Retreat in Birmingham

When Roy Howard moved into Birmingham, Ala. by founding the evening Post (circ. 69,963) in 1921, he did so with all the assurance of Grant in the siege of Richmond. But he found his local competition no demoralized Confederate Army. The morning Age-Herald (circ. 45,804) and the evening News (circ. 166,017), both published by C. B. Hanson Jr., made things so hot for Howard that last week he beat a strategic retreat. He folded the money-losing Post, and signed up as junior partner with the opposition (which folded the Age-Herald) in a new combined morning newspaper.

The Post-Herald, making its bow this week, combined the staffs as well as the names of the two old papers, although 200 persons lost their jobs. The Post-Herald carried the familiar Scripps-Howard lighthouse on Page One, and was edited by a Scripps-Howard holdover, 49-year-old James E. Mills. But under the 30-year contract signed by the Hanson and Howard interests, more than 80% of the annual gross profits (up to $3,000,000) from the new paper will go to the Hansons. Yet the deal was the best Howard could make under the circumstances. His Post had failed to keep pace in circulation and advertising with the faster-growing News. At the end, the Post was losing an estimated $75,000 a year.

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