Newspaperman: A Monthly Journal of Fact, Fiction, Humor and Opinion Written By Working Newspapermen (2 issues)
Hyde Park, Mass. Tribune Publications, 1945. Two issues of this scarce and little-documented professional newspaper written by and for working American newspapermen, providing journalists with an independent forum for writing and commentary outside the editorial confines of the newspapers that employed them. Founded in May 1944 and published by Tribune Publications of Hyde Park, Massachusetts under editor Herbert A. Kenny, Newspaperman drew contributors from newspapers throughout the United States, including the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press, Syracuse Post-Standard, San Diego Union, and numerous regional papers. Its stated platform was to encourage newspapermen to express their own ideas, promote writing outside their regular employment, uncover overlooked talent within the profession, familiarize journalists with one another's work, provide a medium for their personal opinions and experiences, and critically observe the activities of the press itself.
The newspaper provides an unusual view of American journalism from inside the profession during the final years of World War II, combining press criticism and discussions of censorship, propaganda, labor and working conditions, wartime reporting and professional ethics with fiction, humor, regional newspaper columns, trade gossip and accounts of newspaper life. The September 1945 issue, for example, reflects upon the American press's voluntary observance of wartime censorship surrounding development of the atomic bomb, while other contributions address press freedom, returning GI journalists, unemployment, severance pay and the practical work of reporters, editors, photographers, linotype operators and correspondents. By its first anniversary in May 1945 the newspaper had established New York, Chicago and Boston columns and maintained a network of representatives and correspondents at newspapers around the country.
Vol. 2, Nos. 1 & 5. Side-folding, tabloid format printed in green, black & red on newsprint, each issue 22 pp., illustrated. Some chipping along spine, although not extensive, browning to newsprint. Apparently exceptionally scarce. Not found by us separately cataloged in OCLC, although a single issue survives in the Maryland State Archives in a broader newspaper collection. Item #13145
Price: $95.00