Obviously not all suburbs fall neatly within this definition.

3

Sociologist Leo F. Schnore classifies subordinate centersztbat have

TABLE 1

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN CENTRAL CITIES,

SUBURBS, AND NON-METROPOLITAN AREAS, 1940-1970

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year Total SMSA Non-metropolitan
population SMSA population
Inside Outside
Central City Central City
1940 69,279,675 43,391,718 25,887,957 62,389,600
1950 89,316,903 52,371,379 36,945,524 62,008,895
1960 112,885,178 58,004,334 54,880,844 66,437,997
1970 139,418,811 63,796,943 75,621,868 63,793,115
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Census Reports, 1940, 1950,

1960,1970

Obviously not all suburbs fall neatly within this definition.
Sociologist Leo F. Schnore3 classifies subordinate centers that have
P__-Substantially more residents than jobs as "suburbs," while those
communities which attract more workers every day than the number of
people who sleep there every night he labels "satellites."
Satellites, according .to Schnore, are basically subordinate to
larger center, yet retain a high degree of independence stemming from
their importance as employment centers.4
Schnore says all suburbs and satellites have one structural
feature in common: although they are treated as separate units for a
limited range or purposes...they are themselves merely constituent
parts of a larger urban complex--the metropolitan structure as a

5 Satellites usually are distinguished from suburbs, according

whole.
to Schnore, in that they tend to be older,6 and 050a11y have a definable
central business district.

Differences in growth patterns between satellites and suburbs are
noted by Schnore. "Satellites may be able to exhibit growth only because
of (recent) high rates of natural increase," he writes, "Suburbs on the
other hand appear to be growing more rapidly from both demographic
sources--natural increase and net in-migration. Thus it appears that
'employing satellites,‘ which are functionally similar to central cities
in that they draw workers from other areas, are also highly similar to the
metropolis in theirsources of growth."7

Another type of suburb, the "college suburb," is defined by Dennis

. 8 . . . .
Sobin as a community In which a major college or university is located,

and where a large proportion of community residents and their activities
are due to presence of the college.
Sobin points out that a college suburb often sees the existence
of conflicts between the college and local residents, especially where the
college is undergoing rapid growth and expansion. "Residents are often
fearful that the expanding college will change the character of the com-
munity. They are usually right, for as the college grows the community
changes...bringing more people, more intensive development (and) more
traffic."9
In the case of East Lansing, evidence indicates that if there had
been no Michigan Agricultural College, as Michigan State University origi-
nally was known, there would have been no city of East Lansing as
presently constituted. James D. Towar,10 an early historian, writes
that "owing to its location at the junction of two main thoroughfares, its
attractive rolling terrain, its river banks and the wooded areas, (what is
now East Lansing) might have become a residential section of the rapidly
growing capital city, but no separate municipality" without the college.
Before taking a closer look at East Lansing itself, this study will ex-
amine some general observations about differences between city and suburban
reéidents and how pronounced they are, or perhaps if they even exist.
William Dobriner11 believes that the forces which make for economic
homogeneity in city neighborhoods operate with equal facility in the
suburbs. "The life styles, family structure, value systems, neighboring
practices,zetc.,appear almost the same in the equivalent class and ethnic
locality on either Side of the city line. Life on the fringes of cities,

particularly in the middle and upper middle class areas, seems to be

identical in almost all respects with life in the suburbs."12

In older suburban areas such as East Lansing, however, John Bollens

‘3 find consistently higher median family incomes,

and Henry Schmandt
higher educational rank, and a greater proportion of white-collar workers.
They say the common conclusion that high—status persons live in the suburbs
tends to be particularly true in urbanized areas having old core cities.
There is some difference of opinion as to whether suburban residents
are more civic-oriented than their city neighbors. Bollen and Schmandt
find that suburban residents are more likely than central city dwellers
to belong to child centered organizations and social and hobby clubs, but
less inclined to participate in civic-oriented groups, that the degree of
differences is not great, and in fact is negligible when controlled for
social rank.14
"What we should get straight, is that suburban living takes place
in mass society and within a metropolitan context. Its government and
the extent of its citizen involvement are not necessarily better or worse
than that of the central city."15
Bollens and Schmandt maintain that suburban cities and towns are
not isolated or autonomous units, but little more than parts or neigh-
borhoods of a larger urban complex. The individuals and groups Who inhabit
them are subject to the same forces and pressures that typically characterize
metropolitan life and operate against citizen activity and involvement in

16 The suburban resident, they say, is no

affairs of any local community.
more immune from the effects of bigness and specialization than is the
central city dweller, and moving to Suburbia does not transform one's parti-
cipational and civic habits any moreso than it does his political beliefs.

Donaldson, on the other hand, feels there are certain qualities of the

suburban experience that tend to guarantee greater participation in

political activity:

In the first place, the new suburban reéident often
becomes a homeowner for the first time in his life, and is
confronted by the problems of fighting city hall that he
formerly left to the landlord or consigned to such institutions
as the army or the university.

Secondly, the suburbanite frequently is a refugee from the
city, where his life was conducted in comparative anonymity. It
is, of course, possible for the suburban resident to avoid any
sort of participation in local affairs, but there is no gainsay-
ing the point that such an avoidance is more difficult in the
suburb than it was in the city. What's more, the suburbanite
has an advantage in pursuing political goals that the small-
towner does not; the suburb is far less likely to be run by a
clique -- the turnover is too high.

This, of course, is applicable where a suburban resident has moved
from the city to a suburb, but Bollens and Schmandt note that with high
mobility among the managerial (and professional) ranks of business and
industry, the "organization man" frequently moves from the suburb-efi-one'
suburb of one metropolis to a similar community in another.18

One area in which there is general agreement is that the suburban
resident is more conscious of his school system and school problems than
a city-dweller. Bollens and Schmandt say it is natural to "expect more
suburbanites to belong to child-centered organizations simply because

more young families live outside the core city,“19 20

and Robert Wood
writes that the operation of public schools results in more extensive
public participation in political affairs, more heat and not infrequently
less light than any other function. "The school problem," he says,
"exaggerates whatever conflicts and disagreements already exist."

East Lansing has shown a steady if not spectacular growth rate since World

War II. Table 2 shows that the city has grown from 11,065 in 1940 to

more than 47,000 in 1970, with the largest increase coming in the ten-
year period from 1960 to 1970. These figures include students living

on campus within the city limits of East Lansing. Although census data
does not give a precise picture of the city itself, because of the student
population, some general indicatdrs describe East Lansing residents in
broad terms.

East Lansing is considerably more affluent than the rest of the
Lansing SMSA, with a mean average annual income of $14,973 compared to
$12,367 for the entire area, and a median income of $11,630 as opposed
to $11, 213 for the snsArz‘

A wider variance is found in the value of housing units. The median
value of owner-occupied units in East Lansing is $29,300 as opposed to
$17,600 for the entire SMSA. This probably has some correlation with
statistics on education attainment, which show that the median school year
completed by East Lansing adults iS 16.4, while in the city of Lansing
it is 12.2 years. The percentage of high school graduates among adults
in East Lansing is 92.8 percent, compared with 58.3 for Lansing.

Another indication of the socio-economic level of East Lansing residents

compared with the SMSA is found in employment statistics. The number of

East Lansing residents 16 years old and over Who are employed is 20,088,

and 7,460 of these are classified as "professional, technical and kindred
workers." Lansing, however, has 52,178 employed adults and not quite as

many workers, 7,037, in the professional category.

Presence of the university also is shown in the number of people
employed in "educational services;" East Lansing has 9,665 listed as such

out of its 20,088 work force, while Lansing has only 4,912 out of 52,178.

TABLE 2
EAST LANSING POPULATION GROWTH
FROM 1940-1970

 

 

 

Year Population
1940 11,065
1950 20,325
1960 30,198
1970 47,540

 

 

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau,
Census Reports-1940, 1950, 1960, 1970.

East Lansingfs position as a relatively "younger" community than
others in the SMSA is reflected in the fact that only 6.9 percent of its
population is in the 65 and over age group, while the entire area shows
19.6 percent over 65 years old.

A review of East Lansing's historical background shows that founding
and growth of the city was closely intertwined with, and in fact almost
inseparable from, that of the university. In his history of East Lansing,
Towar points out that until about 1895 the community life of what is now
East Lansing was confined almost entirely to residents of the college
campus.22

The first actual settler in what is now East Lansing was 0. Robert
Burcham, who in 1849 acquired title to land which included forty acres of
the college campus along the Red Cedar River. In 1851 Burcham built the
first log house and cleared the first land, but purchase of the college
farm in 1855 is used as the starting date for the city.23

When Burcham sold the south forty-five acres of his farm to the state
for the college, he built another log house just east of the present People's
Church on what is now Grand River Avenue. The latter house was sold in
1866 to Dr. Manly Miles. A legislative act establishing the Michigan
Agricultural College was introduced and passed id 1855, and construction
of the first college buildings began in 1856. The college formally opened
May 13, 1857, with an enrollment of seventy-three students.

First plat within the present limits of East Lansing was recorded
November 5, 1887, by Dr. W. J. Beal and Prof. R. C. Carpenter. Named

Collegeville, it consisted of sixty-nine lots in a semi-forested area

lying north of Michigan Avenue along Harrison, Center and Beal Streets, as

10
far north as Oak Street.

Residents of the area petitioned the legislature in 1907 for a city
charter, which was granted with very little controversy except for selection
of a name. Since the post office was called "Agricultural College," and
there was no railroad station, telegraph or express ofice, a straw vote was
taken to determine the name:

One or more votes were received for College-ville, Agricultural
College, Oakwood, College Park, Montrose, and East Lansing. College
Park received the most votes, but the legislature settled the question
by choosing East Lansing "because it was practical."

Its location as to accessibility to railroad, freight, express,
telegraph, and banking facilities, and its close proximity to the
well-know24city of Lansing, had an important bearing on the final
Decision.

Towar reports that it also was felt that the United States Post Office
preferred the name chosen since the mails were routed through Lansing and
the name of the post office would have to be changed to conform to the
name of the city. In any event, the bill passed both houses of the leg~
islature by unanimous vote and was signed into law by Gov. Fred M. Warner
Mar8, 1907.

Abbott Road originally wastheldividing line between Lansing and
Meridian Townships; when East Lansing was formed, however, the city became

a separate municipal entity and continues to this day independent govern-

mentally of the two townships.

College faculty members have been active in city government since its
beginning. Prof. Clinton 0. Smith was mayor when the first official
session of what was then called the Common Council was held June 27, 1907.
Prof. Wilbur B. Brookover, professor in the uniGersity Department of

Secondary Education and Curriculum, continues the tradition today as mayor

11

of East Lansing.

In the early days of East Lansing and the college, the municipality
made an agreement for use of the college sewer to carry off excess flow from
a city septic tank, and in 1911 a system of numbering houses, devised by
Prof. Chace Newman, was adopted. The college influence is noted in some

of the names chose:

Three of the streets are named for former presidents of
the college: Abbott Road, for Theophilus Capen Abbot, LL.D,*
president from 1862-84; Snyder Road, for Johnathan LeMoyne Snyder,
LL.D., president from 1896-1915: and Butterfield Drive, for Kenyon
Leach Butterfield, LL.D., president from 1925-28.

There also is a street in the city named after each of the
following professors: Dr. William James Beal, professor of Botany
for forty years; Dr. Robert Clark Kedzie, professor of Chimistry
nearly forty years; Dr. Charles Edward Marshall, porfessor of
Bacteriology; William Frederick Durand, professor of Mechanics;
Ernest Everett Bogue, professor of Forestry; Thomas Gunson, green-25
house manager over forty years and mayor of the city from 1909-13.
Prior to 1884, Lansing was the post office for the college, and mail

was carried once a day during the college terms by a student. After the
college post office was estabished, the mail was received through the
LanSing Post Office and carried under contract twice a day by open stage,
which also carried passengers, express and freight. The office of post-
master was held by the college secretary until 1899.

In 1899, the post office was moved from the college library building
to the horticulture building, and in 1902 it was moved to the trolley
terminal and housed under the same roof as the combined trolley station
and college bookstore. The post office was taken off campus in 1912, and
has been in several locations before being moved to the present site on

North Abbott Road.

12

Early water systems of the city and college were united, and even
after they became separated were provided with connecting valves which
could be openedi in case of fire or an unusual demand for water by either.
Interdependence was so marked in the early days that the college purchased
the first East Lansing fire engine.26

As might be expected, transportation and its availability was a
significant factor in the growth of both East Lansing and the college.

The first railroad by which Lansing was connected with the outside world
was the Michigan Central from Owasso, which for a time ended at the high
bridge on Gunnisonville Road northwest of East Lansing. Students, college
staff members and local residents were main users of a flag station of the
Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad* on South Harrison Road, and
when the Grand Trunk Railroad was built in 1876, the Trowbridge junction
was established and the station was used for freight and passenger service.
In 1900, a spur was built from Trowbridge to the college grounds and has
served since for the delivery of coal and other freight to the college.

Towar says the coming of the electric railway, or street car line,
was the real beginning of East Lansing as a separate municipality. "It
furnished cheap** and easy transportation for men in 'Collegeville' going
to work in Lansing, and carpenters, masons and other workmen from Lansing
used it going to work in the East Lansing building boom that started in
l898."27

Before a street car line was built to the college, students were often

carried to and from Lansing and other places by private bus. For a number

of years, the Michigan Avenue street car line ended at the "old Split Rock,"***

13

and the college opposed its extension on the grounds that it "would bring

an undesirable human element" from Lansing.28

Women were responsible for eventual extension of the street car line

to the college and East Lansing, according to Towar:

The line was extended to the west entrance of the college
in 1893, where it stopped for a few years. Further objections
by some members of the Board of Agriculture prevented its ex-
tension until 1896.

A woman's course was established that year at the college,
and the long vacation period was changed from winter to summer,
so the electric line was the only means many girl students
living in Lansing could (use to)get to the college.

They finally convinced the board of trustees to permit
the line to enter thezgampus, where a comfortable waiting room
eventually was built.

Ater extension of the street car line, Towar says "attendance at the
college increased rapidly, Lansing people were attracted to East Lansing

as a desirable place to live, families with children to educate moved out,

and a new city was in the making."30

CHAPTER II

WEEKLY AND SUBURBAN NEWSPAPERS:
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

As population shifts changed the face of urban America after World
War II, it was only natural that newspaper publishing practices also
would be significantly attered. The late Prof. Thomas F. Barnhart3]
said there are three types of weekly newspapers: (1) small town, in
preference to the widely used terms "Country weekly" and "rural weekly;"
(2) suburban; (3) community; 'by the latter he meant weekly, or less-than-
daily, newspapers situated in and serving neighborhood areas of large
cities.* .

