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Paper Attempts to Broaden Weekend Readership

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, beginning on March 12 [1950], will include in its Sunday editions, besides “This Week,” a new type, “local,” color roto magazine to be called “Tempo.” Several reader preference studies have shown that this type of roto magazine section reaches 90% to 95% of the readers of a Sunday newspaper.

“Tempo,” according to its publishers, will concentrate its editorial and pictorial content on local subjects, with local people, local scenes and backgrounds being used to illuminate articles on a wide variety of topics from gardening to fashions; sports to interior decorations; personalities to home-building; beauty and health to food.

A special department has been organized at the Globe-Democrat with a staff of local writers, artists and photographers available for gathering local “slant” articles, stories and illustrations.
It is the consensus of manufacturers, advertisers and agencies who had a preview of the first edition of “Tempo” that this type of roto magazine section keeps the reader’s interest and attention much longer than the straight news “picture” roto section, and that many more metropolitan Sunday newspapers will develop local type magazines as a means of giving their readers more nearly what they want. The Globe-Democrat’s initial issue of “Tempo” will contain forty pages.

(Originally published in the St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly 3/6/1950).

The Salutory From the First Issue

With this number we begin the issue of a new monthly magazine, “The Herald of Music,” which we hope will be heartily welcome in the music world. We shall use every effort to make it not only interesting and popular, but also of such a character that it will further the cause of musical progress, especially in the West.

Among the leading and more attractive features to which we expect to add from time to time, if the success of our enterprise warrants, is, in the first place:

The publication each issue of twelve to sixteen pages of vocal and instrumental music, which will be mainly of a light, melodious and popular character, and yet will contain nothing trashy or vulgar. We shall endeavor to show by these publications that music of a higher class is not necessarily heavy or uninteresting. We feel certain that not only the general public but musicians, amateur and professional, will find much to interest them in this department.

Besides this strictly musical section we shall present discussions by prominent composers and eminent teachers upon such topics as are of general interest to the musical public.

There will also be reviews and criticisms of new compositions of note, written by thoroughly competent musicians and critics, which will be of great service to those who are on the lookout for new music.

Special care will be taken in the collection and editing of both general and local musical news, including correspondence from the different music centers of the United States and Europe, so that our readers will be kept informed of all important events in the musical world.

Another department which we expect to make of general use as well as interest is one which will contain practical hints and instructions to students of both instrumental and vocal music. This will be contributed to by teachers of known capability and experience.

In conclusion we would say that our aim is to bring before our readers everything which is good in musical science, theory, history, biography and literature, and if we succeed it is our expectation that the musical public will give us the support that our enterprise may deserve.

(Originally published in The Herald of Music, 7/1897).

By Don Corrigan

Readers Liked Things the Way They Were

When Tom Barnidge left St. Louis a few weeks ago to take a position in Los Angeles with NFL Properties, a division of the National Football League, a chapter closed on the history of St. Louis sports writing. Barnidge has played a major role in what gets written about the St. Louis sports scene for more than two decades. He started off as a sports reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1970 and jumped to The Sporting News (TSN) in 1982, where he first served as managing editor and then as editor-in-chief, until dramatic restructuring of The News resulted in his leaving the publication in 1990.

Some veteran sports observers would say that Barnidge’s departure also closes a chapter in the history of The Sporting News, the oldest national news tabloid in the United States. Barnidge was one of a number of TSN veterans who were effectively let go because they did not fit into the plans to revamp and relaunch the publication, which began in 1990. That’s when Times-Mirror Co., which has owned the publication since 1970, brought aboard Tom Osenton as publisher and John Rawlings as the new editor.

The official “relaunch” of the publication came in march of this year [1991], when The Sporting News went to press with wholesale changes, including dramatically altered content, new columns and a new printing process. The paper shifted its focus from sports results and information to opinion, analysis and interpretation. Perhaps more important, TSN turned to rely more on contributing writers and a considerably reduced and less-seasoned regular staff. With the exit of Barnidge, pro basketball writer Mike Douchant, pro football writer Howard Balzer, and editors John Hadley and Mike Douchant – The Sporting News lost almost five decades of combined service to the publication.

