News for All: America's Coming-Of-Age with the Press

Leonard (The Power of the Press) has written a dry, wide-ranging social history of how readers have approached the press and how newspapers and magazines have tried to attract audiences. He begins by sketching how early American taverns regularly stocked newspapers for their patrons and thus helped shape 19th-century nationalism. He describes the origins of circulation drives, the way abolitionists reprinted articles from the white Southern press, how Depression-era families used magazines as wallpaper and the growth of press blurbs to hype plays, books and films. The final third of the book addresses a troubling trend, born at the turn of the century: press lords' recognition that segmented circulation, not mass distribution, was the way to draw advertisers. Unlike some other press critics, Leonard does not blame television or the demise of mass transit for the recent circulation decline of newspapers; instead, he argues that the daily press has lost quality and must maintain a sense of community and civic responsibility to thrive. Illustrations. (Oct.)