A formula for the strength of suburban newspapers was outlined two
decades before they attained significance by Margaret Cosse, who wrote
in 1928 that "just as the suburbs differ in their social and economic
character from the true country town, so the papers that serve their local
interests are developing a specialized kind of journalism...and the more
suburban editors realize this, get away from both metropolitan and rural
formulae, and make their papers reflect and lead their particular communities,"

the more successful they will be.32

John Cameron Sim33cites the divergent attitudes of suburban editors

toward their product:

Some editors are convinced that the suburban paper should
resemble a rural weekly in an urban center, with a "folksy, highly
personal approach." They say they should offer "scrapbook news-
papers," print the kind of news people have been accustomed to

14

15

clip and save—-birth notices, school achievements, weddings,
anniversaries, obituaries.

Others are equally convinced that ultimately suburban weeklies
will fall into a pattern most nearly resembling news magazines--
reporting the nemerous and difficult social and economic problems
of growing communities in depth, with a knowledgeable and 50phistic-
ated approach which requires well-educated and able staffers.

They would minimize what they call "trivia," and which the
other class of editors believe is the real news of interest to
readers.

Agreement is no more general in the area of editorial comment, Sim
writes, yet this is the one role whiCh the metropolitan dailies are wholly
surrendering to the weeklies and evidently expecting them to perform.34

Significant growth of the suburban press is illustrated by a find-
ing of the Suburban Press Foundation that between 1950 and 1960 suburban
papers grew by 113 percent while the nation's population increased by only
60 percent. The number of editorial workers on these papers more than '
doubled in this decade, and the papers also doubled their income.35

Raymond Nixon notes a significant concentration of ownership in daily
newspapers, since 1910. Table 3 shows that the total number of U. S. daily
groups and chains has grown from a total of 13 with 62 papers in 1910 to ‘
159 with 828 papers in May of 1968, and that the average size of groups,'
which deélined during the 19405, then remained fairly constant in the 19505
and started to climb in the 1960s. This trend also seems to be reflected
in the suburban newspaper publishing field. William Haight, a former weekly
publisher and faculty member at Michigan State University, conducted a sur-
vey in 1958 which showed that "multiple ownership or chain operations of
weeklies has become the 'dominant pattern in suburban towns."37

Examples of this concentration of ownership can be found in many

metropolitan areas of the United States today. To cite just a few examples

6
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17

with which the author is familiar, in Minneapolis-St.Pau1, the weekly

Sun Newspapers encircle the Twin Cities; the Lerner Newspapers of Chicago
publish more than forty twice-weekly newspapers which circulate from Marina
City in the loop, through the north and northwest sections of the city and
into the north and northwest suburbs, as far north as Highland Park and as
far west as O'Hare Field.*

The subject of this study, the East Lansing Towne Courier, is a wholly-

 

owned subsidiary of Suburban Communications Corporation, which is the
product of a merger in December, 1973, of the Observer and Eccentric
newpaper groups of suburban Detroit. Suburban Communications also owns
Queen Cities Press, which has its own printing plént‘and publishes five
suburban weekly newspapers in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area.

As metropolitan newspapers have changed through consolidations and
suspensions, they have become more regional in scope While their suburban
counterparts perhaps not coincidentally have grown and taken a stronger
role in furnishing readers news of their local communities.

Table 4 shows that the number of daily newspapers in the United
States has remained fairly constant from 1946 to 1973, with lows in 1967
and 1970, and a slow, steady increase since 1970. Wallace A. Eberhard says
most of the new publishing ventures which have kept this figure at its
present level are found in smaller communities and in the smaller cir-
culation categories, including suburban newspapers and communities.38

Although no breakdown between suburban and rural newspapers in indi-
cated, Table 5 shows the circulation growth of weekly newspapers between

1955 and 1975. It is significant to note that while the number of weekly

newspapers has declined during this twenty-year period, total circulation

18

TABLE 4
NUMBER OF DAILY NEWSPAPERS, 1946-1973

 

 

 

Year Number
1946 1763
1950 1772
1955 1760
1960 1763
1965 1751
1966 1754
1967 1749
1968 1752
1969 1758
1970 1748
1971 1749
1972 1761
1973 1774

 

 

SOURCE: American Newspaper Publishers Association

19

TABLE 5

WEEKLY NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION
AND ESTIMATED READERSHIP, 1955-1975

 

 

 

 

 

Year Number of Total Estimated
Newspapers Cigculation .7 Readership'
1955 8428 17,396,936 69,587,744
1961 8183 21,327,782 85,311,128
1965 8061 25,036,031 100,144,124
1970 7612 27,857,332 111,429,328
1975 7612 35,892,409 143,569,636

 

 

 

 

SOURCE: American Newspaper Representatives, Inc.

20

and estimated readership has increased substantially. The author believes
that much of this increase is due to growth of the suburban press.

Boyd Miller points out that the downtown papers don't have the space
to print all the news affecting the suburbs. "In the Detroit area, there
are eighty-six political subdivisions in...the northern suburbs, all brimm—
ing with newsy schools, sewers and local tax rates." The inability to carry
all the news affecting suburbs, according to Miller, has created a gap in
coverage provided by the downtown dailies, and this gap has been filled to
some degree by the community press. Miller says the downtown press ignores
happenings of the fringe areas only at the peril of losing influence to the
suburban press.39

Because comminity papers got fat as a result of population growth in
the outlying suburban areas of big cities, Sim says metropolitan papers in
the 19605 thought it necessary to publish zoned suburban sections to provide
increased local coverage of important suburban community affairs.40

The device of zoned editions to provide "local" news of the suburbs,
he says was not due to a concern that some important news sector would go
uncovered, "but rather than too much advertising revenue was being siphoned
off" by the burgeoning suburban press.4] Response to an inquiry by the
author to the American Newspaper Publishers Association indicated that the
practice of zoned editions is not as popular in the 19705 as it was in the
19605.42

Kenneth Byerly writes that in the suburbs a need has been created for a
newspaper to carry local news, promote community interest, and provide an
advertising medium for the area's retail outlets, and "the result has been
development of strong profitable suburban newspapers and a complete rever-

sal of the publishing fraternity's attitude toward them."43 I

21

Factors which Byerly sees contributing to the phenomenal expansion of
suburban weekly newspapers are a fast-growing* p0pulation, decentralization
of industry into the suburbs, the growing realization by publishers of big
city dailies that it is not profitable for them to conduct extensive circu-
lation programs in outlying areas, and a rapid improvement in the appear-
ance of suburban weeklies because publishers have been financially better
44 S

able to install efficient equipment.

As an example of this latter point, Miller says the Birmingham, Michi-

 

gan, Eccentric, also published by Suburban Communications Corportion, "takes
great pains to keep in touch with its readers' tastes and needs" and has
a product that reflects it. "The emphasis is on what sociologists say are
the chief interests of suburbanites: schools, churches, cultural activities,
and the city council." In addition to this, according to Miller, "the paper
is a masterpiece of reader convenience, well-indexed and laid out. It re-
flects a greater effort to please than many metropolitan papers."45
What is the role to be played by a community newspaper? Prof. Byerly
outlines nihe criteria: (1) reports local news items that appear in no other
newspaper; (2) reports details of local news that are not included in stories
used by other newspapers; (3) Aids local shoppers, and serves as an advertis-
ing medium for a town's merchants and other business firms;* (4) promotes
local welfare and projects; (5) gives recognition to those who work on com-
munity programs, further helping promote such projects: (6) creates interest
in government and elections, serving to make the former better and the latter
more effective; (7) stimulates thinking, particularly on local problems and
projects; (8) instructs, entertains and informs; (9) serves as a unifying

force for the community.460s

22

Morris Janowitz47

says the community newspaper is perceived generally
as an extension of the reader's personal and social contacts, because of
its emphasis on news about local voluntary associations and local social
and personal news, and as such constitutes a device for democratizing
prestige. "Readership of social and personal news involves "equals."
The individuals publicized are men and women quite similar to the reader.
There is not only an interest in the names of neighbors, but also a pre-
occupation with the democratic aspects of prestige. Easy accessibility to
the columns of the paper (is)...concrete prodf of this point."48
Extensive reader interest in the community press, according to
Janowitz, is related to family attributes and community orientation,"and
trends in these factors are certain to influence the viability of the
community press. Moreover, the impact of the community press is conditioned
by the imagery of its audience, which sees the contents in a non-commercial-
ized, no-partisan perspective," an imagery which "contributes to a willing-
ness to accept the validity and trustworthiness of its message."49
An essential ingredient to this imagery, Janowitz says, is that the
community newspaper is not generally seen as political or partisan, but
rather as an agent of community welfare and progress.50
The community press is generally viewed by its readers as an auxiliary
to the daily press, not as a competing news source, and it is viewed favor-
ably because of its preoccupation with details of the local community which
are not reported in the daily press. This parochial attitude is more pro-
nounced among readers of the community press than in its editors, according

to Janowitz. "Interviews with editors indicate that the horizons of the

editor are broader than those of (his) readers, who tend to emphasize the

" 23

purely local aspects of the community press."5]

Community newspapers are rated high in credibility by their readers,
stronger in fact than daily newspapers. Many readers seem to attribute
a higher degree of veracity and trust to community newspaper content than
to daily newspaper content because "community news consists of local news
about events and people which the individual (reader) is in a better
position to verify personally, directly or indirectly, than non-local news."52
Janowitz also finds that the community press is not generally perceived
as a commercialized medium because the advertising in it is regarded with
real interest, and for many is considered to be a genuine aid to daily
1iving.53
There are some, however, who look askance at weekly newspapers, partly
because they are thought to be too commercialized, a view not shared by
Janowitz. "It is distorted perception when the community newpaper is...
considered by daily newspaper publishers, the heads of advertising agencies
and sophisticated critics of contemporary culture to be '311 advertisémentsl'
The difference between the percentage of advertising in the daily and the
community press is trivial; in fact, specific issures of the daily press
contain a higher proportion of advertising."54
This disdain for the weekly press carries over into editorial areas,
with resulting image problems that make recruiting somewhat of a problem.
Miller says this feeling stems in part from the grass roots type of neighbor-
hood news the community paper covers. This in turn affects journalism
graduates, "few of whom want to start their careers on a suburban paper.*
55

The lure of the big publications is considerably greater."

What do suburban residents expect from their newspaper? To answer

24

this question we should look closer at interests of the residents them-
selves. Miller says sociologists have concluded that one of the common

reasons for moving to the suburbs is to provide a better environment for

children creating a great interest in schools and children's recreation.56

By far the strongest interest, according to Miller, is the same thing

of interest to all taxpayers: local government, tax expenditures, and

57 Stock in trade of community weeklies, however,

58

school administration.
is social news, "whether it bores large portions of readers or not."
Miller sees an obligation to have "local news written with proper dimension,

so that the new reader can understand it. Each event must have pr0per back-

ground information (requiring) experienced writers and editors."59

Allen H. Neuharth, president of the Gannett Newspaper Group, told
a National Newspaper Association convention in 1974 that dailies and weeklies

could have a "profitable co-existence" if each took advantages of its own

strengths, and outlined what he thought were strengths of community newspapers:60

Today's and tomorrow's most successful community newspapers
should be almost totally local in news and advertising. Thevaill
carry the significant news which is importnat to their communities,
which their readers want and can't get elsewhere-- the debate in
the zoning board; the issues is the town council race; births, deaths,
weddings; the church socials and the results of Little League.

The editorial pages will provide a strong and strictly local
voice. The advertising pages will carry the bargains of the local
stores.

But those community papers will not waste time and money and
newsprint publishing national editorial cartoons, or comics, or
boiler plate pages or features; and they will quit pretending that
the penny-ante national advertising revenue some still get is worth
the trouble and expense.

The big city dailies, on the other hand, will concentrate wisely

on a different approach -- the global approach with complete national,
world, state and major city news. They will not spend time and effort and
money trying to compete with the strictly local news coverage of suburbs or

25

small nearby communities -- because they can't do it successfully.

The two will develop so distinctively in news and advertising
content that readersvfill want and need both.

It is at the community press level, Sim says, that a base for a solid
contribution from the media for improvement in human relationships may best
be realized, because by its very nature the community paper can be closest

to its readers.61

The importance of emphasizing local news is not a new
development; it was seen fifty-two.years ago: according to Emerson Harris
and Florence Hooke, this emphasis is almost mandatory. "The local paper
which determines to work its field intensively will have all that it can '
do, and the local paper has neither editorial nor economic justification
for dealing With the extensive non-local field."62
‘Cosse made the same point in 1928: "Such subjects as home, education,
schools, church, recreation, club, and other social life, and moral condi-
tions affecting youth make a striking appeal to the suburbanite. These
are interests which the metropolitan press cannot serve, and which at the
same time validate the existence of the suburban weekly."63
The American Newspaper Publishers Association reported in 1966 that
suburban readers of a metropolitan newspaper in the Middle West preferred
the suburban weekly to a daily, television, or radio for coverage of certain

kinds of events in the reader's own suburb.64

The percentage of suburban
readers who preferred the weekly over the other media for certain types of
news stories is shown in Table’6.

Cosse wrote that merely reporting the news was not enough}. though.