The wholesale changes at TSN have not had the desired effect of re-positioning the publication to compete more successfully with the proliferation of sports media in the United States. Circulation of TSN is reportedly down from a 1980s high of 740,000. Advertising revenue has also dropped significantly in the admittedly soft market of the recent recession. Perhaps more important, the new direction of TSN has alienated the genuine sports addicts whose loyalty to The Sporting News has been legendary.

“In my estimation, the new management has tried to take what was the corner grocery store and turn it into Schnucks,” said Barnidge, a few days prior to his Dec. 2 departure from St. Louis. “Basically Osenton wanted to give The Sporting News a new look and his position was that to improve the product, you have to drastically change the product. The trouble is that he’s lost the traditional following, while he hasn’t drawn the audience that might be more interested in glitz.”

Rumors in the sports publishing world hold that Times-Mirror has given an ultimatum that advertising and circulation must grow for TSN or the publication will face sale or closure. According to Barnidge, the writing was on the wall for The Sporting News when two “editorially oriented executives” retired from Times-Mirror in the period of a year.

“They were replaced by bottom-line guys who took over Times-Mirror,” said Barnidge. “When my boss, publisher Dick Waters, retired, Times-Mirror made the decision to replace him with Osenton and shortly thereafter, I handed over the baton as editor to John Rawlings. Osenton is a real USA Today guy. In fact, I think he has Al Neuharth’s ‘Confessions of an SOB’ displayed prominently on his office bookshelf.

“You can see the USA Today philosophy now in The Sporting News in the short articles, the snippets, pie charts and graphics. I don’t think that’s a bad formula,” added Barnidge. “It’s all to make for easier reading and to be easy on the eyes. But you can’t change the basic personality of a publication and keep the loyal readers.”

TSN editor Rawlings, however, defends the changes and contends that the disaffection of die-hard readers of The Sporting News had been minimal.

“When you make changes as drastic as we have, you’re inevitably going to alienate some long-term readers,” said Rawlings. “I’ve talked to a lot of them on the phone and answered their letters. I asked them to give us six months to evaluate what we were doing, and if they still weren’t happy, they could have a money-back, six-month refund. Very few have taken me up on that offer six months later.

“It’s true that our circulation is not as high as it was 18 months ago,” added Rawlings. “We’ve done some extensive circulation studies and what we found was that we had a number of readers that cost us a lot to attract, and who are difficult to keep. So our revenues are going to be better in the long run by letting those readers go.

“Our advertising is down about nine percent, but we really feel that is almost entirely due to the recession,” continued Rawlings. “I’ve seen some numbers that show the publishing industry, across the board, is down much more than nine percent. We have, in fact, attracted a lot of advertisers to the magazine who would have never come to us before, but who now find our new look attractive.”

In Barnidge’s view, the new look of The Sporting News involves more than just cosmetics. He said the editorial thrust of TSN also has been redirected, and he credits Osenton with this.

“Rawlings is editor, but I attribute the major change to Osenton,” noted Barnidge. “The general conceptual change is his. The editorial thrust of the publication is now quite different. We did a lot of behind-the-scenes profiles of major sports figures. Now they’re doing a lot of theme issues – ‘gambling in sports,’ for example, or ‘the fiscal responsibility of pro sports expansion.’ I think these are stories for business journals. I think the average sports fan wants to know if St. Louis is going to get a team; I don’t think he cares, if it’s fiscally responsible for the NFL to do.”

