The Associated Negro Press has been in existence less than four years but during that time it has rapidly grown and achieved great success. Today it has a membership of more than 100 newspapers. The establishment of the A. N. P. was the first effort in Negro Journalism to assemble and distribute regularly general news from all sections of the United States and other countries affecting Colored people. Through the work of this organization big news stories now appear simultaneously in all of the leading Negro newspapers. The A. N. P. maintains executive offices in Chicago and permanent bureaus in Washington and New York.
Papers of the Period
Among the present day papers established in this period are: The Boston Guardian, The Nashville Globe, The Atlanta Independent, The Chicago Defender, The Detroit Leader, The Pittsburgh Courier, The St. Louis Argus, The Dallas Express, The Cleveland Advocate, The Negro World, The Indianapolis Ledger, The Indianapolis Recorder, and The Chicago Whip.
CHAPTER VI
PRESENT DAY PAPERS
250 Secular Weeklies
Today over 250 secular Negro newspapers are being published in the United States, with a total circulation of over one million five hundred thousand copies. These papers are published in 34 states and in the district of Columbia.
Papers Have Journalistic Appearance
Papers published in the larger centers where the Negro population is large, such as New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Washington, Detroit, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Atlanta have developed to a high degree. Their make-up on the whole is good; their news stories for the most part conform with accepted journalistic style; their leads are of the summary type; their headlines, although somewhat sensational, are usually well constructed; their news treatment is becoming more impersonal; on the whole they are a great improvement over the Negro papers of the past.
Defender Housed in $200,000 Plant
Negro newspaper offices are being transformed from mere receiving stations for news to newspaper plants. During May, 1921, The Chicago Defender, one of the leading Negro newspapers, moved into a new building fitted up by its owner, Robert S. Abbott, at an expense of over $200,000. The new Defender plant compares favorably with that of any paper of its size in the United States. Its equipment includes four linotype machines, each equipped with two magazines, geared to cast seven lines per minute. The press on which The Defender is printed is a 32-page and color machine, made by the celebrated Goss Printing Press Company. It is driven by a 30 H.P. motor and six men are required for its operation. It prints, folds and counts the papers all in one operation at a speed of 35,000 copies per hour. The paper’s circulation is over 200,000.