Grit is a magazine, once a weekly newspaper, popular in rural America for most of the 20th century. It carries the subtitle "America's Largest Family Newspaper". In the early 1930s, they targeted small and rural towns with 14 pages plus fictional supplements. By 1932, it had a circulation of 425,000 in 48 states, and 83% of its circulation was in cities of less than 10,000 inhabitants.
Video Grit (newspaper)
Histori
This publication was founded in 1882 as a Saturday edition of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Sun Daily and Banner. In 1885, the name was purchased for $ 1,000 by 25-year-old German immigrant Dietrick Lamade (pronounced Lam'-a-dee), who established a 4,000 circulation during the first year.
Lamade was born February 6, 1859, in GÃÆ'¶lshausen, Germany, one of nine children from Johannes Dietrick and Caroline Stuepfle Lamade. The family moved to Williamsport in 1867, where Johannes died of typhoid fever on January 1, 1869. To support his family, Dietrick, his sister, and his older brother quit school. At the age of ten, Dietrick began working as a boy, earning a $ 3 weekly salary at the local German language office, Beobachter (literally Observer), when he was 13.
At 18, Lamade began printing a theater program and a four-page advertising brochure, Merchant Free Press . In the summer of 1880, he did Camp News for the Pennsylvania National Guard, and he married the following year. In 1882, Lamade became the advertising composer and assistant foreman of the room for Sun Daily and Banner, and in the same year, Grit began as a Saturday edition of the paper, sorted by Lamade. He left Daily Sun in 1884 to launch the weekly Times as the daily, but the finances and health of the owner caused Times to stop publishing. With two children and no work, Lamade, 25, becomes a publisher. Working with two partners, he bought the Times equipment plus the name Grit and goodwill. During his first year, he increased the circulation of Grit ' to 4,000. He operated from a third floor single room, moved to a store location in 1886, building a weekly circulation of 20,000 in 1887.
With a rapid expansion, the Remington typewriter's cart was shipped to Grit's offices in 1892. In 1894, a member of the art department was a 16-year-old CW Kahles, who later became known as the creator of the old comic strip < i> Hairbreadth Harry .
Grit showcases news and features aimed at rural America, and rises to 100,000 weekly circulation in 1900, following editorial policies outlined by Lamade during a dinner for employees 'Grit' :
Always keep Grit from being pessimistic. Avoid printing things that disturb the reader's mind or make them feel at odds with the world. Avoid showing the wrong side, or making people feel dissatisfied. Do not do anything that will encourage fear, worry, or temptation... If possible, suggest peace and goodwill toward men. Give the courage and strength of our readers to their everyday tasks. Make happy thoughts, passion, and satisfaction in their hearts.
While introducing innovations such as newsboy delivery nationwide and direct mail, Lamade expanded its content to incorporate news, human interest articles, comic strips (sometimes filling ten pages), puzzles and serials in fictional supplements ("Grit Story Section"). Circulation reached 300,000 in 1916.
Maps Grit (newspaper)
Little League Sales and newsboy
Grit is a well-known newspaper in small towns throughout the US for more than a century. By the time of his 50th birthday in 1932, 400,000 people bought newspapers every week, increasing to 500,000 in 1934. Lamade retired in 1936, and died October 10, 1938. His son, George R. Lamade, became publisher and editor, with grandchild Howard Lamade, Jr. serving as a production manager of Grit '. George Lamade committed suicide in August 1965.
The other son, Howard J. Lamade, is vice president, and also serves as a top executive with the Little Baseball League, helping to build it into a national institution. The main stadium used for the Small League World Series was built on land donated by the Lamade family, and it was named Howard J. Lamade Stadium in his memory. Grit went to tabloid format in 1944.
During the first three quarters of the 20th century, Grit was sold nationwide by children and adolescents, many recruited by advertisements in comic books from the 1940s through the 1970s. About 30,000 children collected dimes from more than 700,000 American small town homes during the 1950s when the publication still carried subtitles, "The Greatest American Family Newsletter." Comic ads in the Richie Rich comic book that aims to recruit more young sellers, shows that Richie's father, Richard Rich, started his career as an entrepreneur selling Grit .
Content
In the 1940s, the newspaper was divided into five different sections "for easy handling and reading." For example, the 44-page issue for Sunday, January 1, 1950, is divided as follows:
- News section (12 pages)
- Women's section (8 pages)
- Family section (4 pages)
- Comics section (4 pages)
- Story Section (16 pages)
Section News, featuring a dramatic one-page title, "Atomic Energy Provides Human Tools of Death or Good Life," followed by human stories, coverage of "1949 in Review," "Foreigners Instead of Fiction" columns and international news pages. More than a few photos focused on unusual road accidents.
Women's section includes fashion and recipe features, along with stories about home plants, new gadgets and how to throw a tea party. The Family section displays jokes, puzzles and pages "Weird, Odd and Curious" with stories about subjects like the two-headed turtle and the world's largest collection of cigarette lighters. The Story section opens with the first installment of the "Ring Out the Old" series by Mary Hastings Bradley and includes "Modern Parables", a series by Fulton Oursler, author of The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Comics
The Comic section for January 1, 1950, brought the following Sunday comics in black and white: Chic Young's
A few years later, Grit reduced the number of pages from 44 to 40, and switched from five parts to four by combining comic strips and picture stories into one piece. In this format, strips are scattered with one strip used as a design element to reduce the monotony of many gray columns of story text.
