Ink v. Air (Cont'd)

For nearly eight years scattered platoons of the U. S. Press, led by ever-watchful Editor & Publisher, tradepaper, have been sounding alarums against Radio as a competitor not only in advertising but in news reporting. Particularly distressing to them is the complaisance of the Press in donating or selling news for Radio to broadcast before it appears in print. But one publishers' convention after another passed without even formation of a united front against Radio.

Last week the Press's watchdogs exulted over what they thought was the approach of a crisis in the quarrel of ink v. air. The American Newspaper Publishers Association directorate adopted a resolution against giving news to Radio; and the Associated Press determined to poll its embattled membership on the question.

The action was precipitated by events of last Election night. As on all momentous news events which it is not equipped to cover by itself. Radio turned to the three major press associations, Associated Press, United Press and International News Service for Election returns. Previously the Associations had gladly complied for the prestige which they felt they derived from the radio announcement of their names. This year, however, UP and INS hearkened to the grumblings of their clients, refused to surrender what their clients, after all, pay for. AP's Manager Kent Cooper was in a different position. He felt bound by a 1925 resolution of his organization which "held that in the public interest it was advisable and wise to permit the broadcast of news . . . Presidential elections specifically." In seven subsequent annual meetings that resolution had been left upon the books. Accordingly Manager Cooper supplied his reports, became target for a volley of protests from outraged AP members.

Last week's tentative steps can lead only as far as the next meetings of A. N. P. A. and AP in April.

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