Workers' Graphic

While a torrent of gold poured in through his magazines, Publisher Bernarr Macfadden could afford to ignore the rivulets which trickled out through his unprofitable Manhattan tabloid Evening Graphic. But Macfadden Publications Inc.. which earned $1,839,000 in 1928, earned only $1,395,000 in 1930.* Few months ago Publisher Macfadden, for the first time, turned his personal attention to the Graphic, which has never made money since he started it in 1924.

One evening last week he called together the 420 Graphic employes in the auditorium of the Graphic building, told them that in eight years he had put some $7,500,000 into the paper, that he could no longer indulge in such a luxury; that if they wanted to insure permanence of their jobs they would do well to buy stock in the paper, now to be offered.

Employes were to pay $25 a share by having 10% to 25% deducted from their salaries. (All employes except unionized mechanical crews had been cut 10% already.) Unlike the Hearst and Scripps-Howard plans of employe participation, Publisher Macfadden's proposition invited employes to buy actual control of the Graphic. As soon as 50,000 of the total 100,000 shares are subscribed and paid for, all stock automatically becomes voting stock. Instead of subscribing for a specified number of shares, Graphic employes signed authority to have their pay garnisheed for an unstated period, presumably until they shall have acquired the paper.

Within three days all but about 15 employes were said to have signed the lists. Many undoubtedly accepted the proposal as a pay cut in disguise. Others may have elected to subscribe to a losing company for fear of losing their jobs. But some there were who believed the Graphic gave promise of becoming a moneymaker when it lives down its reputation as "the porno-Graphic."

Shortly after Publisher Macfadden took personal charge last spring he installed as publisher Edgar M. Alexander, advertising manager of the late New York Worlds, onetime vice president and advertising director of Hearst's American. More recently he hired as general manager bright, clean-cut Ralph Nicholson, 33, who studied economics at Harvard, worked for Scripps-Howard and for the genteel Curtis-Martin papers. Manager Nicholson's first act was to clean up the paper. Still blatantly sensational, the Graphic no longer flaunts sexy news stories and headlines. Reports of extra-marital philandering, except as matters of court record, are eschewed. Forbidden are headlines not definitely substantiated by stories. Near-nudes which used to adorn the front page of the Saturday gravure have been supplanted by chaste heads-&-shoulders-in a recent issue those of Alfred Emanuel Smith. Composographs (faked pictures) are permanently outlawed. Photographs of dead bodies must not be "horrible." Fiction serials are still as sexy as those of the average tabloid. Sample title: "The Chastity of Gloria Boyd."

Second result, important to stockholders: Adman Alexander was enabled by the improved content to bring in advertisers who theretofore had shunned the Graphic so thoroughly that it trailed the field of all Manhattan & Brooklyn dailies. Last week the Graphic proudly announced a gain over last year of 9.6% display advertising for May while all other Manhattan tabloids & evening papers showed losses.

*1931 Statement not yet published.

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