When the New York Worlds were bought by Scripps-Howard, all Manhattan publishers began to scramble for pieces of the late World circulation (TIME, March 9 et seq.). Last week suggestions of who got what pieces of the World pic were found in publishers' statements for the first six-month period since the change, compared with Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the same period (April-October) of last year. If the World pie had been the only source of increased circulation for other papers since last year, the slices went like this:
Morning & Sunday Pie & Pieces Present Totals WORLDS 339.323 PIE American 102,297 442,774 Times 39,791 499,937 Herald Tribune 32,565 344,424 Mirror† 84.301 585,502 News 46,424 1,402,259 Lost crumbs 33,945
Evening Pie & Pieces Present Totals
WORLD 276,267
World-Telegram ... 176,597 413,178
Journal 16,212 645,366
Post 1,779 Loss 100,833
Sun 5,423 Loss 293,368
Graphic 17,518 Loss 262,721
Lost crumbs 108,178
In all probability the gains of World-Telegram, Times and Herald Tribune were definitely World pie pieces. Some of the gains made by Hearst's American came from the same source; but much was due to a costly Hearst promotion campaign which should have brought results under any circumstances.
The impressive gain made by the tabloid Mirror could hardly be accounted for by former World readers. And it is a question whether Hearst's evening Journal drew more of its new readers from the late Evening World or the vulgar tabloid Graphic.
Clear it is, however, that 142,123 circulation was lost in the shuffle—33,945 from the morning & Sunday field, 108,178 from the evening.
Death Business
Every year in the U. S. approximately 1.386,000 persons die; an average of 3,800 every day. To prepare these dead for burial there are 30,000 funeral directors & embalmers. There are 20 embalming colleges, an army of makers & sellers of hearses, caskets, embalming tables, embalming fluids & cosmetics, deodorants, artificial wreaths & grasses, grave markers, white gloves, folding chairs. The past month was an important one for that industry and its press: important for the industry because it witnessed a large number of regional conventions, culminating last week in the Golden Jubilee Convention of the National Funeral Directors' Association in Detroit; important for its press because there was big news to be reported and because of the advent of a new magazine, Mortuary Digest, published in Los Angeles by Fred Witman.
Dominance of the mortuary press is disputed by two magazines, The American Funeral Director (edited by able Albert R. Kate) and Casket & Sunny side (whose editor Harry J. Daniels died two months ago) each claiming close to 9,000 circulation. Runner-up in size is Embalmers' Monthly. Lesser voices are Undertakers Journal (Chicago), Southern Funeral Director (Atlanta) and Mortuary Management (San Francisco). Publisher Witman of the new magazine formerly edited Mortuary Management, was looked upon with disfavor as a "radical"' by many conservative morticians.