New York World Journal Tribune: Difference between revisions
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==Notes== |
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==External links== |
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*[http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/newyork.htm WJT clipping reference archive] |
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[[Category:Defunct New York City newspapers]] |
[[Category:Defunct New York City newspapers]] |
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Revision as of 08:57, 12 January 2009
| Type | evening daily |
|---|---|
| Format | broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | World Journal Tribune, Inc. |
| Publisher | Matt Meyer |
| Editor | Frank Coniff |
| Founded | September 12, 1966 |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | May 5, 1967 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, US |
The New York World Journal Tribune, also known as the World-Journal-Tribune, and nicknamed "The Widget" from the initials of its long and unwieldy name, was a newspaper published in New York City from September 1966 until May 1967. The World Journal Tribune represented an attempt to save the heritages of several historic New York City newspapers by merging them together into a consolidated newspaper.
Background
The late 1940s and the 1950s were a troubled time for newspapers throughout North America. Newspapers had acquired a new competitor for the eyes and ears of the nation, television. Competition from radio and magazines for the news audience also continued unabated. The market for evening papers in particular was affected by television and by the suburban lifestyle, but all papers were affected by it. The New York media market was by far the nation's largest at the time (by an even larger margin than it is currently) and had by far the most daily newspapers. Mergers had been ongoing for several years. In the 1960s the market got even more competitive, forcing the closure of the Hearst Corporation-owned New York Daily Mirror in 1963. The newspaper industry was struggling with financial troubles by the mid-1960s and had warned their unions – some of the more militant in the city at that time – that they could not survive yet another strike strike following devastating walk-outs in 1962–1963 and 1965.
Merger
In April 1966, in an attempt to avoid closing down, the Scripps-Howard owned New York World-Telegram and Sun merged with the New York Journal American and Hearst's New York Herald Tribune to become the New York World Journal Tribune, an evening broadsheet newspaper which would rely on newsstand sales to survive.[1]
The management of the merged paper told their employees that to succeed the new enterprise would need concessions from the unions, but the unions, upset that several thousand workers were planned to be laid-off, demanded their own concessions from management.[1] The result of the impasse was a 140 day strike[2] which delayed the debut of the new paper until September 12, 1966.
Closing
The World Journal Tribune never became economically viable, and it ceased to exist eight months later, on May 5, 1967. During its short life, the paper never opened a Washington bureau, and did not have any foreign correspondents on its staff,[2] relying instead on the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service for foreign coverage.[1]
The folding of the WJT left the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post as the only daily English-language general circulation newspapers in New York City for many years, when in 1900 there had been fifteen.[3][4] Of the three remaining papers, only the first was a broadsheet with a reputation for quality journalism, the other two were tabloids which often lived up to their reputation for sensationalism.
One survivor of the demise of the World Journal Tribune was New York magazine, which began as the Sunday supplement for the Herald Tribune and continued after the merger as the supplement for the WJT. After the newspaper folded, the editor of New York, Clay Felker bought the rights to the title with partners and brought it out as a glossy magazine.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c "New Show, Old Cast" Time magazine (22 April 1966)
- ^ a b Schneider, Daniel B. "F.Y.I." New York Times (19 January 1997)
- ^ Tifft, Susan E. & Jones, Alex S. The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times Boston: Back Bay, 2000. ISBN 0316836311 Google Books
- ^ The end of World Journal Tribune represented the end also of all the predecessor newspapers that had previously been absorbed by the three papers that merged, including the Advertiser, the American, the Evening Telegram, the Herald, the Journal, the Press, the Sun, Tribune and the World. Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. ISBN 0300055366