Bricks Without Straw: The Mirage of Competition in The Desert of Phoenix Daily Journalism Since 1947
Anderson, Fenwick
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/77095
Description
Title
Bricks Without Straw: The Mirage of Competition in The Desert of Phoenix Daily Journalism Since 1947
Author(s)
Anderson, Fenwick
Issue Date
1980
Department of Study
Speech Communication
Discipline
Speech Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Mass Communications
Language
eng
Abstract
Contrary to the rationalizations of apologists for free enterprise, it has become almost impossible to establish a new metropolitan daily newspaper in a city with an existing morning and evening monopoly of the market. This holds true even in Sunbelt areas enjoying phenomenal growth, and the introduction of modern offset and cold-type technology has not proven the panacea which some would-be publishers sought. The experience of new entrants over a thirty-year period in Phoenix provides conclusive proof of these propositions. No major American city has seen more such attempts since World War II; four completely separate groups produced seven different dailies under various corporate umbrellas. None of them published as long as three years on a daily basis, and some wound up in bankruptcy and litigation. Undercapitalization, financial mismanagement, and excessive dependence on unfamiliar technology were directly responsible for the failures. Some of these papers were founded by politicians with grievances against publisher Eugene Pulliam's established dailies, The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette, and the willingness of citizens to get involved in such ultimately futile efforts had its roots in the irresponsible things the Pulliam press did during periods of no competition, notwithstanding the claims of monopoly's defenders that the disappearance of competition tends to make newspapers more responsible. A similar attempt in Atlanta produced much the same results, but in Oklahoma City an apparent exception to the rule has survived for fifteen years.
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