Monday, May. 21, 1945

Far & Fast

The newest thing in newspapers is a Buck Rogerish fantasy come true. It is a four-page, pictureless, adless New York Times -- containing much of the News That's Fit to Print, distilled from the Times' s regular 32 to 40 pages. It crosses the country by wirephoto, at the speed of 20 minutes a half page, and delegates to the San Francisco conference read it at breakfast.

As a printing job, the baby Times is a good bit greyer than the good, grey mother Times. It has had its production troubles : one night the paper was held up because a motorcycle messenger, rushing the wire-photos to the printers in Richmond, Calif., was arrested for speeding -- and spent part of the night in jail. There have been com- petitive squawks: the San Francisco Chronicle protested the Times's use of A.P. wirephoto for the Times's private benefit. Facsimile also has posed a leading question: what good is an expensive local A.P. franchise if other publishers with A.P. news can muscle in from afar? (While making up its mind about these issues, the A.P. let the Times go ahead with its experiment.) It costs the Times about $1,000 a day to pass out 2,000 free copies a day to conference delegates. In return, the Times is getting a lot of good will, and some prac tical experience toward fulfilling its claim to be a national newspaper (it has always feared that quality would be diffused in chain publishing). Encouraged by the success of their experiment, Times editors are speculating right out loud that the Times, by facsimile transmission, could keep its Manhattan integrity while distributing late news in such faraway spots as Boston, Chicago, Kansas City.

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