AN END, A BEGINNING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300400046-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 2006
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: July 13, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/0',4-fOAC8-01314R0
JUL 13 19STAT
The death of at newspaper is always
saddening. To the nien and women who
have thrown their lives into the produc-
tion of it, to the readers who have fol-
lowed it faithfully over the years, to
other newspapermen, a newspaper is
not just bricks and mortar but an ink-
stained place of tears and laughter,
with a spirit and personality of its own.
Yesterday, for the last time, the
presses of the Washington Daily News
ground to a halt. They were stilled after
50 years of publication not through any
lack of skill or energy on the part of the
'News' employes or by a deficiency in the
paper's editorial product. The News al-?
w,rays was lively and hard-hitting. But in
the end the combination of rising pro-
duction costs, competition in the evening
field and television pressure provedi too
much for -the News, which had been
faced with "substantial and increasing
loss for more than five years."
This is a nationwide trend: Until yes-
terday, Washington and New York were
the only American cities with more than
two separately owned newspapers pub-
lished daily. The Star itself has not been
immune to similar pressures 'and indeed
has suffered losses over the past two
years. If there was to be a strong, inde-
pendent and economically viable eve-
nin; newspaper in \Vashington, to com-
pete successfully with the Post's monop-
oly in the morning field, either the Star
or the News had to shut down.
But while the News' demise is no oc-
casion for jubilat;iori on anyone's part. It
marks not only the end of an era but the
birth of a new one. For in a very real
sense, the spirit of the News will live on
in a new, larger and brighter "Evening
Star and Washington Daily News," a
first-day edition of which you are now
reading. Daily News readers---more than
200,000 of them-will find many of their
favorite News features and by-lines ap-
pearing in the combined paper, which
also will carry reports from the Scripps-
Howard Newspaper Alliance.
We hope and believe that our own
regular readers will find the new com--
bined product, wholly owned by our-
selves, to be the best paper' we have
published in the 120 years The Star has
served this city and surrounding areas of
Maryland and Virginia. The Star has a
great, tradition and -we are proud of it.
But we look not to the past but to the
future, and each of us here is intent
upon making "The Evening Star and
Washington Daily News" the even great-
er newspaper which the Nation's Capi-
tal deserves.
So while we mourn the Passing of the
old, we welcome the challenge and op-
portunity of competing on'a more equal
basis with the Post, which itself pur-
chased the old Tinzes-H.ergld in 1954. We
wish good luck to News employes who
are going elsewhere, we welcome aboard
those who will be joining its and we seild
special .greetings to our new readers. To
one and all we make a single promise:
We are going to draw upon the traditions
and strengths of both the Star and the
News to produce the best newspaper of
which we are capable.
MORI/CDF
Approved For Release 2006/07/24: CIA-RDP88-01314R000300400046-9