Grit (newspaper)
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''Grit'' is a magazine, formerly a
weekly newspaper A weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly new ...
, popular in the rural U.S. during much of the 20th century. It carried the subtitle "America's Greatest Family Newspaper". In the early 1930s, it targeted small town and rural families with 14 pages plus a fiction supplement. By 1932, it had a circulation of 425,000 in 48 states, and 83% of its circulation was in towns of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.


History

The publication was founded in 1882 as the Saturday edition of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania, ''Daily Sun and Banner''. In 1885, the name was purchased for $1,000 by 25-year-old German immigrant Dietrick Lamade (pronounced Lam'-a-dee), who established a circulation of 4,000 during the first year. Lamade was born February 6, 1859, in Gölshausen,
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
,
Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...
, one of nine children of Johannes Dietrick and Caroline Stuepfle Lamade. The family moved to Williamsport in 1867, where Johannes died of
typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
on January 4, 1869. To support the family, Dietrick, his sister, and his older brothers quit school. At age ten, Dietrick began working as an errand boy, earning a weekly salary of $3 in the office of a local German-language weekly, ''Beobachter'' (literally ''Observer''), when he was 13 years old.Dietrick Lamade biography by Damon M. Laabs
/ref> At 18, Lamade began printing theater programs and a four-page ad brochure, the ''Merchants' Free Press''. In the summer of 1880, he did ''Camp News'' for the
Pennsylvania National Guard The Pennsylvania National Guard is one of the oldest and largest National Guards in the United States Department of Defense. It traces its roots to 1747 when Benjamin Franklin established the Associators in Philadelphia. With more than 18,000 pe ...
, and he married the following year. In 1882, Lamade became the ad compositor and assistant composing room foreman for the ''Daily Sun and Banner'', and that same year, ''Grit'' began as the paper's Saturday edition, typeset by Lamade. He left the ''Daily Sun'' in 1884 to launch the weekly ''Times'' as a daily, but finances and the health of the owner led the ''Times'' to cease publication. With two children and no job, 25-year-old Lamade became a publisher. Teaming with two partners, he bought the ''Times'' equipment plus the ''Grit'' name and goodwill. During his first year, he increased ''Grits circulation to 4,000. He operated from a third-floor single room, moving to a storefront location in 1886, establishing a weekly circulation of 20,000 by 1887. With rapid expansion, a wagon of Remington
typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...
s was delivered to the ''Grit'' offices in 1892. In 1894, one member of the art department was the 16-year-old
C. W. Kahles Charles William Kahles (pronounced Kah'-less) (January 12, 1878 – January 21, 1931) was a prolific cartoonist responsible for numerous comic strips, notably '' Hairbreadth Harry''. He is credited as the pioneer of daily comic strip continuity w ...
, later famed as the creator of the long-run comic strip ''Hairbreadth Harry''. ''Grit'' displayed news and features aimed at rural America, and climbed to a weekly circulation of 100,000 by 1900, following an editorial policy outlined by Lamade during a banquet for ''Grits employees: While introducing such innovations as national newsboy delivery and direct mail, Lamade expanded his content to combine news, human interest articles,
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
s (sometimes filling ten pages), puzzles and serials in fiction supplements ("Grit Story Section"). Circulation reached 300,000 in 1916.


