Duke v. Viscount

"Who's for Northumberland?". . . "Who's for Rothermere?" Thus the cries, last fortnight, of partisans of two potent peers, goliaths of British journalism, engaged in a battle to the death. It was Northumberland v. Rothermere, 8th Duke v. ist Viscount, a Percy v. a Harmsworth, the ultraconservative London Morning Post v. the mighty Daily Mail. For battlefield they had unstinted columns of the two papers; for ammunition they used massed figures, of circulation, of advertising, of anything. Pained at the Daily Mail's persistent claims to a circulation of close to 2,000,000, Northumberland opened the war. With Ducal dignity, admirable restraint, the Morning Post permitted itself to observe: "We dislike the current journalistic practice of boring and bewildering readers with intimate details of the business and management of newspapers." But it overcame its dislike manfully, brought itself to quote its own sales figures: August 1926, 79,458; May 1928, 105,704. Goaded to fury, the Viscountal Daily Mail flung the Post's figures full in its Ducal face. Screamed the Mail: "In close upon two years, the utmost efforts of the Morning Post have succeeded in adding 26,246 copies to its daily net sales. In the same period the net sales of the Daily Mail have risen by 183,579 copies a day." A Harmsworth descended to abysmal (for a ist Viscount) vulgarity, shouted: "No advocacy of the Morning Post can obscure the fact that for fifty years it has been preeminently the organ of 'belowstairs' . . . finds its readers in the kitchen-- appeals to 'house, kitchen and scullery maids.' " Daily Mail readers smiled approving smiles, shook shocked heads, turned to the adjoining column, where the Mail proudly advertised: "Interesting and exclusive features in our issue today include an article in Page 10, headed, 'I am offered -L-10 for a Kiss.'

U. S. publishers, amused, considered their own advertising and circulation wars, reflected that subtler methods are in vogue. Possibly Publisher Ralph Pulitzer recalled the blurb on the front page of his great New York World. Enticingly, the blurb reads:

THE WORLD HAS A GREATER CITY CIRCULATION WEEKDAYS THAN ANY OTHER STANDARD SIZE MORNING PAPER IN NEW YORK.

Publisher Pulitzer failed to expand, to explain the World's impressive boast. But cautious advertisers may read the streamer thus:

THE WORLD HAS A GREATER CITY (not suburban) CIRCULATION WEEKDAYS (not Sundays) THAN ANY OTHER STANDARD SIZE (not tabloid) MORNING (not evening) PAPER IN NEW YORK.