St. Louis Blues

The Globe-Democrat bows out

There was barely a murmur of forebod-- among the 200 employees of the Louis Globe-Democrat when they were summoned to the paper's seedy fifth-floor conference room. One reporter had signed a $70,000 mortgage note on his way to work; some colleagues speculated mat the meeting would concern a charity drive Seemingly, no one was prepared tor the announcement from Publisher O. Duncan Bauman: "The Globe-Democrat will print its final edition Dec 31 ending 131 years of daily publication "

The loss of the Globe-Democrat will leave metropolitan St. Louis (pop. 1 8 mil lion) with only one regional newspaper, the 105-year-old Post-Dispatch. It will also shrink to 50 the number of U.S. cities with independency owned, editorially competitive dailies. The failure defied several newspaper-industry rules of thumb: the morning Globe-Democrat (daily circ 255,000) is bigger than the afternoon Post-Dispatch (daily circ. 230,000); it is published at what is considered a more advantageous time of day; and it is, at least in terms of local coverage, the better paper Nonetheless, the economic calculations behind last week's announcement were compelling. To its owners, Missouri's oldest daily was worth more dead than alive.

The conservative Globe-Democrat owned by the giant (27 dailies) Newhouse chain and the liberal Post-Dispatch flagship of the Pulitzer group, are editorially separate. But they share advertising, circulation and business staffs under one of 24 newspaper joint operating agreements (JOA) approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. The papers also pool their profits except that there have been no profits for four of the past five years. Moreover Newhouse executives saw little prospect of improvement, and even less that the community-minded Pulitzer family would close the Post-Dispatch.

But under the terms of the JOA, if either paper were to shut down, its owners would share profits for 50 years in the surviving daily, a potentially lucrative monopoly Last summer, after negotiations, the Newhouse and Pulitzer interests applied secretly for Justice Department approval of a collaborative shutdown of the Globe-Democrat. They won it last week.

As word of the unorthodox financial arrangement spread among Globe-Democrat staffers, some denounced the deal as a violation of the spirit of antitrust legislation. Yet the plan appeared to be legal For the record, the Newhouse chain was compelled to offer the Globe-Democrat for sale last week, and the Justice Department then obtained the names of more than a dozen potential buyers. Assistant Attorney General William Baxter stipulated: "If one or more satisfactory expressions of interest are received before 5:30 p.m. on Nov 22, a reasonable opportunity will be provided by Newhouse and Pulitzer to negotiate the purchase of the Globe-Democrat before it is discontinued." A sale, however, would place the newspaper outside the joint operating agreement. Few observers expect any serious offer, for the paper would have no ensured means of printing and no substantial assets except its name and staff.

Samuel I. Newhouse bought the Globe-Democrat in 1955 from Edward Lansing Ray, a third-generation owner who hoped that his successor would preserve the paper's combative Republicanism and independence. Although Newhouse bargained away the building and passes to the Post-Dispatch in 1959 and began to pool profits with his ri val two years later, he and his heirs have endorsed local editorial control, and the paper's strident voice has been retained: cartoons depict Communist leaders with hands dripping blood; editorials have termed U.S. District Judge William Hungate, who ordered citywide school desegregation, "Attila the Hungate "

Despite its ferocity, the Globe-Democrat has won grudging general respect. Said Post-Dispatch Publisher Joseph Pulitzer Jr., whose paper was a frequent target: "The Globe-Democrat has teen a vigorous news source and a spirited defender of its values." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.