Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1953)

your new 1st issue, Oct. 15, 1931 Here is the first issue of your new BROADCASTING • TELECASTING. II It is restyled from cover to cover. There are no gimmicks or frills. News content isn't curtailed; in fact, coverage is expanded feature-wise. We had no concerted subscriber demand for a change. We undertook the job to give you a better, easier-to-read paper. This is in recognition of the changing times and the rapid growth of the fields we serve. People are busier. There are more of them in this business of radio and television broadcasting on both sides of the rate card. More people do more things and make more news. Good housekeeping and prudent management dictate that this news should be presented in orderly fashion. As you thumb through this issue, you'll detect a new bodytype face. It is Times Roman. It was selected because it provides maximum clarity with no boost in size. It is as new as the transistor. There are three columns instead of four on the news pages. The headlines are more meaningful. Every "lead" story is highlighted in a blurb which gives you the substance in a twinkling. There are no "jumps" — each story reads through to completion. The book is side-stitched, utilizing ingenious new automatic binding equipment installed by our printers, the National Publishing Co., here in Washington. The stock is heavier and whiter. These are the mechanical changes, which keep abreast of the most modern techniques of the graphic arts. Editorially, the newsmagazine is departmentalized, except for lead stories. You will find the same kind of news in the same relative position each week. The index on Page 12 is your infallible guide. There is the new fully-integrated Feature section beginning on Page 75. Here are the "How To" articles; stories on successful campaigns; by-lines by people who have something to say; pieces on good business practices; new ideas. (The new mechanical production process will make it possible to get reprints with little or no time lag. Overall production will be faster.) Physically, this issue is a far cry from Vol. 1, No. 1, published on Oct. 15, 1931, at the bottom of the depression. We were a semi-monthly then, and our average issue ran 48 pages. (Now the average, without YEARBOOKS or the MARKETBOOK, runs 100 pages per week.) Then our staff totaled six as compared with today's 60. Radio's gross volume was $60 million. The 1952 figure, for radio and television, will eclipse $1 billion. In founding "BROADCASTING, the News Magazine of the Fifth Estate," our aspiration was to make it the written voice of the spoken medium. Our principal aim was to fend off the thrusts of the Government ownership advocates, who had succeeded in enslaving radio almost everywhere else in the world. Nov. 26, 1945 The success of the broadcast media was to be our success. Today, our constant duty is precisely what it was then but with frontiers unlimited. We try to keep our readers the best informed in any art, profession or industry. Editorially, we call our shots as we see them. We are mindful of our responsibilities and of your trust in us. You radio and television broadcasters, advertisers, agencies, engineers, artists, writers, producers, directors, manufacturers, syndicators, suppliers — and, indeed, Government in good times and bad — have created and developed these magnificent arts. We have been privileged to report this running story over these past 22 eventful years — the greatest success story of them all. With this restyled newsmagazine we do not alter our editorial policy, philosophy or objectives. We have simply undertaken to give you a better paper. There are rough spots mechanically, which will be sandpapered and burnished as we hit our stride. Editorially it's unchanged. The same excellent staff is producing it. We like it. We hope you agree. Broadcasting • Telecasting January 19, 1953 • Page 3