Sporting News History
In a 1984 profile of The Sporting News just a couple years shy of the publication’s centennial, Newsweek magazine described TSN as for diehards who “aren’t ‘sunshine soldiers’ who follow the local team only if it’s winning. The readers of The Sporting News are the sort who know that a midget named Eddie Gaedel batted for the St. Louis Browns in 1951 and wore the number 1/8, who know that a team can get six hits in an inning and still not score.”

Newsweek noted that Ty Cobb paid 25 bucks, in two installments for a lifetime subscription to The News; that a vice president named Richard Nixon offered to write an article for it, only to have Ike scotch the idea; and that an ayatollah in Iran let American hostages read The Sporting News while in captivity – and very little else.

Newsweek also noted that TSN fans are very resistant to change. They love “the old-fashioned disorderliness” that in the past has been a hallmark of the publication. Purists were shocked in the 1940s when a special football section was added to the exclusive coverage of The Game – baseball. In an effort to stave off criticism, TSN advised that the section was “easily removable” for the offended hard-core baseball fans.

The Sporting News was founded by St. Louis sportswriter Alfred Spink, who happily cranked out the first issue on St. Patrick’s Day of 1886. Al Spink left the paper to his brother Charlie, after writing and producing a play called “The Derby Winner,” which featured six live horses galloping on a treadmill. The play flopped miserably, and when Al realized he had a better thing going with TSN, Charlie let his prodigal playwright brother know that he was now holding tight to the reins of the fledgling publication.

When Charlie died in 1914, his son, J.G. Taylor Spink took over, but not before the twosome had had some knock-down, drag-out fights over such issues as whether baseball should have an American League, an idea that did not sit well with the older National League. By World War II, The Sporting News had a respectable circulation of 80,000. Aggressive marketing and expanded editorial content by Taylor Spink toward the end of the war brought the publication many more readers.

Taylor became ill in 1961, and the publishing responsibilities fell to his son, C.C. Johnson Spink, who was named after his grandfather’s good buddy Ban Johnson, founder of the American League. Johnson expanded coverage into other fields, including more than just the major sport in TSN’s repertoire. However, the biggest change for TSN came in 1978 when Johnson sold the sports tabloid to Times-Mirror for $18 million.

Aside from owning The Sporting News, Times-Mirror owns several other St. Louis properties including KTVI-TV and the medical publishing house, C.V. Mosby. Shortly after the purchase, Times-Mirror brought in Richard Waters, a former top editor at the Readers’ Digest, to “bring The Sporting News into the 20th Century,” as Waters told Newsweek.

Under Waters, circulation more than doubled from an initial figure of 325,000. The growing sports tab automated its plant operations and shed its “blue collar” image with a more-literate editorial content. Revenues soared to the $50-million range. Waters served as chief executive and president of the publication from 1981-1989, when he was replaced by Osenton.

The Reign of Osenton
“The ironic thing about the changes at The Sporting News is that when Osenton came in, he said he wasn’t going to make any changes until the readers were studied,” noted Howard Balzer, one of the refugees from TSN’s “re-launch.” A pro football writer for The Sporting News, Balzer now writes a column for The Riverfront Times and articles for Pro Football Weekly. He also has a popular sports talk show on weekday evenings on KXOK radio.

“Osenton said we would study the readers, and so there were focus groups conducted in Jacksonville, Florida, and Chicago. What they found out was that readers in these two places had totally different needs. Jacksonville readers wanted the sports statistics; Chicago readers said they could get all the stats that they needed elsewhere, that they were looking for something else,” Balzer explained.

Balzer said the Chicago readers “won out,” although he said he feels the changes at TSN were pre-ordained. He said he feels the focus groups were just window dressing to justify a decision to change TSN – a decision that had already been made at corporate headquarters, a decision to pare stats, research and experienced staffers while adding computer graphics and gimmicky layouts.

“I’ll never forget when Rawlings came into a meeting and said we were dropping the football statistics,” recalled Balzer. “I disagreed with him. Rawlings argued that readers can get their stats in the Monday newspapers. I argued that The Sporting News is delivered to readers at the end of the week, when people are ready to look at them as they start thinking about Sunday’s game. The irony is that Rawlings eventually had to put those stats back in after the readers wrote all kinds of angry letters.