Little League and newsboy sales

''Grit'' was a familiar newspaper in small towns across the U.S. for over a century. By the time of its 50th anniversary in 1932, 400,000 people bought the newspaper each week, increasing to 500,000 by 1934. Lamade retired in 1936, and died October 10, 1938. His son, George R. Lamade, became the publisher and editor, with grandson Howard Lamade Jr. serving as ''Grits production manager. George R. Lamade died by suicide in August 1965. Another son, Howard J. Lamade, was vice president, and also served as a top executive with
Little League Baseball Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationLittle League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...
was built on land donated by the Lamade family, and it is named
Howard J. Lamade Stadium Howard J. Lamade Stadium (pronounced "LAM-a-dee") is a baseball stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Each year, along with Little League Volunteer Stadium, it hosts the Little League World Series. The playing field is two-thirds the size ...
in his memory. ''Grit'' went to a tabloid format in 1944. During the first three-quarters of the 20th century, ''Grit'' was sold across the country by children and teenagers, many recruited by
ads" \n\nads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is an initiative from IAB Technology Laboratory. It specifies a text file that companies can host on their web servers, listing the other companies authorized to sell their products or services. This is des ...
in comic books from the 1940s to the 1970s. Approximately 30,000 children collected dimes from more than 700,000 American small town homes during the 1950s when the publication still carried the subtitle, "America's Greatest Family Newspaper." A comical ad in '' Richie Rich'' comic books aimed to recruit more young salesmen, suggesting that Richie's father, Richard Rich, got his start as a businessman selling ''Grit''.


Content

By the 1940s, the paper was separated into five different sections "for ease of handling and reading." For instance, the 44-page issue for Sunday, January 1, 1950, was divided as follows: *News Section (12 pages) * Women's Section (8 pages) *Family Section (4 pages) *Comic Section (4 pages) *Story Section (16 pages) The News Section, displaying a dramatic page-one headline, "Atomic Energy Provides Man Tool of Death or Good Life," followed with a variety of human-interest stories, a coverage of "1949 in Review," a "Stranger Than Fiction" column and a page of international news. More than a few photos focused on unusual highway accidents. The Women's Section included fashion features and recipes, along with stories on house plants, new gadgets and how to hold a tea party. The Family Section featured jokes, puzzles and the "Odd, Strange and Curious" page with stories on such subjects as a two-headed turtle and the world's largest collection of cigarette lighters. The Story Section opened with the first installment of the serialized "Ring Out the Old" by Mary Hastings Bradley and included "Modern Parables", a series by
Fulton Oursler Charles Fulton Oursler (January 22, 1893 – May 24, 1952) was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer. Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was an author of mysteries and detective fiction. His son was the journalist and author Will Ou ...
, author of ''The Greatest Story Ever Told''.Newspaper Archive
/ref>


