End of World's Work

On the library tables of most genteel U. S. homes ten years ago lay at least one magazine of high-grade fiction & belles lettres, and one heavy review. The fiction-belles lettres ranks, which once included Everybody's, Munsey's, Century, Mc-Clure's, Scribner's, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, have been heavily decimated. All but the last three have died or been transformed unrecognizably. T

he heavy review battery ranged from newsy Current History through Review of Reviews and World's Work to coldly business-like System. Except for System, which changed from an organ of interpretation to an executive's handbook now called Management Methods, the heavy review rank held until last week, when Review of Reviews swallowed Doubleday-Doran's World's Work. Beginning with the August issue, Review of Reviews will carry the name of World's Work with its own on the cover but will not alter editorial content.

World's Work lived to be 32, a fairly ripe age for a magazine. It was founded by the late Walter Hines Page, then a partner in the publishing firm of Doubleday Page, who edited it from 1900 until 1913 when he was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James. He was succeeded by his son Arthur Wilson Page, now vice president of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., and successively by Carl Chandlee Dickey, Barton Wood Currie (previously editor of Ladies' Home Journal), Russell Doubleday, Alan C. Collins.

World's Work made its great scoop in 1907, when Publisher Frank Doubleday induced John Davison Rockefeller Sr. to write his reminiscences in a series of six articles. It scored again in 1914. When the War broke out in August, Editor Arthur Page stopped the presses printing the September issue, tore down the forms, whipped together a thoroughgoing picture of the entire international scene, published it as a War Manual. Circulation, which had been about 100,000, leaped to 300,000 with that issue, stayed about 180,000 throughout the War, has since dwindled to about 77,000. The most recent lapse of circulation was due to a change in editorial policy by which more and more emphasis was given to interpretations of world industry. Professional readers (teachers, doctors, lawyers) lost interest.

Like World's Work, Review of Reviews had its peak of influence and circulation during the War, when Frank Herbert Simonds became its foreign editor. Unlike World's Work--or any other important U. S. magazine--it has been edited and wholly owned for 42 years by its founder. Albert Shaw, 75, has written the editorials in every issue of his magazine with three exceptions: once when he was a guest of the British Government during the War; twice when he was ill. He still commutes occasionally between his Manhattan office and his home at Hastings-on-Hudson.

Publishing men have regarded Review of Reviews and World's Work as susceptible to merger. World's Work advertising revenue tumbled from $510,000 in 1929 to $219,760 last year. Review of Reviews' revenue went from $406,960 to $195,000 in the same period. Its circulation is 167,265.

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