She said a second fun¢tion of the suburban weekly must be that of explaining

the community to itself, "the obligation of editorial interpretation. Of

26

TABLE 6
PERCENTAGE OF SUBURBAN READERS WHO PREFER A SUBURBAN WEEKLY
FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF NEWS COVERAGE IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY

 

 

Percent preferred

Type Of news story suburban weekly

Local school affairs 71
Newsworthy accomplishments

by their neighbors 68
Meetings of local groups 52
High school sports 51

Disputes or controversies
about their suburbs 50

Local street and road

improvements 36
Local accidents 32
Local crime and police news 24
Local advertising 46

 

 

SOURCE: American Newspaper Publishers Association

27

What import is a mere statistical record of local happenings unless there
is (an) editorial interpretation for the reader? The editor...shou1d make
his readers comprehend the significance of local events. He should see a
sequence to local happenings which he can interpret in the light of some
ultimate goal for Which his readers are striving."65
The vehicle for carrying out this function is the newspaper's
editorial page. Harris and Hooke see the editorial page as the place to
focus, illuminate and interpret facts of local importance in such a way as
to give the reader utmost assistance in formulating his own opinions, es-
pecially on questions requiring community action.66
But not all weekly newspapers fill this need. Sim points to surveys
which indicate that fewer than one-half of all weeklies in the United States
regularly run any kind of editorial comment, either in the form of convention-
al editorials or as personal columns, and that "among those papers which
do offer measurable opinion content, a sizeable number just offer syndicated,
clipped or 'planted' editorials which offer a poor, sometimes even mislead-
ing, evaluation of the 'grass roots' sentiment" of which so many political
leaders speak so glowingly.67
Sim notes that few if any weeklies, considered as individual units,
have any national influence, but it is their individuality, and their at-
tention to a local scene, which gives them their greatest value and is the
strongest attraction for both their owners and their readers.68
Readers of a weekly newspaper, according to Sim, tend to regard it
with a proprietary interest, I'our hometown paper," and they see its virtues
or tolerate its defects just as they do for members of their immediate

family.69

28

At the same time they are likely to have only the mildest
interest in any other weekly newspaper, just as there tends to be
a sharp drop in interest and concern for people outside the family
circle. In short, the weekly 96wspaper has better acceptance as
an individual than as a class.

The audience of suburban newspapers, according to Sim, is generally
regarded as homogeneous, possessing higher-than-average income and edu-
cation levels, and compact enough to justify selling advertisers on the
advantage of the "rifle shot" technique over the scattergun;" i.e. ad-
vertising to a specialized audience versus the mass audience.7]

Sim says this quality audience will justify higher advertising rates
than most non-suburban weeklies ever dare to think of charging, which in
turn provides the greater economic strength which enables the suburban
publisher to be more progressive in his choice and use of modern equipment
and "theoretically at least attract better qualified editorial and ad—
vertising staff members by paying better salaries; indeed, he must compete
on relatiVely' even terms with the metropolitan media.”72

Market potential of the suburban newspaper audience was dramatically
illustrated in a survey sponsored by the Suburban Newpaper Research Center
of Chicago and conducted by H. D. Ostberg Associates, a New York research
company, in 1974. The study encompassed suburban communities in the top
sixty-four Standard Metropolitan Statistical areas, i.e. those having a
population of 500,000 or more in 1970, excluding the core city itself and
any rural areas within such SMSA's.73

It was designed to measure the reach of suburban newspapers in terms
of the number of adult men and women who read such publications, and to
investigate the nature and extent of readership of suburban newspapers ver-

sus readership patterns for daily metropolitan newspapers. A suburban

newspaper was defined as one which has primary' distribution in suburban

29

areas, defined as urbanized areas, exclusive of the central city; contains
news and editorial content in addition to advertising; devotes at least 65
percent of its editorial content to local and community news and events, as
opposed to metropolitan, national and international news; and is distributed
at least once a month, on either a free or paid ba5is.

Table 7 shows that 51 percent of the adults surveyed in suburban areas
read a suburban newspaper, and Table 8 shows 11 percent of those adults
read only a suburban newspaper, while 40 percent read both a suburban news-

paper and a daily metropolitan newspaper.

TABLE 7
NEWSPAPER READERSHIP HABITS

 

 

BASE: Adults in suburban areas T°t31

surveyed -- 32,739,000

 

Number Percentage

 

Read a suburban newspaper 16,694,000 51
(Looked into an issue during
past four weeks)

Read a daily metropolitan newspaper
(Looked into a weekday issue
during past seven days) 27,028,000 83

 

 

 

SOURCE: Suburban Newspaper Research Center surVey

30

TABLE 8
DUPLICATION OF NEWSPAPER READERSHIP

 

 

 

 

BASE: Adults in suburban areas Total
surveyed -- 32’739’000 Number Percentage

Read:

A suburban newspaper only 3,528,000 11

A daily metropolitan news-

paper only 13,862,000 42
Both types of publications 13.166,000 40
Neither type of publication 2,183,000 7

 

 

 

SOURCE: Suburban Newspaper Research Center survey

31

The survey highlights several findings which are relevant to this
study:

(1) Fifty-one percent of adults living in the suburbs of the sixty-
four largest SMSA's reported having read a suburban newspaper during the
prior four weeks.

(2) Forty-three percent of adults in the suburban areas covered
reported reading the last available issue of a suburban newspaper.

(3) Forty percent of adults read both a suburban and a daily metro-
politan newspaper.

(4) In general, suburban newspapers were read more thoroughly than
daily metropolitan publications. Sixty percent and 47 percent of sub-
urban and metropolitan readers, respectively, reported reading three-
fourths or more of the last issue read.

(5) Proportionately more suburban than metropolitan readers, 71
percent to 54 percent, started reading at the front page of the paper,
proceeding from one page to the next. Daily metropolitan readers were
more apt to turn immediately to a section of special interest.

(6) Daily metropolitan newspaper readers, however, tended to look
into more of the last five available editions than suburban newspaper
readers.

(7) Suburban newspapers had proportionately more home delivery
than daily metropolitan newpapers, 85 percent to 76 percent.

(8) Readership of retail advertising was about equal for suburban
and daily metropolitan newspapers (in terms of percentage reading); classi-
fied and service advertising was read proportionately more extensively
in the suburban press.

(9) Although daily metropolitan newspapers obtained somewhat greater

32

reader response to their advetising, this may be due primarily to the
differences in publication frequency between the two newspaper types.

(10) Suburban newspapers were regarded as a valuable source of
product information, especially for grocery items, household repair ser-
vices, and gardening supplies. Metropolitan newspaper readers looked to
their publication primarily for guidance in purchasing personal clothing,
groceries, major appliances and automotive accessories.

(11) The two newpaper types serve their readers in different ways:
suburban newspapers are credited with helping their readers feel they are
part of their community; daily metropolitan newspapers are seen to provide
coverage of national and international events.

(12) Suburban newspapers are believed to provide information not
available eslewhere.

(13) Suburban newspapers were read to a greater extent by women than
men.

(14) A greater proportion of women than men consulted suburban
newpapers for guidance when buying products.

(15) Suburban newspaper readers had high community involvement.

(16) Suburban newpaper households are more affluent than U.S. house-
holds generally.

(17) There are virtually no differences between the demographic
characteristics of suburban newspaper readers and of daily newspaper readers
residing in the suburbs.

More details about these and other findings of the survey are of
enough interest for further study, but these few were selected as being
sufficient to form the backdrop for a closer look at the East Lansing Towne

Courier.

CHAPTER III

TOWN COURIER BEGINNING, OWNERSHIP,
PRESENT STAFF, AND NEWS OPERATION

The city of East Lansing did not have a newspaper of its own until

early in the 1960s. The Michigan State University State News, which traces
74

 

its origin back to 1909, has been a daily publication* since 1942, a fact
which probably discouraged any attempts to start a community newspaper.

The Towne Courier was launched late in 1962 by Harry Stapler, an

 

East Lansing resident who had been a reporter for the Lansing State Journal.

In a special fifth anniversary edition of the Towne Courier in 1967, Stapler

 

said he started thinking about starting an East Lansing newspaper sometime

75

in 1960 when he was working for the State Journal. His first inclination

 

in this direction was stimulated in the spring of 1961 when he saw an

article in Editor & Publisher, a newspaper trade publication, about the

 

Greenville, Michigan, Daily News switching from letterpress to offset

 

printing with the installation of a new 6055 Suburban press.
Stapler took a short course in publication design at New York University
in the fall of 1961, and visited Greenville in January, 1962, to talk with

Dale Stafford, publisher of the Daily News. Stafford offered encouragement

 

and what Stapler felt was a reasonable price for printing a newspaper if

he should decide to start one in East Lansing.76

Stapler recalled in the anniversary edition that his decision was

forced upon him in September, 1962, when the State Journal asked him to take

 

a new and more demanding assignment that would allow him little time to plan
an East Lansing publishing venture. He thought it over carefully, consulted

33

34

with a few downtown East Lansing businessmen, and decided to go ahead.

After giving his notice to the State Journal, Stapler publicly

 

announced the first issue would be distributed November 7, and began
working on the new business. He actually was one week behind schedule,

and the first issue of the Towne Courier appeared November 14, 1962. It

 

has been printed offset from the beginning, and until recently was pub-
lished in Greenville.

In 1966 Stapler purchased the Williamston Enterprise and since then

 

the two newspapers have been published as "sister papers." Advertising
for both papers is sold in combination, and overlapping news and the entire

second section is published in both papers. The Towne Courier was purchased

 

in 1969 by Henry Hogan, owner of Synercom Communications Corporation, which
published the Eccentric group of suburban newspapers north of Detroit and
also owned five suburban weekly newspapers in the Cincinnati area.

Hogan's Eccentric group of newspapers, including the Towne Courier,

 

were merged in December, 1973, with the Observer Newspapers of suburban
Detroit, published by Philip H. Power. The new organization took the

business name of Suburban Communications Corporation, and the Town Courier

 

is a wholly-owned subsidiary of this company.

 

Table 9 shows Towne‘Dourier paid circulation with a steady decline
for the first three years under new ownership, but this trend was reversed
in 1973. The increase shown from 1973 to 1974 is due largely to installa-

tion of a voluntary pay system.* Stapler continued with the Towne Courier

 

as editor and publisher until the summer of 1973, when he resigned and was
replaced by Mrs. Vivian F. Oates. Mrs. Oates, who still holds that posi-

tion had been editor of the Rochester, Michigan, Eccentric, a newspaper

published by Hogan. Stapler now teaches Journalism at Ferris State
College, Big Rapids, Michigan.

Figure 1 is an organizational chart of the Towne Courier. Department

 

heads working under Mrs. Dates are a managing editor, advertising director,
circulation director, composing room supervisor, and a bookkeeper-office
manager. Department heads meet every Wednesday after that week's issue

is published to coordinate activities of their various departments and plan
future issues.

Mrs. Oates determines the ratio of advertising to news, and says "67
to 33 percent is the break-even point." The advertising director determines
the number of pages each week, and prepares advertising dummies for the
composing room and editorial department. If the editorial department
wants more space than expected any particular week, such a request is
made through Mrs-‘0ates, who has the final decision.

Prior to 1969 the Towne Courier was delivered to subscribers on
Wednesdays, but from 1969 to 1974 publication date was Thursday. Mrs.

Oates says the newspaper publishing day was changed back to Wednesday again
last year because a preponderance of advertisers preferred Wednesday delivery.
The advertising department has four full-time retail salesmen, and

there are two people working on classified advertising sales. Mrs. Oates
says most of the downtown East Lansing business district is student oriented.
"It's the only place I know," she says, "where stores pull in their horns
December 14" when classes end after the fall quarter and students leave the
campus for winter break. Mrs. Oates says most East Lansing residents do
their "big shdpping"* at the Meridian Mall and Frandor shipping centers,
which "are not directly competitive with the central East Lansing busi-

ness district."

36

TABLE 9
PAID AND FREE CIRCULATION
OF TOWNE COURIER, 1970-74

 

 

 

 

 

Year Paid Circulation Free Circulation
1970 3,489 348

1971 3,208 375

1972 3,181 1,383

1973 3,862 2,007

1974 6,883 5,350
SOURCE: Sworn U.S. Postal Service Statements of Ownership,

Management and Circulation, 1970-74.

37

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF THE TOWNE COURIER

 

DEPARTMENT HEADS AND EDITORIAL STAFF

FIGURE 1

 

 

 

Editor and Publisher

 

T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bookkeeper-
' 5 ° Composing Room _
Circulation . ff e M
Director Saperv150r 0 1C anager
/
"anaglng ’ Advertising
Editor / Director
/
/
FULL TIME / PART TIME
/
/ East Lansing Schools
East Lansing /
Re orter
P / Lively Arts Column
/
PhOtograPher ,J Sports Stringers FT.”
Dark Room /’,/ T
{I
' ,/' Haslett Schools -ME
/’
_ /’

Meridian Reporter

 

Sports Editor

 

 

 

Okemos Schools

 

 

 

 

 

Cook's Nook Column

 

 

 

 

Television Listings

 

 

 

Television Column

 

 

 

 

 

Religion Column

 

 

 

 

 

38

Full—time editorial staff of the Towne Courier includes a managing

 

editor, East Lansing reporter, combination sports editor and Meridian
Township reporter, and half-time photographer who doubles as cameraman

in the darkroom. The managing editor position is vacant at this writing,
but other staff members with their experience, assignment, and educational
background are shown in Table 10. Duties of the full-time editorial staff
members are:

Managing editor: Directs news coverage and staff activities, handles
hiring and firing, subject to approval of Mrs. Oates, edits or checks the
editing of all copy before it is sent to the composing room by reporters,
writes all headlines, keeps a log of all articles and pictures sent to the
composing room, and lays out the editorial portion of each page.

Additional responsibilities of the managing editor include dealing
with the public, hanaling news and photo inquiries and requests, writing
editorials, all of which are approved before publication by Mrs. Dates
and lays out the editorial page. The managing editor also superVises
photographers and the photo assignment log, sizes and crops pictures, for
which captions are written by the reporters, and supervises editorial
coverage in cooperation with Mrs. Oates.

In addition to the meeting with other department heads each Wednesday.
Mrs. Oates and the managing editor confer briefly each Friday and again on
Monday to check progress and status of key news stories and editorials.

East Lansing reporter; Delores Moiseeff: Covers city government, police
and fire beats, community organizations such as the Drug Education Center,
civic and fraternal groups, and goes to East Lansing zoning and other com-
mission meetings only if they are deemed newsworthy by the managing editor

or Mrs. Oates. "Wé have tried," Mrs. Oates says, "to cut down on the number

39

TABLE 10

ASSIGNMENT, EXPERIENCE, AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

OF TOWNE COURIER EDITORIAL PERSONNEL

 

 

 

Length of Time

 

 

With Total News
Name Towne Experience Assignment Education
Courier
Vivian F. Date; 2 years 6 years Editor and B.A.Journa1ism
Publisher Indiana University
Delores Moiseeff 2 years 4 years East Lansing B.A.Journa1ism
Reporter Michigan State
University
Steve Giegerich 1 1/2 yrs. 1 1/2 Yrs. Meridian B.A.Journalism
Township Michigan State
Reporter- University
Sports Editor
John Medill 8 months 8 months Photographer Associate Degree
Darkroom in Photography

 

 

 

 

Lansing Community
College

 

NOTE: At this writing, the position of managing editor was vacant.

