State

EXTRA! EXTRA! Stories about newspapers anil newspapermen, and reason¬ able facsimiles therof. By PAUL PLEASANT Wonder what newspaper in North Carolina got out the last "extra"? Even small-town dailies (and a few week¬ lies) got out several extras most years until the radio made them superflu¬ ous. We always got out one for the World Series games, heavyweight championship boxing matches, and na¬ tional elections. For these, you could get all set, and people expected them. The exciting ones were issued for extraordinary news — the death of a president, war or a calamity. Wc issued an extra when the "first” big hurricane hit Florida in 1926 with the loss of 372 lives. That was big news, but it was overmatched by the big storm two years later. There were extras on the Lindbergh flight, the false armistice, and other such international news. Few- local stories were considered impor¬ tant enough for an extra, but wc got one out on the Smith Reynolds killing in Winston-Salem. Kill it was difficult to com¬ pletely surprise even a small town. The newspapers posted wire copy- on bulletin boards out front, and word of anything sensational spread rapidly through town via the telephone and word of mouth. However, this only whetted the ap¬ petite of people for the news and did not hurt sale of extras. When a big story broke like that, somebody in the circulation depart¬ ment would have to go out and round up some newsboys, for few of their families had telephones. I recall sitting around in the pressroom waiting for the papers to come out, shivering with excitement. In such occasions, others on the staff sold papers, too. Even (think of it!) reporters. When Presi¬ dent Harding died in 1923 I was read¬ ing proof, but was happy to borrow a car and take a thousand extras to Lexington and Thomasville. hawking them from the car. One of the chills this generation will never know is to wake in the middle of the night and hear the cry of EXTRA! EXTRA! coming closer and closer. And to hear Mama say: "Pa! Wake up! Listen. I be¬ lieve it’s an extra. Sh! It IS an extra!" and then the whole family would get up. a lantp would be lighted, and Pa would hand one of the kids a nickel and tell him to run down and meet the boy and get a paper. And you'd run back, shouting the news before getting to the house: "Pancho Villa killed 17 Americans!” An extra was always EOS news (Ex¬ traordinary Service). Under rules of the Associated Press, a newspaper member was required to notify its com¬ petitor of an EOS flash and deliver copies of all EOS bulletins to him. This meant that a morning paper could not completely scoop its afternoon rival on extraordinary service. But this was in theory only. Unless the afternoon paper editor was expecting the news (such as the landing of Lindbergh), he didn't have much chance. By the time the morning editor had gotten around to calling him, the morning paper had a head start on the extra. Besides that, the paper getting the bul¬ letin over its wires naturally already had its mechanical staff at work, whereas the rival had to round up a crew. By the time they got down to the shop, the extra usually was on the street. I don’t recall a competing paper ever getting out an extra on un¬ expected news except when it broke "in their time." Circulation Grows In spite of all the talk about com¬ petition for the readers* time, North Carolina newspapers continue to gain circulation. In the 12 months ended March 31. 1962, four of the news¬ papers in the six largest cities showed losses, and they were slight. In the case of Charlotte, losses may be at¬ tributed to a price increase. Largest numerical gain was made by the “Charlotte Sunday Observer.” The figures: Increase or AUw'Ulc Ml-tl >31-62 Dnr-iu Citizen <M> . ... lime. (E) - M M Ml — _ . 39.241 . 24,559 « » u'l 39.979 24.475 56.995 162.310 62,748 185.465 15 599 + 738 — 84 + 918 -1.120 -1.509 + 3.13* i. 51 « »unua> . . (iirloilf Obiirvcr (M) . New» (El . Сиг! % v M— •- H.U77 16.1,450 61.257 IN* 111 OVIWMr — . . Durham llct.i’il iMi H (И4 Sun iFl . .»un . . . Sunday . . . 41.992 Jv» 42.20? •• + 21) <;re«n»fx>ro New» (Ml Recced (E) __ - 90.029 - W.570 91.359 30.931 + IJ30 + 361 Sunday _ RalciCfa N A О <M> _ ioi ; ч» 126.417 103.157 127.940 + 1.189 + 1.503 Time» <E> Sunday . . . - 22.9*2 . 118,509 23.553 139.436 + 571 + 927 Wimton-SaJrn Journal <M> .... . 67.447 68.951 + 1.501 Sentinel (E) Sunday ... ... 11,117 . 79.781 41.918 81.370 + 506 + 1.587 Shires Appointment of Bill Shires, former UP bureau chief in Raleigh, to suc¬ ceed the late Lynn Nisbet as after¬ noon newspaper correspondent, recalls the origin of the afternoon Raleigh bureau. Officially it is The North Carolina Association of Afternoon Dailies, and was established back in the 30's because afternoon newspapers felt — with justification — that they were not getting a fair shake in the way news was being broken at the capital. ‘*1 he News and Observer,” then as now, was the paper to which politicians paid heed, and depart¬ ment heads as well as governors managed to make important an¬ nouncements, or release routine 9 THE STATE. NOVEMBER JO. 1962