“The same thing happened with the box scores on the baseball games,” continued Balzer. “I’ll never forget that meeting, when they put together the prototype for the new Sporting News. There were no box scores or statistics. I emphatically pointed out that those were missing.”

Once again, reaction from readers, who learned of the impending change, was vigorous. Rawlings expressed surprise at the outpouring of unhappiness. In the meantime, USA Today’s baseball edition was established, in part, because TSN was dropping baseball box scores in its new format.

“I would have bet my bottom dollar that’s one of the things we would drop,” Rawlings told John Sonderegger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “In my mind, I figured people were relying on other sources for box scores.” Rawlings made the comment to Sonderegger in an article entitled: “By Mistake, Sporting News Created Own Competition.” The headline referred to the USA Today baseball edition.

“Despite that new, improved prototype the box scores were kept,” said Balzer. “The editorial management made a lot of these moves without really knowing what’s been in the paper for years.”

Another of the famous meetings that Balzer remembers involved the announcement of the elimination of reporting on transactions – all kinds of personnel changes taking place between clubs and on teams. Once again, reader protest brought the reporting on the minutiae of transactions back into The Sporting News.

“The irony of what happened with the transactions is that they were brought back after all the people who were experts in the area had their jobs eliminated,” said Balzer.

“Most of us did not disagree with the need to make some changes at The News,” added Balzer. “But you have to strike a balance. You can’t throw out everything that the traditional readers want. It was almost as if someone came in and decided to put together a competitor to The Sporting News and brought in all these graphics and short pieces, while not worrying about all the nuts and bolts.”    

Balzer is still bitter about the manner in which he and some of the other stalwarts of The Sporting News were let go. He does not mince words.

“I would just say that we were treated like dirt,” said Balzer. “There was never any respect for what we did or what we had done at The News. We were marked for departure. Rawlings is the type of manager who has to have control over everyone. Free spirits and different ideas are not tolerated.

“When all the changes were going on, I put in Sundays from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Monday morning, and one of those weeks I was called in by Rawlings and told that if I didn’t drastically improve by the end of the football season, there were going to be problems. I knew I was being set up to be fired once football season was over, and I wasn’t needed anymore.

“The same thing happened to Mike Douchant. He was used all through basketball season, and then, on the morning it was over, he was fired,” noted Balzer. “Rawlings said that The Sporting News didn’t need experts on sports, we just needed good editors. I think it was that he didn’t want anybody around who knew more about the individual sports than he does.”

For his part, Rawlings said he would not comment on the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of employees. He said he regarded these as personnel matters “and it would be inappropriate and less than professional for me to comment.”
Rawlings said he was familiar with trade gossip which suggested that Times-Mirror might be interested in unloading the publication, and that the continued existence of TSN might even be in the balance.

“There are a ton of rumors that go around,” said Rawlings. “I think it is accurate to say that Times-Mirror felt it was time to take a hard look at The Sporting News and do a serious evaluation, and we have. And we’re making changes. And I would put Tom Osenton at the top of the list as a creative manager who knows the direction he wants to take this product. We’ve got a new look. We’re attracting major new advertisers like Nike and Anheuser-Busch. That’s why I think our future is bright.”

Balzer says he’s aware of the stories in the sports community that suggest the survival of The Sporting News could be in jeopardy. There is bound to be a day of reckoning when the “Baseball Bible” is tampered with. But Balzer doubts such a fate awaits the venerable, old institution of The Sporting News.

“I think The Sporting News is going to remain with us for a while,” said Balzer. “I don’t know that it’s going to be considered the paper of record in sports that it once was. I don’t think that it’s going to be counted on, as it once was. It’s gone Yuppie. It’s just another one of those things that’s out there. It’s nice and flashy, without a lot of substance.”

