Word: akerson
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...Every time they opened a new superhighway," said George Akerson, publisher of the Boston Traveler, "we got kicked in the teeth. If you go home on a train, you read a newspaper...
...Akerson also faced a problem that is rare in U.S. cities these days: plenty of rival newspapers. Three newspapers are published in Boston each morning, and three competed with the Traveler in the afternoon. No fewer than four separate managements cranked out 19 editions each weekday. Overcome by it all, Akerson announced last week that the Trav- eler will stop its presses for good on July 10, after 142 years of uninterrupted publication...
...Once the Boston paper, the Herald now trails the morning Globe (circ. 231,300) by 77,000 copies, while the Traveler, which held a 74,500 lead over the afternoon Globe in 1947, had fallen a few thousand copies behind. "We found increasing difficulty in the p.m. field," said Akerson. "In the afternoon you're fighting against the tide." Both papers were losing money, but the Traveler's losses made up the bulk of the total, which began in 1962 at about $150,000 and rose to well over $1,000,000 last year...
...former Herald Publisher Robert Choate considered selling out to the Globe, then changed his mind. Akerson, then the Herald-Traveler's assistant publisher, joined forces with Choate and newspaper and magazine distributor Harry Garfinkle, largest Herald-Traveler stockholder, to head off the sale. Moving up to the publisher's office, Akerson hired a science and medicine expert, expanded regional coverage, removed ads from the front page and hired new, younger reporters. He reversed the Traveler's circulation decline, but he never managed to eliminate a pollyanna tone that blunted the paper's point and pertinence. Says...
...Akerson will combine the best of the Herald and Traveler staffs, prune the deadwood, plow back savings in production and distribution costs into a new morning paper, which will be called the Herald Traveler. By consolidating and improving the product, Akerson hopes he will have a better chance of competing with the Globe for Boston's advertising dollars...