The Rough Road

In the face of spiraling costs, many a U.S. daily has died in the last ten years, and few new ones have been born. Three months ago, in Tallahassee, Fla. (pop. 38,002), Leo William Bowmall, vice president of Manhattan's Bulkley Dunton Pulp Co., decided to try to buck the trend. He and other backers put up more than $250,000 to launch the Tallahassee Capital Post, to compete with the 50-year old Tallahassee Democrat (circ. 14,014). Last week, after barely 68 days of life, the new paper died. Even though the Post was small, with a circulation of a little more than 4,000, losses ran as high as $1,000 a day. When Backer Bowmall suspended last week, $30,000 in operating capital had already gone into the tiny paper. Said he: "The cost of production was much higher than we expected."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.