Comic strips

The Comic Section for January 1, 1950, carried the following Sunday comic strips in black-and-white:
Chic Young Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of hi ...
's '' Blondie'', Young's ''Colonel Potterby and the Duchess'', ''
Dixie Dugan ''Dixie Dugan'' is best known as a long-running syndicated newspaper comic strip published from October 21, 1929 to October 8, 1966. The title character was originally modeled after 1920s film actress Louise Brooks and early stories followed Dix ...
'' by J. P. McEvoy and
John H. Striebel John H. Striebel (September 14, 1891 - May 22, 1962) was an American illustrator and comic strip artist who was best known for the newspaper strip '' Dixie Dugan'', which was scripted by J. P. McEvoy. The two met when they were college freshme ...
,
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's ''
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
'', ''
Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...
'' by
Mac Raboy Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy (April 9, 1914 – December 12, 1967) was an American comics artist best known for his comic-book work on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr.Brent Frankenhoff & Maggie Thompson ''The Greatest Comic Book Covers Of All Time''. I ...
and Don G. Moore, Carl Anderson's ''
Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
'', Ham Fisher's '' Joe Palooka'', ''
Jungle Jim Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934, as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle J ...
'' by
Paul Norris Paul Leroy Norris (April 26, 1914 – November 5, 2007) was an American comic book artist best known as co-creator of the DC Comics superhero Aquaman, and for a 35-year run as artist of the newspaper comic strip '' Brick Bradford''. Biography ...
and Moore,
Fran Striker Francis Hamilton "Fran" Striker (August 19, 1903 – September 4, 1962) was an American writer for radio and comics, best known for creating the characters the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Early life Born in ...
's ''
The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...
'', '' Mandrake the Magician'' by
Lee Falk Lee Falk (), born Leon Harrison Gross (; April 28, 1911 – March 13, 1999), was an American cartoonist, writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the comic strips ''Mandrake the Magician'' and ''The Phantom''. At the ...
and Phil Davis, J. R. Williams' ''
Out Our Way ''Out Our Way'' was an American single-panel comic strip series by Canadian-American comic strip artist J. R. Williams. Distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and ...
'',
Hal Foster Harold Rudolf Foster, FRSA (August 16, 1892 – July 25, 1982) was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip '' Prince Valiant''. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship ...
's ''
Prince Valiant ''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...
'' and Ed Reed's three-panel ''The Three Bares'', extracted from Reed's ''Off the Record'' gag panel feature. To squeeze three or four strips on a page, some strips appear to have panels slightly cropped and other strips were stacked vertically, with ''The Three Bares'' inserted at the bottom as a filler. A few years later, ''Grit'' reduced the number of pages from 44 to 40, and went from five sections to four sections by combining the comic strips and illustrated stories into a single section. In this format, the strips were scattered about with a single strip used as a design element to relieve the monotony of many grey columns of story text. Charlie Walker, writing in the February 16, 2000, edition of ''The News'' (
Kingstree, South Carolina Kingstree is a city and the county seat of Williamsburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,328 at the 2010 census. History The original town was laid out as Williamsburg by the Lords Proprietors in colonial times, but ...
), described a 1956 issue: :A few weeks ago, Leo Barrineau, who lives at Barrineau's Crossroads, gave me a call. His son Steve, while remodeling the church at Broad Swamp, had discovered a 1956 ''Grit'' newspaper in the walls of the church. When it comes to old newspapers, old pictures and old phonograph records, I don't need Viagra to turn me on. This ''Grit'' was published January 1, 1956. It contained 40 pages and cost a dime. So hop aboard the Twilight Zone Express. Put your memory in reverse, and together, we will remember the way it was. The back page of this 44-year-old newspaper recalled the dramatic events of 1955. The polio vaccine was developed by Dr.
Jonas Salk Jonas Edward Salk (; born Jonas Salk; October 28, 1914June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New ...
. President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. The first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, was launched. In 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. Oklahoma was the No. 1 college football team in the land. :
Bennett Cerf Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearanc ...
wrote a column for ''Grit''. The funnies included ''Blondie'', ''Joe Palooka'', ''The Lone Ranger'', ''Donald Duck'' and ''Henry''. There was a crossword puzzle and a serial, a murder mystery called, ''Tell Her It's Murder''. This copy of ''Grit'' contained the 29th and final chapter. The first ''Grit'' of 1956 also contained predictions for the upcoming year. The unicycle would be the number one sport in the summer of 1956. And the TV program that would replace ''
The $64,000 Question ''The $64,000 Question'' was an American game show broadcast in primetime on CBS-TV from 1955 to 1958, which became embroiled in the 1950s quiz show scandals. Contestants answered general knowledge questions, earning money which doubled as the ...
'' would be one called '' Can You Trust Your Wife?'' And in 1956 just like today, doctors still couldn't cure the common cold. ''Grit'' carried a full-page ad offering Valentine cards for seven cents each. ''Grit'' also carried an ad for Sinclair Gasoline. (Willie Munn operated a Sinclair station at the corner of Main and Jackson streets in Kingstree.) ''Grit'' was recruiting carriers to sell their paper. You could make 4¢ for each paper you sold. ''Grit'' was a pioneer in the introduction of offset printing. It was one of the first newspapers in the US to run color photographs, with the first full-color picture (of the
American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...
) appearing on the front page in June 1963. At its peak in 1969, ''Grit'' had a weekly circulation of 1.5 million copies. The Lamade family owned ''Grit'' for nearly 100 years, but in 1981, ADVO-System, Inc. of
Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
purchased the paper. In 1983, ''Grit'' was purchased by Stauffer Communications, Inc. of
Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...
, which already owned ''Capper's Weekly'', a national tabloid also marketed to rural areas and small towns, albeit mostly in the Great Plains and Midwestern states.