(Originally published in the St. Louis Journalism Review 12/1991).
 

Progress and Expanding Influence for the Missouri Republican

On the 20th of September, 1836, the Republican became a daily paper, with six issues a week. In 1837 the Republican advertised for a city editor and began to run regularly a local department, distinct from editorial expressions. That was an innovation. One of the first things the local editor did was to publish an elaborate account of the races which were going on at the St. Louis track. In September, 1848, the Republican startled the conservative elements of the city by publishing a Sunday paper. A protest was promptly circulated for signatures. It expressed regret “that a journal of such deservedly high standing should lend its influence, not by arguments but by something far more powerful, its example, against the proper keeping of that holy day.” The editors replied courteously, expressing their appreciation of the interest taken by the subscribers of the protest, but declined to recede from the publication of a Sunday issue.

In 1840 the Republican supported Old Tippecanoe – William Henry Harrison. It did so with such effectiveness and zeal that in the midst of that hard cider campaign an emblem, a symbol as it were, was bestowed upon the paper by the admiring Whigs. The Republican was called “the Old Coon.” The name was accepted promptly. The emblem, a metallic figure of a coon couchant, was hoisted high above the building. Perched over the smoke stack the coon was visible from all parts of the city. Thirty years afterward people coming up from the boats and the ferry landings – for there was no bridge at the time – saw still on duty above the Republican building, the coon couchant. The emblem survived two disastrous fires. When the paper was moved to Third and Chestnut streets, occupying a new building which ranked with the imposing architecture of the city in its day, the coon found a place in the iron arch of the main entrance. The figure was also carried above the building.

(From St. Louis, the Fourth City by Walter Barlow Stevens, 1911)

By Chris Chi
            Sandy Tsai, local entrepreneur and restaurant owner, started the St. Louis Chinese American News with the goal of helping to bridge the gap between the mainstream community of St. Louis with ethnic Chinese residents – and to help Chinese-Americans better connect with each other.

“We started this paper as a public service and to let everyone know what’s happening in our community – to let everyone know that we have a voice,” said Tsai, careful not to take too much credit as publisher. After we started it, our staff did all the work.”

The newspaper’s office is at 8041 Olive Blvd. in University City. Run mostly by volunteers, the newspaper is a free weekly, around 28-32 pages, printed in Chinese and English. It covers the big news of the Chinese community and, on occasion, news from China and Taiwan.

The newspaper is divided into four sections. The first covers Chinese news. The second focuses on education, health, travel and cooking. The third is printed in English for second generation Chinese Americans, as well as for the greater mainstream residents who speak English. The fourth section contains an immigration page that provides helpful information for people hoping to obtain citizenship.

The newspaper is valuable because it allows “Chinese people to know what’s going on  around them in the language they know best,” says Francis Yeuh, who volunteers as an editor. His wife, Mary, is the full-time editor.

The Chinese American is especially helpful for new immigrants, Chinese students studying in St. Louis and senior citizens. It is chock full of ads for goods and services.

“The paper is owned by the community symbolically,” said Tsai. “And it shows that we (the Chinese community) don’t just sit around and watch. The newspaper likes to help educate.”

Already in its 17th year of publication with a circulation of about 6,000, the Chinese American is a “mouth for the community, a bridge for the community, promotes the Chinese culture, and assesses the community’s awareness,” Tsai said.

The paper was presented the 2003 Missouri Media Award by Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell. It is distributed in news racks at local Chinese restaurants and grocery stores in the St. Louis area. The news content is also sent free to email subscribers and can be read through the paper’s web site.

(Printed with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 8/2007).

Some Readers Wonder  Where the Paper Stands Politically

The St. Louis Metro Sentinel, the youngest of the three black St. Louis weeklies after nearly 21 years of publication, has somewhat of an identity problem. As a self-described “independent newspaper,” the Sentinel has frequently been the odd man out with readers who think of black newspapers as Democratic vehicles. And the newspaper’s recent endorsements of Republicans have added to the confusion.

