Thrifty Rivals

Frequently rued is the trend toward newspaper mergers, one-publisher cities, an alleged trend, in consequence, toward fewer, less varied and alert newspapers. But inevitably appearing to bar a way out is the rising cost of paper, plant equipment, labor, taxes.

One countertrend, originated in 1933 by the Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune and Journal, was the pooling of printing presses, business and ad departments without pooling the editorial independence of the papers. A success, the idea has since been adopted by a dozen other rival papers --the Madison Wisconsin State Journal and Capital Times, the El Paso Times and Herald Post, the Nashville Banner and Tennessean, the Richmond. (Va.) Times-Dispatch and News Leader, the Tulsa Tribune and World.

Latest example is the Topeka (Kans.) Daily Capital (a.m.; circ. 50,000) and State Journal (p.m.; circ. 24,000), sharp rivals for over 50 years. Last week the State Journal vacated its big white building at Topeka's chief intersection (which will be rented as office space), moved into the Capital building opposite the Kansas State House. A new, non-profit-making company--the Topeka Newspaper Printing Co., Inc.--will print both papers, handle joint circulation and advertising, thus ending an ad war that has sizzled for a generation.

President of the new company is Capital Publisher Arthur Capper, Kansas' antique U.S. Senator, president of the world's biggest farm press (monthly distribution: 9,000,000 copies). Vice president is State Journal Publisher Oscar Stauffer, owner of an eight-paper Western newspaper chain (circ. 76,000), who bought the Journal in 1940 for $600,000, revived it from a shaky 17,000 circulation to 24,000 in a year.

Ownership and editorial independence of the rival papers remain as before. Well circulated, however, is the rumor that an unannounced clause in the agreement calls for State Journal support of Capper's candidacy for re-election in 1942. Both Capper and Stauffer are isolationist.

Oscar Stauffer, 21 years younger than Arthur Capper, is a tolerant critic of Roosevelt's foreign policy. But Arthur Capper blankets northeast and central Kansas with isolationist sentiments equaled in venom only by the Chicago Tribune.

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