40

of meetings covered and instead concentrate on issues of importance to
the community."

Sports editor-Meridian Township reporter; Steve Giegerich: Spends
approximately one-half of his time working in each of these areas. This
person either handles personally or directs all sports coverage, which
includes supervision of six part-t'ime stringers, and covers Meridian
Township government and meetings, including those of the Okemos School

Board.
Photographer-darkroom man; John Medill: A full-time employe who

spends about one-half of his time working on photo assignments and film
processing, and the other half in composing room darkroom work. All

editorial personnel at the Towne Courier are qualified photographers and

 

do some of their own shooting. The Towne Courier has its own darkroom, and

 

95 percent of its photography is done with 35 millimeter cameras, and
the remainder with a Rolleiflex reflex camera.

Part-time correspondents have specific beats, and with one exception
work out of their own homes. Their duties and responsibilities at the

time of this study are:
Jean Swanson, East Lansing schools: A housewife with a B.A. degree in

education and a minor in Journalism from Michigan State University, she works
from the newspaper office about 15 hours per week covering school board news
and handling all other East Lansing school news. She also attends East
Lansing School Board meetings.

Mary Long,Haslett schools: A houswife with no formal journalism train-
ing, she covers meetings of the Okemos School Board and writes other Okemos
school news. Her hours vary each week depending on the coverage needed.

Phyllis Thomas, The Lively Arts column: A university professor's wife

with a B.A. degree in English from the University of Michigan, she writes

41

this compendium of drama, music, art exhibits, dance performances and
classes, films, classes, and lectures. She spends approximately fifteen
hours per week in this job.

Melissa Kaplan, television listings: A high school senior on the
cooperative work program, she works fifteen hours per week preparing the
listings and also is a stringer for high school sports.

Brad Greenberg, a television column: Columm One is written with
the cooperation of the Lansing Committee for Children's Television, an
area-wide volunteer group, on a flat weekly rate, with payment contributed
to the Children's Television Committee.

Eloise McCarty, Cook's Nook column: This column of recipes is written
On a weekly basis by an East Lansing housewife.

A religion column usually is written once a month by a Lutheran
minister and a woman who is a beginning seminary student.

Ingham County Board meetings are covered by stringers on an irregular
schedule, and other govenmental agencies receive coverage on an ad hoc
basis. Mrs. Oates says that nost news of Michigan State University which

is published by the Towne Courier comes from University News Bureau releases,

 

and almost none is done on the newspaper's own initiative. Meetings of the
Board of Trustees are covered only when the agenda includes an issue of
importance to the community.

Procedures and policies for handling routine news stories have been
established by Mrs. Dates and are transmitted to editorial staff members
through the managing editor by word of mouth. These procedures follow the
pattern outlined below.

Almost all pictures published in the Towne Courier are produced by

 

editorial staff members. The few exceptions are those submitted by ,

42

professional photographers, usually assdciated with regular news sources
such as public relations agencies or news bureaus. Policy of the news-
paper is to refuse requests for pictures for fund-raising events, "cheek-
passing" occasions,* or installation of officers for community organiza-
tions. News articles are given for fund-raising events, however, if
deemed newsworthy in their own right.

Mrs. Oates says almost all presss releases submitted to the Igwng_
Courier are rewritten by one of the full-time writers. Reporters do not
write their own headlines. After an article is written or rewritten by a
reporter, it is given to the managing editor for editing, a headline,
and entry on the master log for the week before being sent to the composing
room. One exception to this policy is sports copy, which is sent directly
to the composing room by the sports editor.

Page dummies showing placement of advertisements are given to the
editorial department by the advertising director on a schedule to be men-
tioned later, and all news stories on each page with editorial matter are
marked on the dummies by the managing editor. After these dummies are sent
to the composing room, news articles are placed on the page according to
these dummies. Compositors make minor adjustments or fill small holes on
their own initiative, but any substantial variations from the makeup as
dummied must be cleared with the managing editor.

The managing editor goes to the composing room in the final stages
of the page makeup process to supervise any required adjustments in the
dummies and to approve editorial content of the completed page. All pages
must be approved by representatives of the editorial and advertising depart-

ments before they are released to the camera room.

43

Deadline schedules for the Towne Courier are similar to those of

 

other weekly newspapers with which theauthor'has been associated. First
editorial deadline for the following week's edition is at 5:00 P.M. Friday,
when all material for the Lively Arts column, women's news, television
listings, and other news for the second section must be sent to the com-
posing room. The mechanical staff works a full production shift on Satur-
day to handle this copy.

Stated goal of the editorial department is to have at least one-
third of the news copy processed and submitted to the composing room by
Friday. Sports copy is due in the composing room by 12:00 M. Monday, and
deadline for all other editorial copy, with a few exceptions, is 5:00 P. M.
Monday, which also is the deadline for all advertising copy.

Last minute news from Monday evening is prepared Tuesday morning, and
the composing room is on notice to take up to ninety inches of editorial
straight matter through the day until 3:00 P.M., which is the final news
deadline.

Mechanical deadlines for page makeup closely follow editorial deadlines.
Advertising dummies for the second section are due in the composing room
Monday morning, and editorial dummies for these pages are to be turned in
early Tuesday morning. Second section pages are expected to be corrected
and ready for the camera for shooting Tuesday from 12:00 M. to l P.M.

Advertising dummies for the first section are due in the composing
room at 8300 A.M. Tuesday, and editorial dummies for these pages are to
be turned in early Tuesday afternoon, with the last one due no later than
2:00 P.M. First section pages are expected to be corrected and ready for

the camera for shooting from 4:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. Tuesday.

44

During the time this study was undertaken, the Towne Courier was

 

being printed at the same plant in Greenville, Michigan, where Harry Stapler
began in‘1962, but early in 1973 this arrangement was terminated because of
what Mrs. Oates says was a substantial price increase. At this writing the
newspaper is being printed in Livonia, Michigan; on presses owned by its

parent company, Suburban Communications Corporation. The Towne Courier is

 

printed on spare time between press runs of other Suburban Communications
publications as a regular printing job.

Page negatives are scheduled to leave East Lansing at 5:00 P.M. Tues-
day and be ready for the press in Livonia by 7:OO‘P.M. When the press run
is completed anytime between 10:00 P.M. and 12:00 P.M., the newspapers are
delivered back to the Williamston branch office of the Towne Courier-Enter-
prise operation, where a mailing crew addresses them from 1:00 A.M. to 4:00 A.M.
Delivery at the East Lansing Post Office is scheduled no later than 7:00 A.M.
for mail delivery the same day.

Total press run of the Towne Courier and its sister paper, the

 

Williamston Enterprise, is 23,000 copies, of which Mrs. Oates says 7,000 are

 

for paid subscribers, 4,500 for voluntary pay carrier routes, 1000 for free
distribution in Michigan State University married housing units, and the

remainder for circulation in Williamston.

CHAPTER IV

CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE TOWNE COURIER FOR

 

TEN-WEEK PERIOD FROM OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, 1974

In previous chapters we reviewed literature on various types of
suburban communities, looked at the beginning and later development of
East Lansing, reviewed the literature on suburban and community newspapers
and their role and growth, and examined the origin, development, and present

organization of the East Lansing Towne Courier, with specific attention to

 

the editorial department, its personnel, policies and weekly work flow.
This and the following chapter will be concerned with a content analysis

of the Towne Courier in a ten-week period from October 2 to December 4, 1974.

 

Chapter IV willcontain an overview of the entire newspaper in the frame of
reference discussed in Chapter II, and Chapter V will take a closer look at
the Towne Courier editorial page to see how it fits into an overall newspaper
objective and the Towne Courier's frame of reference.

The Towne Courier in its self-promotion advertises itself as follows:

 

"In the seventies, the nation's most honored suburban newspaper in National
Newspaper Association evaluations." This statement, which appears each week
on the editorial page masthead, is baséd primarily on the strength of nine
awards won in the National Newspaper Association Better Newspapers Contest
in 1971.

Awards won in that contest were a first place for sports page, under
4,000 circulation; first place, women's pages, under 4,000 circulation;
third place, best advertising idea, open circulation; and honorable mentions,

all in the under 4,000 circulation category, for best news story, excellence

45

46

in typography, newspaper promotion, special issue, and best sports picture.

Prior to 1971, the Towne Courier won four first place National Newspaper

 

Association awards, all in the same circulation category: best sports
picture, 1970; best sports stories, 1969 and 1967; best feature story, 1965.

From 1967 to 1970 the Towne Courier also won six second-place awards from

 

the National Newspaper Association, two for general excellence, two for
classified advertising, one for community service, and one for excellence
in typography.

Since 1971 the Towne Courier won a single national award, a third

 

place in 1972 for the best sports picture in National Newpaper Association
newspapers under 4,000 circulation. In addition, the Michigan Press

Association presented the Towne Courier with an award of excellence for its

 

circulation category in 1972.

In order to study the editorial content of the Towne Courier today, a

 

ten-week quantitative content analysis was undertaken. It was decided to
analyze the content of all issues published during the fall quarter of the
1974-1975 academic year at Michigan State University. One full quarter, it
was felt, would give a representative sampling of the newspaper's content,
and news events of overlapping interest to the university and city were more
likely to occur during a period when classes were in session.

There were three events during this period, however, which substantially
altered what could be considered average coverage, and they have been noted
in the findings: a special section for older adults was published October 23
containing twelve pages of news and advertising specifically oriented toward
older citizens; a county and state general election November 5 resulted in
increased advertising, more space available for news, and a large amount of

political news; and the Michigan State-Ohio State football game November 9,

47

in which Michigan State upset the previously nationally number one-ranked

Ohio State team, prompted the Towne Courier to devote more space to the

 

game when is usually accorded Michigan State University football games.

The period examined in this content analysis encompassed ten issues,
beginning with Ocotber 2, 1974, and continuing through December 4, 1974.
During this period, size of the newspaper ranged from a minimum of forty-
eight tabloid-sized pages to a maximum of sixty pages. Average number of
pages during this ten—week period was 51.2 per week. (See Table 11)

Based on ninety-three column inches per page, this made a total of
47,616 inches available for news and advertising, of which 16,472 was

filled with editorial matter, giving the Towne Courier an average of 65

 

to 35 percent advertising to news ratio} Highest percentage of news, 43
percent, appeared in the October 30 issue immediately preceding the
election, and only one other issue, that of October 2, with 41 percent
editorial matter, contained more than 40 percent news. Highest percentage
of advertising, 75 percent, appeared in the November 27 issue which followed
Thanksgiving and kicked off the Christmas shopping season. None of the other
nine issues analyzed contained more than 70 percent advertising.

In thecontentmanalysis,thirteen categories were established in which
to place news articles and pictures, with the following criteria being used:

1. Government: activities of the city, township and county governing
bodies and their subordinate boards and commiséions. All election news
coverage also was placed in this category.

2. School: activities of the various school boards in the area served

by the Towne Courier,in addition to school personnel matters and news of

 

school programs and activities. This category did not include items about

48

TABLE 11

ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL SPACE OF THE TOWNE COURIER

 

BY ISSUE FOR TEN-WEEK PERIOD OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, 1974

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date Pages Total Advertising Percent News Percent

‘ Space
October 2 48 4464 2614 59.0% 1850 41.0%
October 9 52 4836 3220 67.0 1616 33.0
October‘l6 48 4464 3034 68.0 1430 32.0
October 23 60 5580 3651 65.0 1929 35.0
October 30 56 5208 2993 57.0 2215 43.0
November 6 48 4464 2863 64.0 1601 36.0
November 13 48 4464 2873 64.0 1591 36.0

' November 20 48 4464 2963 66.0 1501 34.0
November 27 48 4464 3365 75.0 1099 25.0
December 4 56 5208 3350 68.0 1658 32.0
I7. 1'; ,3,

Total 512 47,616 31,142 - 16,474 -
Average

per week 51.2 4761 3114 65.4% 1647 34.6%

 

49

Michigan State University.

3. Civic: reports of meetings and events held by civic and fraternal
organizations, including news about the library, police and fire reports,
traffic problems, weather, and consumer-oriented articles. Also included
in this category were "bulletin board" listings carried under the headings
of “Lively Arts,“ "Potpourri," and "Community Calendar," and events at
Michigan State University of general interest to East Lansing residents
irrespective of any ties to the univeréity.

4. University: news directly related and of prime importance to
theiuniivensliity comnunity, and only incidentally of interest to East Lansing
residents not associated with the university. Very little of the university

news carried by the Towne Courier was related to strictly internal university

 

affairs such as trustee meetings, student government, academic policy,
course descriptions, or registration information.
5. Editorial: editorials, letters to the editor, editorial art work,
and general "op-ed page" material, i.e. items usually reserved for the
page opposite the editorial page. Not included in this category was the
"Community Calendar" column which frequently appeared on the editorial page.
6. Sports: coverage of sports events and activities specifically,
as opposed to "color" stories about events surrounding a game. Included
in this category was coverage of sports events at Michigan State University,
primarily football, and the East Lansing High School, intermediate schools,
and city sports leagues. Unusually extensive coverage of the Michigan State-
Ohio State football game was included in this category rather than under
university news.
7. Family: women's page news such as weddings and engagements, women's

club activities, recipes, births, deaths, and "pedple" items such as

50

promotions, transfers, academic achievements of East Lansing residents,
and other social notes. (See Religion)

8. Business: news of business and commercial organizations and
activities, including but not restricted to movie reviews and announce-
ments, a "dining out"column, and other items about advertisers, advertis-
ing and advertised products.

9. Religion: a periodic religion column, news of church events
and personnel and some church activities. Because of the number of
church women's and social groups, and the overlap between this and the
"family" categories, most items of this sort were placed in the latter
categories, resulting in‘a minimun amount 6f news actually classified as
"religion."

10. Feature: human interest articles, feature stories,. and columns.
Included in this category was the content of a special section "For Older
Adults," published October 23, which was aimed specifically at a certain
age group and not considered of general reader interest.