But both the newspaper’s editor and publisher contend the Sentinel has no intention of trading its bipartisan philosophy for Republican status. And they said after explaining the newspaper’s position so many times in the past, the identity question has become the proverbial thorn in the newspaper’s side.

The Sentinel was founded in 1968 by the late Howard B. Woods, a journalist and civic leader. Woods was a former executive editor of the St. Louis Argus and associate director of the United States Information Agency. He served as editor-in-chief of the Sengstacke newspapers, which included the Chicago Defender and 13 other black newspapers across the nation, before returning to St. Louis to found the Sentinel.

Woods, who was also president of the St. Louis Urban League, said he founded the newspaper with the hope it would be “independent and work actively toward the establishment of the effective two-party system.”

When Howard Woods died in 1976, his widow, Jane, took over as president and publisher of the newspaper. Michael Williams, the Woods’ son-in-law, became the Sentinel’s editor and associate publisher. Williams said the newspaper’s pledge to “entertain, agitate and provoke readers to constructive thought” is as important today as when Howard Woods founded the newspaper. But, he says, community service is its main concern.

Williams said he wanted to set the record straight for those who still question the newspaper’s political philosophy: “The Sentinel is not a Republican newspaper,” he said. “The Sentinel is more of an independent newspaper.”

Williams said the Sentinel’s history is proof of that fact. “When you look at the history of the Sentinel,” he said, ‘it has always had a tendency to endorse candidates that it thinks most benefit the black community, whether they be Democrat or Republican.”

As editor, Williams oversees the day-to-day operations of the newspaper, although he said Jane Woods also “makes some of the most important decisions for the paper.” Williams said the Sentinel’s readership consists primarily of upper-income blacks, but that “black newspapers (including the Sentinel) don’t make a lot of money.” Because of that fact he said, Jane Woods could not afford to oversee the newspaper’s operations on a full-time basis. Instead, she works for Barnes Hospital.

Having opted for free distribution in 1971, the newspaper relies on advertising for its revenue. The Sentinel prints four promotional issues yearly to increase subscriptions and offset production and administrative costs. Williams said the Sentinel is doing well financially. “We’ve come a long way. It’s been tough at times – I don’t kid you about that – but we’re holding our own.” Williams said the newspaper made a profit in 1988, but would not release actual figures.

The newspaper is published every Thursday, as are the St. Louis American and Argus. Both the Sentinel’s and American’s typesetting operations are handled in house. Another similarity between the two newspapers is that each uses the free distribution system. The Argus charges 25-cents a copy.

Politics Make the Paper

The Sentinel has a strong political influence in the black community. One of the most-read features of the newspaper is “Big City Shop Talk,” a column by Al “Big City” Wallace, the Sentinel’s city editor and a political insider who works for St. Louis City Treasurer Larry Williams. Wallace worked for the Argus prior to joining the Sentinel.

In his column, Wallace predicts political appointments, discusses battles between Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl, Jr., and various aldermen, and offers up some of the hottest political gossip in the city. Wallace’s column is so well-read, Williams claims, that white reporters with national publications contact him to learn about St. Louis’ political scene.

Williams believes the decision by the other black weeklies to print similar columns is probably a direct result of Wallace’s popularity. He pointed out, however, that Wallace’s success came to him only through continuity He said if newspapers do not focus on politics “on a continuous basis, they might as well get out of the business.”

Republican or Independent?

Last year, the Sentinel’s decision to support several white Republican candidates over black Democrats angered and confused a number of blacks, leading many to label the Sentinel a “black Republican newspaper.” Williams scoffed at the label.

The Sentinel has traditionally endorsed Democratic candidates on a city level, and sometimes at the state level, Williams said. In other cases, he said the newspaper had opted to endorse white Republicans who clearly had the best interests of the black community at heart.

