The struggling Herald American will keep going — as a tabloid
The front-page announcement was brief: "Good morning. You'll be getting a new newspaper Sunday." Thus the Boston Herald American (circ. 209,128 and falling) last week ended speculation that it was about to fold. Despite heavy pressure from the bulging Boston Globe (circ. 502,920), the Herald American is optimistically pushing on. Says Publisher James Dorris: "We're giving the people of Boston and New England something they want, a compact, easy-reading, lively newspaper for the '80s."
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 commands more than two-thirds of the city's daily newspaper readership and three-quarters of its advertising. Indeed, in recent months the entire Sunday Herald American was often outweighed by the Globe's classified ad section alone.
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.
The 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. Near by, the 106-year-old Delaware County Times converted itself last June 15 from a 25¢ afternoon broadsheet (circ. 39,000) to a 10¢ morning tabloid. In just ten weeks, circulation has risen to 49,000 and advertising linage has increased an estimated 10¢ over last year.