Word: tabloid
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Translation: the Hearst-owned daily had run out of options. The Herald American was formed in 1972 when Hearst's racy Boston tabloid, the Record American, absorbed the city's staid, 125-year-old blue-blood bible, the Herald Traveler. The new paper never caught on. Combining the mismatched styles of the papers it subsumed, the Herald American alienated former readers of both by, for example, running weighty political analysis side by side with reports of steamy sex crimes. Circulation, at first 371,664, fell steadily; losses are now estimated to be $10 million a year. The Globe...
Hearst's return to the tabloid format is a desperate, but plausible, effort to survive. The tabloid style, first practiced successfully in the U.S. by the New York Daily News (founded in 1919) and currently being carried to its irrational extreme by the New York Post under Rupert Murdoch, was modeled on Fleet Street's screaming dailies. The main features: short, punchy stories, heavy illustration, emphasis on sex, crime and gossip, and a smaller size for the harried, hurried commuter...
...form has matured, and among the two dozen or so surviving U.S. daily tabloids are some solid journalistic entries. Long Island's Newsday (circ. 503,336) provides a well-rounded package of original reporting and features to a large, densely populated suburban area. In Chicago, the Sun-Times (circ. 661, 531) is known for investigative reporting: last week it broke the Cardinal Cody story. Two recent entries indicate there may be life in the old format yet. In Philadelphia, the Journal (circ. 109,622), founded in 1977, is gaining a foothold with a sprightly mix of sports and gossip...
None of these examples was lost on the Herald American's managers, who reportedly considered the tabloid option for a year before choosing it. If the Globe, one of the nation's best newspapers, can thrive by providing first-rate coverage, the Herald American hopes to prove there is a down-scale market for something less serious and more entertaining. Predicts Dorris: "We're going to produce a paper that is a pleasure to read, not a chore." Adds Editor Donald Forst: "The new Herald American is going to be a reader's paper, with...
Others were not so sure. Said Frank McCulloch, executive editor of McClatchy Newspapers: "Dominance, once achieved, is very hard to overcome. The Globe is so dominant, it does not make much difference what the Herald does." Worse, Boston's new tabloid may not have very long to make the formula work. Last, week the Boston Globe reported that Herald Advertising Director Robert Lange told the paper's advertisers in July that the Hearst Corp. will give the paper just 3½ months to prove it can make it; otherwise it will be shut down. That report was followed...