But, Williams’ explanation aside, the newspaper’s recent endorsements of John Ashcroft for governor, Christopher Bond for U.S. senator and George Bush for president were not applauded in the black community.

“When we endorsed George Bush for president,” he said, “we had two people call up and cancel their subscriptions. When we endorsed Kit Bond, we had a couple more cancel…Same thing with Ashcroft.”

Williams says the newspaper’s endorsements need no justification.

“We (the Sentinel) do believe in the two-party system. We think it’s very dangerous for black people to have blind allegiance to one particular party.”

Williams said that the newspaper is currently supporting Michael Roberts in his mayoral race against incumbent Schoemehl, and has supported St. Louis Democrats including U.S. Rep. William Clay, State Sen. J.B. “Jet” Banks and many others in the past. He said he does not understand why the Sentinel’s detractors construe its support of black Democrats – and white Republicans – as being the mark of a Republican newspaper.

According to Williams, the Sentinel operates in a fashion akin to large white newspaper, which “have the prerogative to endorse and support anyone they choose.”

Publisher Jane Woods said the Sentinel is “definitely not Republican. We always endorse those who we think will do best for our people.

“Personally,” she continued, “I’m a Democrat. But a newspaper should not be labeled. A newspaper should be bipartisan. I think we have an excellent newspaper, and at least we’re truthful.” Woods added that she was not implying other newspapers are not truthful.

St. Louis City Alderman JoAnne Wayne (D-1st Ward) is not so sure the Sentinel tells the whole truth, however.

“I have no more of a problem with the Sentinel than any other paper. But I don’t think it always gives people the opportunity to respond,” Wayne said. “They may be truthful according to what they’re told, but they don’t get both sides of the story.”

Wayne added that the newspaper’s support of Republican candidates was of no real concern to her. “I feel if the Sentinel has found Republicans more concerned with black issued, then that’s what they should print.”

St. Louis City Circuit Clerk Freeman Bosley, Jr., agrees. “In my view, the Sentinel makes a contribution to the community. In terms of its political leanings, it’s a non-issue to me.”

The Bush Factor

While some dwell on the newspaper’s politics, others are uncomfortable with its knack for self promotion. For example, in the newspaper’s “Yes I Can” promotional issue last year, a headlines photograph of Williams greeting then-Vice President George Bush read: “Sentinel’s Endorsement Puts Bush Over Top In Missouri.” It was a bold claim coming from so small a newspaper, but Williams said he felt justified in printing it because “Missouri put George Bush over the top. We were one of the few newspapers in the state to endorse him. I’d say we had something to do with it.”

But leaders of both parties disagree with Williams’ claim.

Charline Sherrill, vice chairman of the Republican Party for the city and state, laughed as she said, “I think it’s a bit far-fetched that they would take that position. I don’t think any one particular endorsement from a newspaper had that effect on the outcome.”

Sharon Quigley Carpenter, chairman of the city’s Democratic Party said, “The election results speak for themselves. Since the Sentinel is distributed predominately in north city, and the north city went overwhelmingly for Dukakis, I don’t think the endorsement of Bush had any impact among the Sentinel’s readership.

Carpenter added, however, “Given the three papers (Sentinel, American and Argus), I’d say the Sentinel does provide a different point of view. Whether it’s an effective point of view is another thing. But I’d have to say, all things considered, it’s probably a good thing.”

As the Sentinel continues to define its “independent” identity, Williams said he would like to see the newspaper become a semi-weekly publication, and eventually, a daily. “Right now, we’re treated as a stepchild to the white press,” Williams said.
In the immediate future, he does not see the newspaper’s admitted identity problem as a real issue. “We don’t have to prove our allegiance,” he said. “The Sentinel’s an independent newspaper. We’re not just independent; we’re fiercely independent. I think our readers appreciate us for that.”

By Charles K. Poole
(From the St. Louis Journalism Review, March 1989).