The Press: Wilkes-Barre Experiment

Since October 1, 1938, when Newspaper Guildsmen walked out on city-wide strike, no daily newspaper has been published in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., a coal-mining and silk-weaving city whose retail stores serve about 300,000 persons. Deprived of their No. 1 advertising medium, the five biggest Wilkes-Barre stores have distributed a weekly "Shoppers Bulletin" to 73,000 homes. (Total circulation of the dormant evening News, Times-Leader and morning Record: 73,000.) Smaller stores have combined to publish a 24-page tabloid "Buyers Guide" with about 53.000 circulation, which also takes paid classified ads. By agreement, no local merchant is advertising in Scranton and other out-of-town newspapers sold...

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