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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 42. The Negro Press - 3. Characteristics of the Negro Press
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91
6
An American Dilemma
that comes out once a week may cause Negroes to neglect it. The limited
coverage of the Negro press and its reporting of news that is usually a few
days old work against it. Also, some Negroes get ^‘fed up’^ with the problem
and protest news, and turn with relief to a general newspaper that contains
the little social news about Negroes in which they are interested. On the
other hand, because the Negro paper is only an “additional” one, like a
magazine, Negroes may be willing to buy both papers if they buy any at
ail. The fact that the Negro press in the whole country has a circulation of
about one and a half millions, which includes about one-third of all Negro
families in the country,® is a reason for believing that their weekly news-
papers are not greatly hurt by competition from the Southern white daily
press.
There are, however, two types of indirect competition. First, the provi-
sion of some Negro news in “black star” editions and in the regular liberal
newspapers prevents the Negro press from carrying on a completely
effective campaign against the white press on grounds of discrimination.
Second, because of this and because Negro newspapers could not afford to
provide general national and local news in addition to Negro news, the
existence of the white press prevents the success of a daily Negro newspaper.
Indeed, there is much soundness in the argument that the Negro newspaper
remain a weekly one, since it could not hope to compete in providing
general news as a daily paper. Many Negroes claim to get “fed up” on the
Negro newspaper. This attitude would become accentuated if the Negro
newspaper should appear daily.
In the North there are no special Negro editions of the white daily
press, and, with rare exceptions, white papers give even less attention to
Negro life than is becoming standard in the Southern liberal press. One
exception that should be mentioned is the New York newspaper with a
national circulation, PM}’^ Although they do not give space to Negro
news, it is possible that the Hearst newspapers attract a good many lower
class Negroes. It is not known how much the white daily press competes
with the Negro weekly press in the North, but it is probable that the
competition is even less than in the South. The stronger “race pride” in the
North and the high quality of many of the large Northern Negro news-
papers are also factors.
As the Negro newspaper is a weekly paper, as Negro news is not too
plentiful because of the paucity of agencies and reporters to communicate
it, and as much of the news is several days old when it appears in the
weekly press, it is natural that editorials, columns, and other non-news
* This equation is not quite justified, of course, because some families subscribe to more
than one Negro newspaper. But it will do for rough calculations, since one and a half million
persons, if they were no more than one person from each family, would include more than
one-third of all Negro families.
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