11. TV-Radio: articles, columns, and weekly program listings for
television and radio stations and programs.

12. Other: News of no specific relevance to East Lansing, including
"fillers" and other general non-local news.

13. House: newspaper editorial self promotion and logotypes or name-
plates.

Where content of any article overlapped one or more categories, its
dominant characteristics were arbitrarily used as the criteria, and an
effort was made by the author to include the item in the most appropriate

category. Because of the subjectivity necessarily involved in these decisions,

51

statistical reliability of the categories cannot be guaranteed. Despite
this, results of the content analysis are significant enough to show gen-
eral trends in editorial emphasis and policies during this ten-week period.

Table 12 shows that, as might be expected, the highest percentage of
news space, 17 percent, was given to civic news, which averaged almost
300 inches per week. Television and radio listings and articles, with
15 percent, occupied the second-highest amount of space, slightly more
than 250 inches per week, while sports news, with 13 percent, was third
with a little more than 200 inches per week.

Both Miller and Janowitz stressed that community newspaper readers
wanted news of schools, chirches, cultural activities and local govern-
ment. If this supposition is to be applied against content of the Towne
Courier, it would appear that news of cultural activities and local govern-
ment is adequately presented, at least in space allotted. Space given to
sports news, however, would seem to be high when compared with the amount
of school and religious news in the Towne Courier.

Sports coverage received more space than government news, which had
12 percent, even with the large amount of political news included in the
latter category. Family news, with 10 percent, and feature items, 9 per-
cent, followed in that order, and together accounted for almost 20 percent
of the news space. Despite heavy emphasis on politics in the two weeks on
either side of the general election, in which almost two full editorial
pages were published each week, editorial page items over the ten-week
period averaged only 6 percent of the total news space, about one full page
per week.

University and school news occupied approximately 5 percent each of the

52

TOWNE COURIER NEWS RATIO ACCORDING TO CATEGORY

 

DURING TEN-WEEK PERIOD OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, 1974

 

 

 

TABLE 12
Category Average Inches Percentage of
Per Issue Total News Hole
Civic 286.0 17
TV-Radio 252.1 15
Sports 206.8 13
Government 193.7 12
Ramily 178.0 10
Feature 144.7 9
Editorial 89.7 6
University 77.2 5
School 73.4 5
Business 63.8 4
Other 42.0 3
House 29.8 2
Religion 12.0 1

 

 

 

NOTE: Percentages have been rounded off.

53

available news space, with university news averaging seventy-seven inches
per week and school news seventy-three inches per week. Business news,
with slightly less than sixty-four inches per week, averaged 4 percent of
the news space.

Other, or non-local news, 3 percent, and house news, 2 percent, were
given more space than religion news 1 percent, although it must be noted
that as previously mentioned many church group activities were included
in the family category for purposes of definition. Another reason for
the proportionately low amount of space accorded religion is that the
religion column is not published on a weekly basis. As a result, religion
news averages only twelve inches per week, while non-local, or other, news
averages torty-two inches each week.

The low amount of non-local news carried by the Towne Courier is con-

 

sistent with the unanimous opinion expressed by sources quoted in Chapter
II that the main thrust of a community newspaper should be local, and local
news is its main ingredient.

Table 13 shows a generally consistent pattern of the amount of news
printed in each category each week, with two exceptions. School news
fluctuated from a low of six inches October 2 to a high of 176 inches Oct-
ober 16, and university news had lows of 4 inches on two separate weeks,
October 16 and Novenber 27, with a high near 130 inches on three other weeks.

Smallest deviation in amount of space used each week was in the TV-
Radio category, which consistently occupied from 230 to 270 inches per
week. The only other significant deviations from a generally even pattern
were as noted previously for the general election, the Michigan State-Ohio
State fooball game, and the special section for older adults.

Ratio of advertising to news in the Towne Courier would confirm the

 

54

opinion of Janowitz that community newspapers are mot "all advertising,"
as claimed by some of their detractors. The average percentage of advertis-

ing in the Towne Courier in the ten-week period studied is comparabe to

 

that of other newspapers, both weekly and daily, with which the author has
been associated and certainly falls short of the 75 percent advertising
maximum established by postal regulations for second class mailing privil-
eges.

It is of interest to note at this time that the Towne Courier manage-

 

ment in the spring of 1975 conducted an informal readership survey with an
unscientifically drawn samp’l‘i'ng that nonetheless produced results of some
relevance to this content analysis.

Approximately five hundred homes in the Towne Courier circulation area

 

were contacted by telephone to gain information about the respondents'
newspaper reading habits. Of those contacted, almost four hundred were
willing to participate in the survey. Although results of the survey were
broken down by area into East Lansing, Okemos, and Haslett, these observa-
tions will be directed to the total response because most of the respondents
were from East Lansing, and there was no significant deviation in responses
from those living in East Lansing or outside the city.

(See Appendix A for wording of survey questions and responses

by number and percentage.)

55
TABL£513
TOWNE COURIER NEWS RATIO ACCORDING TO CATEGORY

 

EACH WEEK FROM OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, 1974
(First five of ten weeks)

 

 

 

Subject October 2 October 9 October 16 October 23 Cotober 30
Government 176 132 105 127 690 (B)
School 6 25 176 59 134
Civic 298 268 288 384 207
University 105 126 4 74 129
Editorial 95 73 77 87 180
Sports 253 191 171 118 235
Family 270 246 179 160 194
Business 136 105 27 74 80
Religion 15 - 26 9 -
Feature 151 114 44 525 (A) 46
TV-Radio 265 264 276 273 257
Other 54 48 33 21 31
House 28 24 24 18 32

 

 

 

 

 

 

(A) This issue contained a special section, "For Older Adults,"
all of which was classified in the Feature category.

(B) This issue was the last one before the November 5 general election
and all election coverage was placed in the Government category.

56
TABLE 13 (continued)
(Second five of ten weeks)

 

 

 

Subject November 6 November 13 November 20 November 27 December 4
Government 210 189 127 125 56
School 46 118 76 18 76
Civic 233 290 267 241 384
University 83 49 133 4 63
Editorial 124 75 67 56 63
Sports 219 373 (C) 200 111 .197
Family 145 105 150 118 213
Business 66 24 22 4 100
Religion 4 30 32 - 4
Feature 194 30 136 37 170
TV-Radio 232 235 235 262 222
Other 11 41 20 87 74
House 32 32 36 36 36

 

 

 

 

 

 

(C) Unusually extensive coverage of the Michigan State-Ohio State
football game November 9 was included in the sports category
rather than under university news. .

57

Of the 393 persons who were willing to participate in the surVey,
238, or 61 percent, said they received the papers. Five percent of those
said they received it free,* while 51 percent were mail subscribers, 40
percent had carrier delivery and 4 percent bought it at the newstand.
Included among reasons given for not taking the paper by non-subscribers

were that they took other papers, 18 percent; didn't like the Towne Courier,

 

33 percent; it was too costly, 6 percent; no time to read, 9 percent; too
much advertising, 3 percent; poor service, 5 percent; miscellaneous, 3 percent;
and no reason, 25 percent.

Almost 60 percent of those receiving the paper said they kept it in
the home for longer than one week, including 4 percent who said it stayed
in their home for two weeks. Eighty-eight percent of those who received
the paper said it was kept in the home for longer than one day.

One of the most interesting surVey findings, particularly in view of
the space allocation previously mentioned, was that 73 pecent of those who
received the paper said they did not look at the television listings.

Respondents were asked which part of the paper they particularly enjoy—
ed, and 42 percent said the entire papers. Singled out for special mention
were local news, 17 percent; sports, 10 percent; and classified advertising
7 percent. Four percent or less mentioned specific subjects such as city
council news, the arts, cooking, school, page one, features, editorial page,
second section items and miscellaneous news.

Seventy-seven percent of those who received the paper indicated a gen-
eral satisfaction with its contents. Specific items on which more coverage
was requested were sports, 4 percent; and school news, 2 percent. Many other

categories received 1 percent or less mention in response to this question.

58

Of all those contacted, not just subscribers, 81 percent said they
subscribed to a daily newspaper, and of these 58 percent said the Lansing

State Journal, 15 percent the Detroit Free Press, 1 percent the Michigan

 

 

State University State News 12 percent to both the State Journal and the

 

Free Press, and the remainder to various combinations of these and other news-

 

papers.

When asked about their shopping habits, 30 percent of those contacted
said their primary shopping was done at the Meridian Mall shopping center
near Okemos, 24 percent at Meijer's in the same general location, 20 percent
at Frandor, and only 15 percent in the central East Lansing business district.
The remainder was spread over East Lansing's Brookfield Plaza, 9 percent,
and other locations.

Although this telephone survey was not conducted in accordance with
scientific methodology, its results give an indication of reader interests

that will be discussed in subsequent remarks direétéd toward Towne Courier

 

editorial management philosophies.

CHAPTER V
THE EDITORIAL PAGE AND COVERAGE
OF TWO UNIVERSITY-CITY ISSUES

We saw in Chapter II the importance attached to community newspapers
and their role in the community. Janowitz said the community newspaper is
seen as an agent of community welfare and progress, and Cosse said a
function of the suburban weekly must be that of explaining the community to
itself.

The vehicle for carrying out this function is usually the newspaper's
editorial page, which Harris and Hooke envision as the place to focus,
illuminate and interpret facts of local importance. In order to place

editorial coverage of the East Lansing Towne Courier in some perspective,

 

this study will take a closer look at its editorial page during the ten-
week period being observed.
Table 14 shows that ordinarily only one editorial was published each

week, and in this ten-week period the Towne Courier carried an average of

 

slightly less than two editorials per week. This average was increased
substantially by the fact that, for classification purposes, endorsements ‘
in the October 30 pre-election issue were counted as six separate editorials.

During this period.seveateen editorials were published totaling 319
column inches, making the average length of each editorial almost nineteen
inches. It is the opisfiion of the author that shorter editorials have
better readership.

The Towne Courier averaged about three letters to the editor each week,

 

but occurence of the general election during this period increased the

number of letters and this average, as thirteen letters were published in

59

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61

the issues immediately prededing and following the election.

Only one interpretive article of the type commonly found on an
"op-ed page"* was published in the ten weeks, and this article was forty-
seven inches in length.** The article contained analy5is‘of how theSEast
Lansing School Board was preparing its budget for the coming year, and was
the only interpretive or background article "explaining the community to
itself," as Cosse saw the function of an editorial page, carried on the
editorial or op-ed pages during the period under observation.

The Community Calendar, which the author would not consider editorial
page material per se, averaged about fourteen inches of space per week
on the editorial page, and a total of twenty-three inches of general news
was printed on the editorial page during the ten—week period.

Editorials and letters to the editor were reviewed in the light of
their specific relevance to East Lansing and its residents, and rated
accordingly. The author arbitrarily assigned them into one of three
categories: purely local, some local interest, and primarily non-local.
Although this assignment was necessarily subjective and in some cases
borderline, the result nonetheless gives some idea of the degree of local
relevance.

A breakdown of the editorial page by issue follows, with the author's

evaluation added.

October 2
Editorials protesting a cut by the Ingham County Board of Commissioners
in social services such as welfare, child care, mental health, the Ingham
Medical Center, and various other community projects. This editorial was
classified as purely local, because it had local applicability, even

though it did not deal exclusively with East Lansing. Length: eighteen

62
inches.

Letters: praising the gubernatorial candidacy of Zoltan Ferency,
and associate professor at Michigan State University, twenty inches; and
an open letter to the Meridian Township Board of Trustees on a were pro-
ject, eleven inches. The Ferency letter was deemed partially local '
because of his local identification, and the Meridian letter was rated
purely local despite not relating to East Lansing itself.

Other: Community Calendar, twelve inches; one general news item,
five inches; and the op-ed page contained only obituaries.

October 9

Editorials: criticising state Senator Philip 0. Pittenger for
holding night committee meetings on proposed legislation, eighteen inches;
and one urging citizen support for a proposed new Performing Arts Center
building on the Michigan State University campus, twelve inches. The
Pittenger editorial was rated as partially local because East Lansing is
in his district. The Arts Center editorial was classified partially local
because it did not relate directly to East Lansing, even though there is
an overlapping interest between East Lansing and the university in this
situation.

Letters: a thank you note from the Meridian Township Farmer's
Market, seven inches; and a letter identifying a picture that had appeared
in an earlier issue, nine inches. Both were classified purely local,
although again the Meridian letter had no specific relevance to East Lansing.
A third 1etter,praising the Cooley Law School of Lansing, fifteen inches,
was rated partially local despite its broader scope.

Other: Community Calendar, eighteen inches; one general news item,

five inches; and the op-ed page contained only obituaries.

63

October 16

Editorial: noting the observance of Michigan Inernational Week and
relating it to the involvement of Michigan State University in overseas
programs, twenty-one inches. Despite its oblique tie-in to the university,
this editorial was rated non-local.

Letters: criticising the controversial reconstruction of the
Michigan-Harrison intersection, eight inches; and another supporting
Meridian Towneship in its fight against pornography. Both were rated
purely local even though the Meridian letter had no direct bearing on East
Lansing. Another letter urging a vote for Democratic congressional candi-
date M. Robert Carr, twelve inches, was rated partially local, and one
favoring improved programming for children's television, thirteen inches,
was classified as having no direct local relevance.

Other: Community Calendar, sixteen inches; and the op-ed page
contained only obituraries.

October 23

Editorial: Listing recommendations of the Towne Courier on four

 

statewide election proposals, and one Meridian Township proposition, to
be decided at the November 5 general election, thirty-four inches. This
editorial was listed as partially local because of the Meridian item, but
again there was no specific relevance to East Lansing.

Letters: against rezoning space for a parking lot near the East
Lansing Post Office, twelve inches; and two separate letters protesting
contents of a political advertisement published the previous week, thirteen

and nine inches. All three letters were deemed to be purely local.

Other: Community Calendar, ten inches; one general news item, two

inches; and the op-ed page contained a general news article about the

64

the pending Maridian Township trustee election contest.
October 30

Editorials: a full page of editorial endorsements by the I9wng_
Courier was classified as six separate editorials; endorsing Republican
Clifford Taylor in the Sixth Congressional District race, incumbent Demo-
crat Lynn Johdahl for state representative, Democrat Earl Nelson against
incumbent Republican Phillip O. Pittenger in the state senate race; and
individual candidates in the Meridian Township races for supervisor,
clerk, and the board of trustees. For classification purposes, the first
three editorials were rated partially local, because East Lansing is in-
cluded in the district involved. The latter three editorials were considered
purely local, even though they had no bearing at all on East Lansing reéi-

dents, because they were of interest to Towne Courier subscribers outside

 

East Lansing city limits.
Letters: favoring the proposed Michigan Vietnam veteran's bonus, twenty-

four inches; criticising the Towne Courier position on the state highway fund

 

proposition, twenty-five inches; objecting to the editorial criticising
Senator Pittenger, eight inches in favor of public financing of political
campaigns and against congressional candidate Taylor, five inChes; all con-
sidered partially local. Two other letters were supporting the Meridian
Township proposition, ten inches; and praising the East Lansing High School
junior class, five inches. Both these were considered purely local, even
though only one specifically related to East Lansing.

