Baltimore Standoff

When Maryland started a $50,000-a-week lottery in late May, Baltimore's two afternoon papers, the Evening Sun and Hearst's News American, stood to benefit by printing winning numbers daily. Then the promotion-minded News American, which had a small lead in readership but lagged far behind the Sun in ad linage, came up with a shrewd gimmick. It began running daily lists of 51 "losers," numbers not drawn in the state lottery but for which the News offers cash consolation prizes ranging from $10 to $100. Sundays, the loser of the week gets a $500 jackpot.

For 2 1/2 weeks, Sun executives watched a stampede of hopeful punters over to the News. After News sales rose an estimated 10% (20,000), the Sun struck back. The Sunday Sun printed a front-page box listing both official lottery winners and the News American's lucky losers; it instructed Sun readers holding numbers in the second list to visit News American offices and collect their winnings. Since then, the Evening Sun has continued to print each day its rival's list of losing numbers.

"Very unethical," huffed News American Publisher Mark F. Collins. "Plagiarism at its highest form." William F. Schmick Jr., president of the Sun papers, responded that the News prizes affected the commonweal and were therefore public information. "We think that people are entitled to know what they're worth," Schmick said. News American officials are muttering darkly about legal moves, but the Sun's counter-gambit has beefed up its circulation and given Baltimore losers double prominence.

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