31st in a series
By Curtis Leeds
Competition within the media was heating up 75 years ago. As today, it was driven by changing technology.
The media landscape of 75 years ago was a simple one. It consisted of print publications - daily and weekly newspapers and magazines - and commercial radio, which was then in its infancy. Radio was battling especially with newspapers for attention and advertisers. The first radio networks sprang up in 1930 and were up and running to cover the Crime of the Century - the kidnapping of the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh in 1932.
Because of the Lindberghs' fame, the public clamored for news about the crime, making it the perfect story for radio. The new medium could deliver frequent updates, even when there wasn't any real news to report. According to the New York Times, almost 700 news bulletins about the crime were broadcast within the first three days of the kidnapping from the Lindbergh home in East Amwell.
Radio's wall-to-wall coverage of the crime and its aftermath infuriated many of the print journalists of the era, some of whom criticized radio reporters for sensationalizing the story. Newspapers fought for their own preservation, and many argued that the wire services existed to serve them, not radio. A deal would eventually be reached between the two sides, with broadcasters agreeing to limit the time they'd allot to news. It would be a short-lived agreement.
Will Rogers, who in his time was the equivalent of Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jon Stewart all rolled into one, knew where his loyalties were. The man who claimed to have never met a man he didn't like sided with newspapers, and especially with weekly newspapers.
Editors of small-town papers were representative of the country, opined Mr. Rogers, who was quoted in the Democrat 75 years ago. "Intelligent, well read," he said, and they had an advantage over their big-city brethren. "No national advertising controls their pages," he said.
And Mr. Rogers thought local editors had another advantage because, "They are not conceited enough to think they mold public opinion. They just go along and service their community with the most indispensable articles that it has. And yet their real power is greater than all your metropolitan dailies combined."
Mr. Rogers' famous saying, "All I know is what I read in the papers" doesn't reveal his penchant for weekly newspapers. In the Democrat, Mr. Rogers made the preference clear in his typical folksy style. "Any well-read person that don't read at least one well-written country newspaper is not truly informed," he said. Of course, the belief reinforced Mr. Rogers' own self-interest: his syndicated newspaper columns were published in hundreds of papers.
Mr. Rogers didn't stake his future solely on newspapers, however. By 1935, his Sunday night radio program would become one of the top-rated programs of the country. Because he was also a popular stage and film star, Mr. Rogers was arguably the "King of All Media" of his time.
Eleven reprinted Democrats from 1932 and 1935 are available as a boxed set at the offices of the Democrat. They cover the Lindbergh kidnapping and the Hauptmann trial, and also illuminate the lifestyle of Hunterdon residents 75 years ago. The set costs $29.95 plus tax and shipping. Call 782-4747 ext. 603 for details.