Other: Community Calendar, six inches. This editorial "page" occupied
almost two full facing pages.

November 6

Editorial: criticising tactics used in the election contest for state

65

representative, state senate and congress, twenty-four inches, rated parti-
ally local.
Letters: criticising the political advertisement of a state representa-

tive candidate, eighteen inches; condemning the Towne Courier editorial

 

opposing the Michigan Vietnam veteran's bonus proposal, eleven inches; de-
ploring Halloween violence, sixteen inches; all considered partially local.
Three others were thanking the Towne Courier for supporting the Meridian
Township proposition editorially, six inches; correcting a misleading state-
ment published in a previous news release, seven inches; and asking some

pointed questions about how Towne Courier editorial endorsements are made,

 

twelve inches. These were considered purely local, even though none of
them had specific relevance to East Lansing. One letter, urging support
for a famine relief program, twelve inches, was deemed non-local.

Other: Community Calendar, fourteen inches; material which usually
would be considered relevant to an editorial page occupied all of the ed-
itorial page and most of the op-ed page. There also were two general news
articles. totaling seven inches, on the op-ed page.

November 13

Editorial: deploring a change in the format of a children's television
program, The Attic, which appeared on Channel Six in Lansing, the one commer-
cial television station in the immeditate area, twenty-nine inches. This ed-
itorial was classified as non-local because it had no direct bearing on East
Lansing.

Letters: expressing the same opinion as stated in the editorial regarding
the childresn's television program, written by the program's co—producer and
host, twenty-four inches, classified as non—local; from the Meridian Township

clerk thanking the Towne Courier for its editorial support for the Meridian

66

Township proposition, twelve inches. This letter was rated purely local des-
pite no specific interest to East Lansing.

Other: Community Calendar, eighteen inches; and the op-ed page contain-
ed two general news stories.

November 20

Editorial: asking any community service group to donate its time and
services to decorate the city for the holiday season, accompanied by a
picture of previous decorations, twenty inches. This editorial was deemed
purely local.

Letters: a reply to the Towne Courier editorial about campaign dirty

 

tricks, from congressional candidate Taylor, twenty-five inches; thanking the
East Lansing Rescue Squad, six inches. The Taylor letter was classified parti-

ally local, and the latter one was deemed purely local.

Other: Community Calendar, fourteen inches; the op-ed page contained
a fory—seven-inch interpretive article on how the East Lansing School Board
prepares its budget for the coming year, with background information and an
outline of available options.
November 27

Editorial: The Towne Courier suggested ways to spend about $3 million

 

which is expected to become available to East Lansing over the next six years
in federal Community Development Act fund, and asked readers to contribute
ideas of their own, nineteen inches. This editorial was classified purely
local.

Letter: From William Ballenger, who was defeated in the Republican
congressional primary election, responding to Taylor's letter the previous

week, twenty-nine inches. This letter was deemed partially local.

67

Other: Community Calendar, seventeen inches; two general news articles
appeared on the editorial page, thirteen inches; and the op-ed page contained
a 32-inch news story on public hearings which were held to get suggestions
on how to spend the Community Development Act money.

December 4

Editorials: urging the rescinding of Executive Order 9066, which was
used to intern Japanese-Americans on the West Coast of the United States
during World War II, and is still in effect, eighteen inches. This editorial
was considered non-local, despite an indirect tie to some present East Lansing
residents.* Another editorial criticized the naming of State Senator Joseph
Mack of Ironwood as chairman of the senate conservation committee, thirteen
inches, and was considered non-local because of its limited specific local
interest.

Letter: correcting a news story which appeared in the previous week's
issue, twelve inches, classified purely local.

Other: Community Calendar, eighteen inches; and the op-ed page was a
full news page containing only general news items.

Contents of Towne Courier editorial pages over this ten—week period are

 

detailed at length to illustrate three points:

1) Even with generous standards applied by the author as to what consti-
tutes a local editorial, particularly pertaining to East Lansing, editorials
generally had limited local interest. Letters to the editor, perhaps following
this emphasis, also were of little direct relevance to East Lansing.

2) The editorial page was not used exclusively for editorial page mate-
rial, at least as defined by the author, and the op-ed page was wasted on
general news.

3) Editorials, letters and articles appearing on the editorial and op-ed
pages generally were of a non-controversial nature; they did not seem to ex-
plain community problems or urge courses of action in other than universally-

approved directions.

68

Table 15 indicates that purely local editorials were outnumbered sub-

stantially by those with little or no specific interest to East Lansing.

TABLE 15

MEASUREMENT OF LOCAL EMPHASIS OF TOWNE COURIER
EDITORIALS IN TEN-WEEK PERIOD FROM
OCTOBER 2 TO DECEMBER 4, 1974

 

 

 

 

 

Local Emphasis Editorials Letters
Purely local 6 l6
Partially local 7 12
Non-local 4 3

Total 17 31

 

Only two editorials, one each on November 20 and November 27, directly re-
lated to East Lansing and its problems, and both these were non-controversial
in nature. Letters to the editor during the same period showed only a little
more local orientation. There were sixteen purely local letters, while only
fifteen had a partial local interest or were deemed non-local.

The issue-by-issue compilation shows that the editorial page often was
used for general news items, or those thought by the author not to be of
editorial page nature. The op-ed page was used only once directly as an
auxiliary to the editorial page, although on two other occasions it was used
as a spillover page for letters to the editor. Items usually appearing on this
page were obituaries or general news articles.

Editorials and letters tended to be few in number and lengthy, with ed-
itorials averaging almost nineteen inches each and letters more than thirteen

inches. And as noted previously, a substantial amount of editorial

69

page space, both editorials and letters, was devoted to items considered
by the author to be of little or no specific local applicability.

While controversy only for the sake of controversy should not be the
goal of anewspaper editor, the generally non-controversial nature of leuue
Cuurier editorials and editorial page material would lead the author to be-

lieve that the Towne Courier did not seriously grapple with local issues

 

during the ten-week period from October 2 to December 4, 1974.

TWO UNIVERSITY-CITY ISSUES

 

In observing news coverage of the Towne Courier, this stUdy will examine

 

twoissues of overlapping interest between the city of East Lansing and Michi-
gan State University that were newsworthy during 1974.
The first of these concerned a university decision, announced for the

first time July 10 in the State News, that university sophomores would be

 

allowed to live off campus fall term in an effort to alleviate expected

overcrowding in university residence halls.77

The State News said university officials would be sending letters to

 

sophomores containing an application for a waiver to live off campus and

a form for cancellation of the student's housing reservation. It was es-
timated in this article that if no sophomores took advantage of this housing
pblicy change, there would be about 1,200 over-assigned rooms at the beginn-
ing of fall term.

The university assistant director of student activities and off-campus
housing‘ was quoted as estimating that there was space for about 300 students
in East Lansing apartments. The article said university officials expected
that the option to live in housing other than university-approved units would

be only open to sophomores for one year, but included speculation that this

70

could be the beginning of the end for the housing policy requiring sophomores
to live on campus.

This housing issue is of particular importance to East Lansing and its
residents because presence of the university by itself creates a demand for
housing units in East Lansing, a relatively small community, and a sudden
policy change that night allow 1,200 or more college students to seek quarters
off campus, presumably many of them in East Lansing, would place a burden on
the city's housing situation.

Demand by students for additional housing units in East Lansing also
could conceivably increase demand for zoning variations to allow crowding of
more students into less space, which could lead to the disintegration of
neigborhoods.

One week after the State News article, the Towne Courier published an

 

editorial deploring the lack of cooperation in planning between Michigan

State University and the city of East Lansing:78

Several years ago when Michigan State University restricted
student parking, we pointed out editorially that it was time decisions
affecting the total community were not made on an ad hoc basis as
in days of yore.

We suggested that a liaison committee be established, that
an agenda be prepared, and that city and university officials
meet on a regularly scheduled basis to discuss areas of mutual
concern, past, present and future. That seemed and seems eminently
sensible.

In the past the city council and the MSU Board of Trustees
met occasionally to discuss matters of mutual concern, a procedure
that proved unsatisfactory. Now members of the university adminis-
trative staff meet occasionsally with city department heads, but
apparently that isn't enough.

' "Within the past week two situations have developed which
indicate the need for a more continuous dialogue and mutual
problem solving by the city and university.

Whereas many colleges and universities are experiencing de-
clining enrollments, MSU is not. An increased enrollment of fresh-
men this fall will create campus housing problems. As a result,

71

sophomores will be permitted to live off campus.
No one knows how many students will take advantage of the .

opportunity to live off campus, but East Lansing won't have
enough accommodations.

Second point mentioned in the editorial concerned cable television
receipts from university married housing units, and it concluded that there
should be more cooperation between the university and city.

"With many well-intentioned courses and seminars on communications,
planning, public administration, and so forth being offered on campus, there
ought to be one or more pragmatist who could put it all together. The univer-
sity has come a long way from its college days. The town has grown too.
Obviouély town and gown polarization is an archaic concept that needs to
be put to rest. However, it won't be if the present informal setup between
the city and university regarding mutual problems continues to be practiced."

The twenty-three-inch editorial was accompanied by a cartoon show-
ing a Michigan State University truck dumping a load of students onta pumpkin
house labeled "E.Lansing Housing." (See Figure 2) The same July 17 issue of

the Towne Courier contained a sixteen—inch news article reporting on a meeting

 

of the East Lansing Planning Commission July 10 at which the commission
"expressed disappointment" at failure to be notified of the s0phomore housing
decision.79

The Towne Courier article said no members of the planning commiséion

 

or the housing department of East Lansing were aware of the university action

until they saw it in the State News. It said the commission requested the

 

East Lansing City Council set up a liaison with the university to keep the
commission informed on the university's housing policy.
Only two other references, both indirect, were made to this housing

problem in the Towne Courier from July 17 through the ten-week period ending

 

71‘a

FIGURE 2

TOWNE COLE-213R CARTOON JULY 17, 1974

 

*CISION

E

.HIIZ HOUBING D

()II I]; I: J,s-

 

 

 

 

 

72

December 4 covered by this study. A news article October 23 said residents
of the Bailey neighborhood were afraid of losing their residential flavor to
wholesale student rentals, and gave notice of a meeting between residents
and city officials.80
A report of the meeting between Bailey residents and city officials
was published October 30, but no specific mention was made of the change
in university housing policy. One East Lansing housing commissioner was
quoted, however, as saying that the univerSity and the community should have
to "open the lines of communication."81
These were the only references to this problem of mutual city-univer-
sity interest that appeared‘ in the Towne Courier between July 3, 1974, and
December 4, 1974.

During this same period, following its initial breaking of the sopho-

more housing story, the State News published three articles having a diredt

 

bearing on its implications for East Lansing, and two others which were of
incidental interest.

On August 23, the lead page one news story in the State News said the

 

university off-campus housing office "has been packed in the past few weeks

82

with students (checking) the rental card folders." On September 26, the

State News reported that "so far 450 sophomores have cancelled their reserva-
83

 

tions in residence halls and moved off campus." The State News on October 1

speculated that "now that it appears the s0phomore on—campus living require-

84

ment will be abolished..." Two other State News articles during this

 

period dealt with the related problem of tripling students in dormitory
rooms as a result of easing the sophomore'houSing pulicy.

A comparison on treatment of this story by the Towne Courier and the

 

73

State News indicates to the author that the State News gave it more

 

 

comprehensive coverage, and in this issue which was of direct and imminent

importance to East Lansing, the Towne Courier did not explain the problem

 

or its import at any great length to its readers.

The second subject studied of mutual university-city interest concerned
a proposed new Performing Arts Center on the university campus. This subject,
though of primary importance to the university, related to East Lansing be-
cause of the university7oriéntation of so many of its residents, and the im-
pact it would have on cultural life of the city.

A Towne Courier editorial October 9 commented that sports facilities

 

seemed to take precedence over those for cultural activities, and called

for a reordering of community priorities "in favor of those who aren't sports
fans." About the only conclusion expressed in the editorial was the hope
that a new Performing Arts Center would be subsidized by "faithful area
patrons of the arts."85

A short eight-inch Towne Courier news item October 23 said that a search

 

for a site on which to build the Performing Arts Center had been narrowed to

86

two location, but there was no Towne Courier mention when Michigan State

 

University President Clifton Wharton, Jr., announced that the site had been
selected early in November.

As might be expected, the State News during the same period gave ex-

 

tensive coverage to the search for a site for the Center, carrying three

articles and two editorials on the subject. Coverage of the Towne Courier,

 

while not expected to be as extensive as that of the university newspaper,
in the opinion of the author should have been greater than the perfunctory

treatment received because of the Center's implications for East Lansing.

CHAPTER VI

ROLE OF THE TOWNE COURIER EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

 

Sim says that any newspaper, large or small, takes on an individuality,

87 At

a personality of its own, separate from that of any of its writers.
the same time, there usually is one individual who is most responsible for
shaping the force and thrust of that personality, and that individual usually
is the editor or publisher.

The role taken by a community newspaper, according to Janowitz, tends
to reflect the publisher's Senitivity to his audience. "The community news-
paper publisher is not merely a commercial agent attempting to increase his
profit without regard to the social consequences of his newspaper content.
He is in too close contact with his clientele to be able to accomplish this,
and he is aligned with the local community leaders who have a vested interest
88

in promoting the (respectablility ) of the local community."

Guiding force in shaping the role of the Towne Courier for the

 

first eleven years of its existence was its editor and publisher, Harry
Stapler. Mrs. Vivian F. Oates has directed the news operation since 1973.
Mrs. Oates says she spends about 20 percent of her total working time super-

vising the editorial department and Towne Courier news coverage: Despite this

 

relatively small amount of time, information gathered in preparing this study
indicates that she is in fact as well as name the editor in that she sets the
frame of reference within which the newspaper operates, and follows up to
insure that her policies are implemented.