From Williamsport to Topeka

In 1992, ''Grit'' left Williamsport after 111 years and moved its offices to Topeka. At that time, Roberta Peterson was editor-in-chief of ''Grit'' and also of ''Best Recipes'', a bimonthly glossy magazine that grew to be a Top 10 paid circulation national food title. Peterson left the group for a Senior Editor position at Meredith Corporation (''Better Homes and Gardens'', ''Ladies Home Journal'') in 1995, at the time of the magazine group's double sale—first to Morris Communications, and very shortly after in the same year, to Ogden Publications. At that time, publishing of ''Best Recipes'' was suspended.Henning, Laura: "''Grit'' moving after 111 years," ''Editor & Publisher'', October 16, 1993.
/ref> For decades ''Grit'' had published a national edition, a Pennsylvania edition (for sale within the Keystone State, featuring mostly Pennsylvania-related stories) and a local edition. The local edition was the Sunday newspaper for Williamsport and
Lycoming County, Pennsylvania Lycoming County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 114,188. Its county seat is Williamsport. Lycoming County comprises the Williamsport metropolitan statistical area. About northwest ...
, and was circulated in 13 other counties in north-central Pennsylvania as well; the National Edition served essentially as its magazine. This edition stopped publication in the early 1990s, whereupon the '' Williamsport Sun Gazette'' began producing a Sunday edition. Michael R. Rafferty, who later served as a city councilman and mayor of Williamsport (2000–2004), was the last native-born Williamsporter to serve as editor of the ''Grit'' national and city editions, leaving ''Grit'' in 1991. He served as editor of ''Webb Weekly'', a Williamsport publication with an approach similar to ''Grits from 2004 to 2013 when he retired from journalism after 30+ years. In 1995, the Morris Communications Corporation purchased
Stauffer Communications Stauffer Communications was a privately held media corporation based in Topeka, Kansas, that owned many publications and broadcast outlets, including the ''Topeka Capital-Journal'' and WIBW, WIBW-FM, and WIBW-TV. The company operated from 1930 to ...
, giving Morris a total of 32 daily newspapers in 13 states when it added Stauffer's 20 daily papers, including the Stauffer flagship, the ''Topeka Capital-Journal''. Morris president Paul S. Simon said he intended to sell Stauffer's broadcast division, including 11 stations and several radio networks, and Stauffer Magazine Group, which included ''Grit,'' ''Cappers'' (a rural tabloid with a 120-year history, formerly the ''Cappers Weekly'' referred to above) and ''Best Recipes'' magazine. Later that year, ''Grit'' and ''Cappers'' were acquired by Ogden Publications. ''Grit'', which had until this time been biweekly, was then edited by Kathryn Compton as a monthly with the subtitle "Stories of American Life & Tradition." Other Ogden Publications include ''American Life & Traditions'', ''Farm Collector'', ''
Mother Earth News ''Mother Earth News'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 500,520 . It is published in Topeka, Kansas. Since its founding, ''Mother Earth News'' has promoted renewable energy, recycling, family farms, good agricultural ...
'' and ''
Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...
''. Beginning with the September 2006 issue, ''Grit'' converted to an all-glossy,
perfect bound Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...
magazine format and a bi-monthly schedule. The revamped editorial policy encompasses more of a contemporary rural emphasis on content, rather than the nostalgic themes of the previous decade. With a print run of 150,000 and
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...
as the national newsstand distributor, ''Grit'' was displayed and sold at general newsstand outlets, bookstores and specialty farm feed and supply stores, including
Tractor Supply Company Tractor Supply Company (also known as TSCO or TSC), founded in 1938, is an American retail chain of stores that sells products for home improvement, agriculture, lawn and garden maintenance, livestock, equine and pet care for recreational farmers ...
.


References


Sources

*


External links

* *
Meginness, John F. ''History of Lycoming County Pennsylvania'', 1892.
{{Authority control Lifestyle magazines published in the United States Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 2006 Magazines published in Kansas Mass media in Topeka, Kansas Newspapers published in Pennsylvania Publications established in 1882 Williamsport, Pennsylvania