Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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ASNE on the move
Letters
St. Louis, Allentown weren’t first to go tabloid on
Saturdays
The December issue of The American Editor carried stories on how two
broadsheet newspapers have gone tabloid on Saturdays. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
launched its "innovation" in November. The second story told how the Allentown,
Pa., Morning Call had done it 20 years earlier, in 1976.
But the afternoon Louisville (Ky.) Times beat them both — in 1970.
I was managing editor of the Times then and, like St. Louis and Allentown,
we were facing a shrinking Saturday paper. We went full-tabloid and called
the outside section Scene. It featured a glossy Spectacolor cover and was
aimed at younger readers — strong on music, movies, dining out, where to
go and what to do.
We had howls of protest from traditional readers. And we gradually made
changes, such as returning to full-size news and classified sections. But
cool and colorful Scene continued to wrap the paper.
Saturday circulation and advertising soon gained steam, until circulation
was 45,000 greater than any other weekday.
Alas, the good old Louisville Times died 17 years later — in 1987. But
Scene lives on. It runs inside the Saturday morning Courier-Journal, still
with full-color cover and youthful content. And The Courier-Journal tells
me that Saturday circulation is still 13,000 above the average of the other
weekdays.
So Saturday can succeed.
Now, who’s next in line to say you went tabloid even before Louisville?
Robert P. Clark
San Antonio