John OeMott, in a study of editors' use of behavioral models, said that
an editor appears at times to be using models borrowed from other occupations

and fields, and observed that the models most often used by an editor are
74

75

what he called political, commercial, professional, clerical, historical,
and recreational.89

The models as defined by DeMott are:

(1) Political: Sees the newspaper not as the community ruler, but
as its most publicLspirited citizen, exerting community leadership by dis-
interested public service. The editor or publisher sees his subscribers or
readers as constituents, and is elected daily by the ballot of readers and
subscribers. This model does not appear to have power for its own sake as
the principal objective.

(2) Commercial: Sees himself as a businessman selling a product,
and the product and its quality, rather than its political impact or in-
fluence on the community, therefore become the chief consideration.

Since the editor or publisher employing this model is tempted to endorse
the old commercial slogan "the customer is always right," the product is
tailored to fit the trade.

(3) Professional: Sees the newspaper as providing a specific service,
providing objective and impartial intelligence of current events. In their
highest professional capacity, members of the news gathering and reporting
organization are seen as being more or less detached members of the local
community, putting a high premium on their independence. Using the professional
model, newspaper editors and others have developed the "mirror" theory of
news. The newspaper's function is to hold a mirror up before society, and to
reflect it as it is, to reflect the image coldly, impartially and objectively.

(4) Clerical: Sees his role as that of making moral judgments on
the community and its life. Somewhat like an old-time hell-fire and brimstone

preacher, the editor using this model is tempted to spend too much time showing

76

his neighbors the error of their ways and taking the hide off a community's
most notorious sinners. Under this model's influence, an editor is tempted
to become increasingly moralistic, and more given to viewing with alarm all
kinds of trends in the community.

(5) Historical: The editor tends to see the newspaper as "history
written on the run," or the I'first rough draft of history." Every newspaper
is seen as one of record, chronicling the community's life day-by-day and
year-by-year. The record and its accuracy are chief considerations, although
analysis of the news and its interpretation can also be seen as major responsi-
bilities.

(6) Recreational: Using this model, the editor is tempted to see him-
self as being engaged in the "newspaper game" and to put chief emphasis on
theifimepaper's entertainment function. Like other entertainers, the editor
using this model becomes preoccupied with the newspaper's audience and its
ratings.

"The most important thing of all to a newspaper editor using the
recreational model" DeMott says "is providing entertainment, vicarious
adventure escape, diversion, relaxation, and excitement. It is by excelling
as an entertainer that such an editor wins the top trophies, the biggest
money."90

DeMott concludes by saying that most editors undoubtedly make use of
all the models discussed, and combine them in attempts to explain the
newspaper's function and role in society. In an effdrt to determine which

role the Towne Courier editor and publisher seems to fulfill, the author

 

conducted several interviews with Mrs. Oates.

East Lansing is viewed by Mrs. Oates as a "community, not a suburb,"

77 T

because "suburbs don't have neighbors; in a community they do." She says
suburbs may have their own government, but East Lansing is distinctive
because many of its residents live and work in the same place.

Mrs. Oates sees her subscribers as her constituents, and this feeling
was particularly apparent in her endorsements in the Sixth Congressional

District campaign in November, 1974. The Towne Courier endorsed Republican

 

Clifford Taylor, although Mrs. Oates says her personal preference was Democrat
M. Robert Carr, the eventual winner in a close race.

The endorsement was made, Mrs. Oates said, "because Taylor better
represented the wishes of my constituencey. I am more liberal than my
constituency and I personally felt that Carr was the better candidate. But
Taylor was more representative of the people in East Lansing and would have
carried the city if it hadn't been for the student vote." According to Mrs.
Oates, Taylor had a more stable, traditional approach, which to her reflected
the wishes of the community.

Mrs. Oates says she has complete autonomy in making political endorse-
ments, but that she doesn't endorse any candidate, including those in state-

wide races, unless she has interviewed him personally, In the 1974 election,

 

the Towne Courier did not endorse judicial candidates or county commissioner
candidates. "It would have taken more expertise than I have," Mrs. Oates said,
"I didn't have the time to interview all of them, so didn't endorse any."

Because Mrs. Oates feels that East Lansing has what could be called a
relatively transient population, partially due to university faculty turnover,
she sees the newspaper's role as keeping the news in perspective for people
for whom the newspaper is their only community continuity. "It makes them

welcome and feel involved," she says.

78

East Lansing is a "company town," according to Mrs. Dates, and Michi-
gan State University is the "company." She sees this as generally beneficial
because of the type of people involved, but it also creates problems. "The
people are progressive in their thinking, maybe too liberal," she says.
"Sometimes they can't pull together without getting caught."

Mrs. Oates says she feels there is a high degree bf civic participation
and interest in government and schools, but not as much in service clubs
such as Kiwanis, which she says is made up mostly of businessmen. "East '
Lansing has first class schools, but they experiment too much. Educational
innovations are constantly being tried."

As noted in Chapter IV, the Towne Courier contained a relatively small

 

percentage of school news during the ten-week period studied, and that on a
sporadic basis, most of it coming over the counter rather than being staff-
produced. Mrs. Oates says one of her goals for the coming year is to increase
and improve school news coverage.
The relationship between Michigan State University and the city of East
Lansing are seen by Mrs. Oates as strained at best, with "indifference to
one another." Sobin says that in a college suburb conflicts between the
college and community residents sometimes occur when the college is under-
going rapid growth and expansion, as Michigan State University has. "Resié
dents are often fearful that the expanding college will change the character
of the community. They are usually right, for as the college grows, the
community changes..bringing more people, more intensive development (and)
more traffic..."91
"The university appears to be indifferent to the city," Mrs. Oates

says, "or at least indifferent to the needs of the city." Prime example of

this cited by Mrs. Oates is the decision by university officials to allow

79

sophomores to live off campus, a decision she says was taken unilaterally
by the university without consulting East Lansing officials.

"The university creates problems for East Lansing, as a factory would,"
according to Mrs. Oates, "but unlike a factory there are no tax dollars going
from the university to East Lansing." Mrs. Oates says she feels strongly
that the uniVersity does not have a sensitivity to needs of the community,

but the Towne Courier makes no attempt to comment on anything on campus

 

except as it affects the city.

"We have done our share of gentle prodding," Mrs. Oates says, "and some
not so gentle. We have been behind the Performing Arts Center, but editori-
ally have criticised some of its scheduling practices." Adcording to Mrs.

Oates, there has been a "gentleman's agreement" between the Towne Courier

 

and the State News not to encroach on each other's territory, but she is

 

not so certain the State News in recent years has lived up to its word.

 

When eighteen-year-olds were given the right to vote, Mrs. Oates says,
it almost "blew the lid off" East Lansing city politics. "There is a definite
student-resident schism, but residents still run the show. Student votes are
important, but the students aren't highly organized yet."

Perhaps one reason stud'ent influence has not been fully felt in East
Lansing elections is that primaries are held during the summer, when most
students are away from the campus. Mrs. Oates also indicates there are some
misgivings in East Lansing about students voting in city elections where bond
issues are decided, in some cases where students might have the balance of

power, even though they do not pay direct real estate taxes. She feels this

may be one reason why such elections are usually scheduled at the primary

election date in the summer.

80

The need for cooperation between the uniVersity and city was reflected
in one editorial published during the ten-week period studied, that following
announcement of the sophomore residency change. Sentiments expressed in
that editorial are reminiscent of the following excerpt from a National

Student Association publication:

The university, partially as a product of the community,
partially as a participant in the community, must place its
power behind the needs of the community...The unirersity should
enter into positive relations with the community.

Mrs. Oates, who says she is fully aware of the impact on East Lansing

of the university, concurs.

CHAPTER VII

THE TOWNE COURIER AS A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

 

In looking at the various types of suburban communities, we saw in
Chapter I that East Lansing most closely resembles a satellite suburb in
that it is basically subordinate to a larger center, yet retains a high
degree of independence stemming from its importance as an employment center.
East Lansing also could be defined as a college suburb, one in which a major
college or university is located and where a large proportion of community
residents and their activities are due to presence of the college.

Although the literature reviewed in this study does not make such a
fine distinction, the author in defining East Lansing would combine these
descriptions and refer to the city as a college-satellite suburb.

East Lansing's past, present and future are inexorably intertwined with
those of Michigan State University through physical location, historical
origins, and duality of interest in both the university and city among many
East Lansing residents and subscribers to the East Lansing Towne Courier.

It seems to the author that this dichotomy of interests should be
acknowledged by and reflected in the East Lansing newspaper. In this ten-
week survey of its content, he is inclined to wonder whether in an attempt

to remain separate from the university the Towne Courier has not consciously

 

or subconsciously underplayed university news even when it has had significant
impact on the community, such as in elimination of the sophomore residency
requirement.

A superficial look at basic demographic information about East Lansing

81

82

also shows that the community generally is above most of the Lansing Stand-
ard Metropolitan Statistical Area in income, educational achievement, and
overall socio-economic status, a fact one also would expect to see reflected
in the community's only local newspaper.

We saw in Chapter II that Sim said some editors feel they should offer
scrapbook newspaper, print the kind of news people have been accustomed to
clip and save - birth notices, school achievements, weddings, anniversaries,
obituaries, and other similar items. Other editors are convinced they should
report the numerous and difficult social and economic problems of growing
communities in depth, with a knowledgeable and sophisticated approach.

While few newspapers fit precisely into either category, observations
made during this study indicate to the author that at least for the ten-week

period studied, the Towne Courier came considerably closer to being a scrap-

 

book newspaper than a newspaper which reported the community and its problems
in depth.

This is not necessarily a criticism, for there could be fine scrapbook
newspapers, but rather a reflection of the author's own editorial prespective

in commenting on the goals toward which the Towne Courier seems pointed.

 

Completion of this limited survey suggests two other areas which could
be of interest to study at greater length:

--A qualitative content analysis of the Towne Courier to determine

 

attitudes and biases in news and editorial coverage of East Lansing and
Michigan State University.

--A three-pronged comparative study of the Towne Courier as in in-

 

dependently-owned newspaper from 1962 to 1969, from 1969 to 1973 as part of

a newspaper. group but continuing under editorial direction of the original

83

editor and publisher, and since 1973 in its present status, to determine
how these changes in ownership and management have been reflected in the
newspaper's editorial policies and emphasis.

We saw in Chapter II that Miller and Cosse felt the news of paramount
importance to a community newspaper was of schools, churches, cultural
activities, and city government. Byerly said the community newspaper should
promote local welfare and stimulate thinking on local problems and projects.
Cosse outlined the obligation of a community newspaper editorial page to
explain the community to itself, the obligation of editorial interpretation
for the reader to comprehend the significance of local events, to see a
sequence to local happenings that can be interpreted in the light of some
ultimate community goal.

Using this as a frame of reference, the author would offer the following

observations about the Towne Courier as seen during the ten-week period from

 

October 2 to December 4, 1974.

(1) Its extensive sports, city government and civic news coverage appear
to be adequate to satisfy readers' interests and needs.

(2) Too much space proportionately is used for bulletin board news
items and columns such as the television listings with extremely low interest
and readership.

(3) Religious news seems to have a very low priority, and there is
room for in-depth articles about religious activities, or programs associated
with religiously-oriented groups, possibly including a series of visits to
community churches to determine and report on their perspectives and contribu-
tions to overall community objectives.

(4) Cultural activities are given a large amount of space, but in

84
bulletin-board fashion. It would seem that this coverage could be broadened

to give Town Courier readers a knowledgeable and sophisticated look at what

 

the vast exposure of talent at Michigan State University means to the commun-
ity. The university itself should contain a reservoir of potential special-
ists qualified to convey this message.

(5) Proportion of school news is very low compared to the generally—
accepted theory that education of the community's children is of prime im-
portance to the reader. Regular visits to schools and regular contact with
school administrators at all levels, who should be anxious to explain their
programs and activities, should stimulate a number of news sources who
would be able to support a regular column of school news to complement the
mostly routine present coverage of school board meetings.

(6) The editorial page and op-ed page could be more concerned with
local issues. Editorials of specific local interest and relevance hopefully
could stimulate local letters to the editor, and maximum use could be made out
of the op-ed page for interpretive articles and in-depth studies that would
in fact help explain the community to itself.

It comes to mind that one good place to begin might be an article or
articles explaining the inter-relationship of East Lansing and Michigan
State University, and bringing public awareness to focus on this one issue
of great significance to East Lansing.

The author would suggest an individual approach by the Towne Courier
to its particular situation, and offers Sim's words as an appropriate mani-
festo:

If the community weekly is, as it has been called, the strong-
hold of free individual expression, it bears a responsibility toward all men

as individuals. The danger to it lies in the tremendous economic pressure 93
to make it an instrument of mass expression, an organ of mass communication.

FOOTNOTES

1Research & Policy Committee for Economic Development, Guiding
Metropolitan Growth (New York: U.S. Government, 1960)

 

2Scott Donaldson, The Suburban Myth (New York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 1969) p. 9.

 

3Leo F. Schnore, The Urban Scene: Human Ecology and Demography
(New York: The Free Press, 1965) p. 137

 

4Schnore, p. 146.
5

Schnore, p. 139
6
Schnore, p. 141
7Schnore, p. 145

8Dennis P. Sobin, The Future of the American Suburbs:Survival--
or Extinction? (Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1971), p. 58

 

 

9Sabin, p. 60

10James D. Towar, History of the City of East Lansing (East Lansing,
Michigan: East Lansing Public Library, 1933), p. l.

HWilliam M. Dobriner, Glass in Suburbia (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963), p. 15

 

12Dobriner, p. 23

13John C. Bollens and Henry J. Schmandt, The Metropolis: Its People,
Politics, and Economic Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), p. 92.

14

 

 

Bollens and Schmandt, p. 240

15Bollens and Schmandt, p. 222

16Bollens and Schmandt, p. 240

86

17Donaldson, p. 156

18Bollens and Schmandt, p. 41

19Bollens and Schmandt, p. 240

20Robert C. Wood, Suburbia: Its People and Their Politics
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958), p. 186

 

21Census Tract, Lansing, Michigan, Standard Metropolitan Statistical

 

Area (Washington, District of Columbia: U.S. Department of Commerce,
Bureau of the Census, 1972)

22Towar, p. 39

23Towar, p. 32

24Towar, p. 73

25Towar, p. 95

26Towar, p.103

27Towar, p. 127

28Towar, p. 127

29Towar, p. 127

3OTowar, p. 127

31Thomas F. Barnhart, Weekly Newspaper Writing and Editing (New York:
Dryden Press, 1949), p. 3.

