The Press-Radio War in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
lasted from 1933 to 1935.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
publishers were concerned to maintain their own dominance of the news market in the face of the emerging
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
networks. The Press induced the
wire service
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...
s to stop providing
news bulletin
Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
s to
radio broadcaster
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...
s, which then developed their own news-gathering facilities. In response the press launched political, economic and legal campaigns to prevent news being broadcast on radio, culminating in
The Biltmore Agreement
The Biltmore Agreement ultimately settled the press war between newspapers, which had refused their news services to their electronic competitors, and radio.
During the Golden age of radio, there was a decline in newspaper revenues. Radio began a ...
by which major networks were compelled to heavily restrict radio news coverage. However, broadcasters soon developed ways to subvert the terms of this agreement, including the use of newly established
news agencies
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...
such as the
Transradio Press Service.
Background
News was destined to become one of radio's strongest services in the early 1930s, but it still had its struggles. At first, radio announcers would just read newspaper headlines over the air, but gradually networks began purchasing news from
wire services
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...
. In 1932 the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
sold presidential election bulletins to the networks, and programs were interrupted with news flashes. Newspapers objected to this on the grounds that news on radio would diminish the sale of papers.
The three stages of the Press-Radio War
Start of conflict
Stage one began very slowly, and the newspapers were not at all hostile toward broadcasting. In fact, they were helpful in promoting radio in the early 1920s. Initially, the stations were not seen as channels of news delivery, but as promotional devices for the newspapers that owned them. The prospect of
wire service
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...
provision of news to radio upset some print journalists, and that led to the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
issuing a notice to its members that AP news bulletins were not to be used for purposes of broadcasting. One event that led to conflict between the journalists was the
1924 Presidential Election.
Wire services
Stage two, the entry of radio as a new medium was horrifying to the established news distribution source. Prior to radio news moved through wire services, through the newspapers to the people. The press started to fear that if radio started to provide news, then news could bypass the newspapers, thus shifting the flow of news throughout society. This started a fight for self-preservation on the part of newspapers, which could only be won if all journalists stood together. In April 1933 all three wire services agreed to stop providing radio with news bulletins. The anti-radio forces had finally gotten their wish. Broadcasters were now forced to find new ways of obtaining bulletins for their newscasts, and by the fall of 1933
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
established a full news division,
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
followed on a smaller scale and the networks were more independent from print journalists for their news bulletins.
The Biltmore Agreement and its failure
Stage three, print journalists had to find ways to prevent and limit the development of broadcasting. The "attack" on broadcasting took three forms, political lobbying, economic boycott, and legal action. At first it worked, only a few months after networks began broadcasting their own news, they appealed to the press to meet and negotiate a "peace agreement".
A meeting of newspaper publishers, network executives, and wire service representatives, held at the
Biltmore Hotel in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1933, it established
The Biltmore Agreement
The Biltmore Agreement ultimately settled the press war between newspapers, which had refused their news services to their electronic competitors, and radio.
During the Golden age of radio, there was a decline in newspaper revenues. Radio began a ...
. The meeting was called by CBS President
William S. Paley
William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS) from a small radio network into ...
with the purpose to end the long standing dispute as to news broadcasting. It stipulated that networks could air two five-minute newscasts a day, one in the morning after 9:30 A.M. and one in the evening after 9:00 p.m. so they would not compete with the primary hours of newspaper sales. No "hot off the wire" news was to be broadcast, and newscasts were not to have advertising support because this might detract from newspaper advertising. Newspaper publishers ensured that these provisions appeared in
The Biltmore Agreement
The Biltmore Agreement ultimately settled the press war between newspapers, which had refused their news services to their electronic competitors, and radio.
During the Golden age of radio, there was a decline in newspaper revenues. Radio began a ...
because they were the more powerful and wealthiest of the meeting participants.
The deal had barely been a few hours old when its intent began to be subverted. The newspaper publishers agreed to allow radio stations and networks to have commentators. Radio took advantage of this provision, and often these commentators became thinly disguised news reporters. NBC and CBS began their own news gathering activities. At NBC, one person gathered news simply by making telephone calls. Sometimes he scooped newspaper reporters because almost anyone would answer a call at NBC. In addition, he could reward news sources with highly prized tickets to NBC's top shows.
Independent broadcasters did not sign the agreement, leaving a big problem for the press, because only 150 of the 600 radio stations were network owned. Before long, news gathering agencies emerged to fill the vacancy of news sources. The most successful of these agencies was the
Transradio Press Service, which had over 150 subscribers after only 9 months of operation. There was nothing the press could do and no legal justification for taking action against the agencies.
[Jackaway, Gwenyth]
"America's press-radio war of the 1930s: a case study in battles between old and new media."
Durenberger. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Conclusion
Broadcast journalism did not develop until the mid 1930s. Relationships between the older print media and the newer medium of radio were not friendly, and the journalists of the time needed considerable diplomatic skills in dealing with the wire services and their own employers. Disputes between the two media again came to a head in 1938, when newspapers deliberately exaggerated the impact of the CBS radio drama adaptation of ''
The War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
'' to make it appear that the little-heard program had caused a mass panic among listeners that thought CBS was reporting an actual foreign invasion, a myth that its lead actor
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
later embraced.
By the beginning of the next decade the effectiveness and reliability of broadcast journalism was confirmed by the coverage of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
References
*Lott, George
"The Press-Radio War of the 1930s."Journal of Broadcasting 14.3 (1970): 275-78. Taylor and Francis Online. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Press-Radio War
Radio in the United States
1930s in the United States
History of mass media in the United States
American journalism