Charlie Walker, writing in the Feb. 16, 2000, issue of The News (Kingstree, South Carolina), describes the 1956 problem:
- A few weeks ago, Leo Barrineau, who lives in Barrineau Crossroads, called me. His son, Steve, as he overhauled the church at Broad Swamp, found the 1956 Grit newspaper on the church walls. When it comes to old newspapers, old photos and old LPs, I do not need Viagra to change me. This Grit was published January 1, 1956. It contained 40 pages and it cost a dime. So go to Twilight Zone Express. Put your memory in reverse, and together, we'll remember it that way. The backyard of the 44-year-old newspaper recalls the dramatic events of 1955. The polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. The first atomic-powered submarine, Nautilus, was launched. In 1955, Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series. Oklahoma is the # 1 college football team in the country.
- Bennett Cerf writes a column for Grit . The funnies include Blondie, Joe Palooka, The Lone Ranger, Donald Duck and Henry. >>. There are crosswords and serials, a murder mystery called, Tell him it is murder . This copy of Grit contains chapters 29 and last. The first Grit in 1956 also contains predictions for the coming year. Unicycle will be the number one sport of the summer of 1956. And the TV program that will replace the $ 64,000 Questions will be one called Can You Trust Your Wife? And in 1956 as today, doctors still can not cure common cold. Grit carries a full-page ad that offers a seven-cent Valentine card. Grit also carries ads for Sinclair Gasoline. (Willie Munn operates the Sinclair station on the main street corner and Jackson on Kingstree.) Grit recruits operators to sell their papers. You can create 4 Ã, Â ¢ for each paper you sell.
Grit is a pioneer in offset printing recognition. This was one of the first newspapers in the US to run color photos, with the first colorful image (from the American flag) appearing on the front page in June, 1963. At its peak in 1969, Grit weekly circulation of 1.5 million copies.
The Lamade family owned Grit for nearly 100 years, but in 1981, ADVO-System, Inc. from Hartford, Connecticut bought the newspaper. In 1983, Grit was purchased by Stauffer Communications, Inc. from Topeka, Kansas, which already has Capri's Weekly, the national tabloids are also marketed to rural and small towns, although mostly in the Great Plains and Midwestern states.
From Williamsport to Topeka
In 1992, Grit left Williamsport after 111 years and moved his office to Topeka. At that time, Roberta Peterson was the editor-in-chief of Grit and also Best Recipes , a sparkling two-month magazine that grew into the top 10 national food titles. Peterson left the group for Senior Editor position at Meredith Corporation ( Better House and Garden Ladies Home Journal ) in 1995, at the time of the magazine's double sales group - first to Morris Communications, and not long afterwards in the same year, to Ogden Publications. At that time, publishing Best Recipes was suspended.
For decades Grit has published a national edition, Pennsylvania edition (sold in Keystone State, featuring mostly Pennsylvania related stories) and local editions. The local edition is the Sunday newspaper for Williamsport and Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, and is distributed in 13 other districts in central-north Pennsylvania as well; The National Edition basically serves as its magazine. This edition ceased publication in the early 1990s, where the Williamsport Sun Gazette began producing the Sunday edition. Michael R. Rafferty, then a member of the city council and mayor of Williamsport (2000-2004), is the original native-born Williamsporter serving as editor of the national and city editions of Grit, leaving Grit in 1991. He served as editor of Webb Weekly , a Williamsport publication with a similar approach to Grit ' from 2004 to 2013 when he retired from journalism after 30 years.
In 1995, Morris Communications Corporation purchased Stauffer Communications, providing Morris with 32 daily newspapers in 13 states when adding 20 Stauffer newspapers, including its flagship Stauffer, Topeka Capital-Journal. President Morris, Paul S. Simon said he intends to sell Stauffer's broadcasting division, including 11 stations and several radio networks, and the Stauffer Magazine Group, which includes Grit,
Later that year, Grit and Cappers were acquired by Ogden Publications. Grit , which has been up to now every two weeks, then edited by Kathryn Compton as monthly under the heading "The Story of American Life & Tradition." Other Ogden publications include American Life & amp; Tradition , Agricultural Collector , Mother Earth News and Utne Reader .
Beginning with the September 2006 edition, Grit converted to a full-fledged, perfect, and bi-monthly full-magazine format. Edged editorial policies include more contemporary rural emphasis on content, rather than nostalgic themes in the preceding decade. With print prints of 150,000 and Time Warner as national newspaper kiosk distributors, Grit is displayed and sold at public news kiosk outlets, book stores and livestock feed stores and specialty supply stores, including Tractor Supply Company.
References
Source
- Larson, Robert H.; Morris, Richard J.; Piper, Jr., John F. (1984). Williamsport: Frontier Village to Regional Center (first edition). Woodland Hills, California: Windsor Publications. ISBN: 0-89781-110-0.
Note: Chapter 8 by Joseph P. Laver, Jr. has a "Grit Publishing Company" on page 180.
CS1 maint: Many names: list of authors (links)
External links
- Official website
- Meginness, John F. Lycoming County Pennsylvania History , 1892.
- Pennsylvania Inside Out ; third segment displays history Grit
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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