32Margaret V. Cosse, The Suburban Weekly(New York: Columbia
University Press, 1928), p.

 

33John Cameron Sim, The Grass Roots Press: America's Community
Newspapers (Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, 1969) p. 82

 

 

34Sim, p. 82

35Rick Friedman, "Journey into Suburbia," Editor & Publisher,
January 13, 1962, p. 50

 

87

36Raymond B. Nixon, "Trends in U. S. Newspaper Ownership:
Concentration With Competition," Mass Media and Society, Alan Wells, ed.
(Palo Alto, California: National Press Books, 1972), p.11

 

37William Haight, A Study of Michigan Weekly Newspapers and Their Publishers:

 

"Country Weeklies" compared with Suburban Weeklies (Unpublished Individual
Research Project Submitted to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Michigan State University, for classroom credit, August, 1958)

 

38Wallace B. Eberhard, "Daily Newspaper Starts and Suspensions,"
Journalism Quarterly, Spring, 1975, p. 117.

 

39Boyd Miller, The Effects of Suburbanization on Detroit's Metropolitan

 

 

Newspapers (Unpublished Master's Theseis, Michigan State University, 1965)
p. 4.

40Sim, p.68

4'si'im, p. 68

42Albert W. Caron, Jr., American Newspaper Publishers Association
Newspaper Information Service, letter to author, February 4, 1975.

) 43Kemieth R. Byerly, Community Journalism (New York: Chilton Company,
1961 , p. 2 .

 

44Byerly, p. 18.

45Miller, p. 22.

46Byerly, p. 5.

47Morris Janowitz, The Community Press in an Urban Setting (Glencoe,
Illinois: The Free Press, 1952), p. 161.

 

48Janowitz, p. 165

49Janowitz, p. 227

50Janowitz, p. 159

5lJanowitz, p. 155.

52Janowitz, p. 157.

88

53Janowitz, p. 157.

54Janowitz, p. 158.

55Miller, p. 42.

56Miller, p. 59.

57Miller, p. 61.

58Miller, p. 62.

59Miller, p. 62

60Allen H. Neuharth, president and chief executive officer, Gannett
Co., Inc., speech to the National Newspaper Association convention in
Toronto, Canada, July 26, 1974.

6'51m, p. 166.

62Emeron P. Harris and Florence Harris Hooke, The Community Newspaper:

 

Its Promise and Development (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1923),
p. 118.

63Cosse, p. 5.

64Chilton R. Bush, ed. News Research for Better Newspepers, vol. 1
(New York: American New5paper Publishers Association, 1966), p. 62.

 

65Cosse, p. 5.

66Harris and Hooke, p. 152

67Sim, p. 15.

68Sim, p. 4.

69Sim, p. 3.

70Sim, p. 3.

7'51m, p. 67

7251m, p. 67.

89

73Suburban Newspaper Research Center, Measurement of Suburban
Newspaper Readers and Their Households: (Chicago: Suburban Newspaper
Research Center, 1974TT

 

 

74Interview with Mrs. Dorothy Ross, State News office and credit
manager, June 3, 1975.

 

75East Lansing Towne Courier November 14, 1962, p. 1.

 

76East Lansing Towne Courier, November 14, 1962, p. l.

 

77"U Lets Sophomores live off Campus," Michigan State University
State News, July 10, 1974, p. l.

 

78"Mutualism Isn't Theoretical," East Lansing Towne Courier
July 17, 1974, p. 46.

79"MSU Passes on Housing Problem,Say Commissioners," East Lansing
Towne Courier, July 17, 1974, p. C8

 

 

80"Student Housing Worries Bailey," East Lansing Towne Courier,
October 23, 1974, p. l.

 

8]"Bailey Wants to Maintain Present Mix," East Lansing Towne Courier,
October 30, 1974, p. 3.

 

82"Economics a Factor in City Housing Crundh," The State News,
August 23, 1974, p. 1.

83"Record Number of Triples Plagues Residence Halls," The State News,
September 26, 1974, p. l.

 

84"Housing Policy Logic Creates Controversy," The State News,
October 1, 1974, p. l.

 

85"Arts Center a Priority Item," East Lansing Towne Courier,
October 9, 1974, p. 6.

 

86"2 Sites Chosen for PAC," East Lansing Towne Courier, October 23,
1974, p. 2, sec. 2.

 

875m, pi 91.

88Janowitz, p. 103.

90

89John DeMott, "Behavior Models for the Editor," Nieman Reports,
December, 1969, p. 21.

 

90DeMott, p. 24.

9ISobin, p. 60.

92Diane Carleback, ed. Codification of Policy of the United States
National Student Association. (Washington, District of Columbia: 1967-68),

 

 

p. 70.

93Sim, p. 167.

Page

11.

12.
12.
12.

14.

17.

21.

23.

28.

* Notes

*The mean income is the amount obtained by dividing the total

income of a particular statistical universe by the number of units

in that universe, while the median income is the amount which divides
the distribution into two equal groups, one having incomes above the
median and the other having incomes below the median.

*Although Abbott Road was named for Dr. Abbot, official city records
and maps list it as "Abbott Road."

*Now the Pere Marquette.
**Six fares for 25¢.

***The Split Rock was a huge granite boulder of several tons located
on Michigan Avenue about midway between the state capitol and the
college, and was known to students as the "half-way stone." A

cherry tree grew in a crack in the rock, and it finally split the rock
in two, with a two-foot-wide gap at its upper edges. The rock was
removed in 1924 when Michigan Avenue was widened.

*Although Barnhart refers to "community newspapers" as newspapers
within a city, the words are used interchangeably with "weekly
newspapers" and "suburban newspapers" in other references and have
been so used in this study.

*Bryce W. Rucker, The First Freedom (carbondale, Illinois: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1968), p. 34, says the two weekly news-
paper groups with which the author has been associated are the largest
chains. "The largest urban-suburban chain owner is Lerner Home News-
papers with 33 paid and free circulation weeklies in northside Chicago
and its adjoining suburban area. Total circulation is approximately
350,000. Close behind are the Minneapolis-St. Paul Crawford Publica-
tions, 28 weeklies, and Great Western Publishing Company of California,
21."

 

*To this, the author would add, at a price far less than that of the
metropolitan daily.

*When the author was graduated from the University of Minnesota in

1954, most of his classmates sought jobs on Twin' City daily newspapers,
which at that time paid a Guild minimum scale of $54 per week, while
jobs on suburban newspapers at $20 to $30 more per week were considered
less desirable.

*This is borne out by the author's experience in Chicago, where edi-
torial employees, represented by the Newspaper Guild, during negotia-
tions compared their salary structure with that of the metropolitan
dailies and bargained for equity in pay because in essence they were
doing the same work.

33.

34.

35.

42.

57.
61.

61.

66.

*The State News is published Monday through Friday during the fall,
winter and spring quarters, and Monday-Wednesday-Friday during the
summer sessions.

 

*Under the Towne Courier voluntary pay system, a carrier delivers
the newspaper to every home on his route and collects later if
possible. The customer, however, receives a newspaper whether or
not payment is made. Editor and publisher Mrs. Vivian F. Oates
estimates that collections are made for 40 percent of the newspapers
delivered under this system.

 

*By "big shopping," Mrs. Oates says she means major appliances,
automotive and hardware.

*"Check-passing" pictures are defined by Mrs. Oates as those which
depict someone from the organization presenting a check to some
worthy organization as the procedes from a fund-raising event.

*Under the voluntary pay plan described in Chapter III.

The op-ed page is the news page opposite the editorial page which
newspapers have taken to recent years to using for interpretive,
analysis, or background articles to complement straight news
coverage.

**Measurements in this study are noted in column inches and include
space taken up by the accompanying headline.

*The editorial and accompanying picture were not keyed to any news
article, but page one of this issue was filled with the story of
present East Lansing residents who had lived through the relocation
mentioned in the editorial.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

QUESTIONS AND REPLIES TO
TOWNE COURIER READERSHIP SURVEY

 

These are the questions asked and replies received by percentages, in
an informal telephone survey conducted by the East Lansing Towne Courier.

1. Do you receive the Towne Courier?

 

Yes 61 percent
No 39 percent

2. Why are you not receiving the Towne Courier?

 

Several papers 18 percent
No reason 23 percent
Don't like 33 percent
Too costly 6 percent
No time to read 9 percent
Too much

advertising 3 percent
Poor service 5 percent
Miscellaneous 3 percent

3. How do you receive the Towne Courier?

 

Mail 51 percent
Carrier 40 percent
Receive free 5 percent
Newstand 4 percent

91

4.

5.

One month
Two weeks
One week
Four days
Three days
Two days
One day

Hours

No answer or don't

Know

All

Sports

Local news
Classified
Arts

Cooking

School news
Front page
Features

City council news
Pictures
Second section
Editorial page

Miscellaneous

92

How long does the paper stay in your home?

1 percent

4 percent

55 percent

4 percent

12 percent

13 percent

3 percent

4 percent

5 percent

42
10
17

Which part of the paper do you particularly enjoy?

percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent
percent

percent

93

6. Do you look at television listings?

Yes 24 percent
No 73 percent
No response 3 percent

7. What would you like to see added to the paper?
Nothing 77 percent
More sports 4 percent
Bigger art section 1 percent

More City council

News 1 percent
School news 2 percent
Local news 1 percent
Features 1 percent

Better organization 1 percent

Cartoons 1 percent
Plant news 1 percent
Women's section 1 percent
Bigger community

calendar 1 percent
More letters 1 percent
Miscellaneous 7 percent

8. Do you subscribe to a daily newspaper?

Yes 81 percent
No 17 percent
No response 2 percent

9. Which daily newspaper(s) do you get?
State Journal 58 percent

Detroit Free Press 15 percent

State News

State Journal
and Free Press

State Journal
and State News

Three or Four
papers

No response

94

1 percent

12 percent

1 percent

4 percent

9 percent

10. Which is your primary shopping

Meridian Mall
Frandor
Meijer's

Downtown East
Lansing

Brookfield Plaza
Other

30 percent
20 percent
24 percent

15 percent
9 percent

2 percent

area?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnhart, Thomas F. Weekly Newspeper Writing and Editing. New York:
Dryden Press, 1949.

Bollens, John C., and Schmandt, Henry J. The Metropolis: Its People,
Politics, and Economic Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1965

Bush, Chilton R., ed. News Reasearch for Better Newspapers, Vol. 11
New York: American Newspaper Publishers Association, 1966.

v// Byerly, Kenneth R. Community Journalism. New York: Chilton Company, 1961.

Carleback, Diane, ed. Codification of Policy of the United States National

Student Association. Washington, D. C.: National Student Association,
1967-68

V//Cosse, Margaret V. The Suburban Weekly. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1928.

Dobriner, William M. Class in Suburbia. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-
Hall, Inc., 1963.

, ed. The Suburban Community. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1958.

Donaldson, Scott. The Suburban Myth. New York: Columbia University Press,
1969.

Harris, Emerson P., and Hooke, Florence Harris. The Community New5paper:
Its Promise and Development. New York: 0. Appleton and Company, 1923.

 

V// Janowitz, Morris. The Comminity Press in an Urban Settingi_ Glencoe, Ill.:
The Free Press, 1952.

Nixon, Raymond 8. "Trends in U. S. Newpaper Ownership: Concentration With
Competition." Mass Media and Society. Alan Wells, ed. Palo Alto, Calif.:
National Press Books, 1972, pp. 11-16.

Osborn, Frederic J., and Whittick, Arnold. The New Towns: The Answer to
Megalopolis. Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1963.

 

Research & Policy Committee for Economic Development. Guiding_Metropolitan
Growth. New York: U.S. Government, 1960.

 

Schnore, Leo. F. The Urban Scene: Human Ecology and Demography. New York:
The Free Press, 1965.

L// Sim, John Cameron. The Grass Roots Press: America's Community Newspapers.
Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, 1969.

95

96

Sobin, Dennis P. The Future of the American Suburbs: Survival--or
Extinction? Port Washington, N. Y.: Kennikat Press. 1971.

 

 

Suburban Newspaper Research Center. Measurement of Suburban Newspaper
Readers and Their Households. Chicago: Suburban Newspaper Research
Center, 1974.

 

 

Towar, James 0. History of the City of East Lansing. East Lansing,
Mich.: East Lansing Public Library, 1933.

 

U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Census Tract,
Lansing, Michigan, Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, 1972.

 

 

Vernon, Raymond. Metropolis, 1985. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1960.

 

Wood, Robert C. Suburbia: Its People and Their Politics. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958.

 

ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS

DeMott, John. "Behavior Models for the Editor." Nieman Reports.
December, 1969, pp. 21-24.

 

Eberhard, Wallace B. "Daily Newspaper Starts and Suspensions, 1960-69.“
Journalism Quarterly. Spring, 1975, ppl 117-20.

 

Friedman, Rick. "Journey' Into Suburbia." Editor and Publisher.
January 13, 1962, p. 50.

 

Manis, Jerome G., and Stine, Leo C. "Suburban Residence and Political
Behavior." Public Opinion Quarterly. Winter, 1958, pp. 483-9.

 

NEWSPAPERS

Fifth Anniversary Edition, East Lansing Towne Courier.
November 14, 1962.

 

East Lansing Towne Courier. July 10 to December 5, 1974.

 

Michigan State University State News. July 10 to December 5, 1974.

 

UNPUBLISHED WORKS

Haight, William. A Study of Michigan Weekly Newspapers and Their
Publishers: "Country Weeklies" Compared With Suburban Weeklies.
Individual Research Project submitted to the Department of Sociology
and Anthropology, Michigan State University, for classroom credit.
August, 1958.

97

Miller, Boyd L. The Effects of Suburbanization on Detroit's Metropolitan
Newspapers. Master's Thesis, Michigan State University, 1965.

 

SPEECHES
Neuharth, Allen H. President and chief executive officer, Gannett Co.,Inc.
Speech to the National Newspaper Association convention, Toronto,
Canada, July 26, 1974.
INTERVIEWS

Ross, Mrs. Dorothy. Office and credit manager, Michigan State University
State News, June 3, 1975.

 

CORRESPONDENCE

Caron, Albert W., Jr. American Newspaper Publishers Association News-
paper Information Service, Letter to author, February 4, 1975.

"1.1111111111111"VIII