The Press: Chicago's War of the Losers

In addition to its other distinctions, Chicago has traditionally been a terrific newspaper town, with lively dailies rolling out breathless new editions all day long. As Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur related in The Front Page, competition among Chicago papers in the 1920s was fierce—and sometimes violent. Today's newspaper battle is less bloody but scarcely less frantic. Circulation campaigns are fought with radio and TV spots instead of hired toughs, and an exclusive is more often a series of sober public service articles about mental health than a blaring bannerline scoop...