Preserving the press : how daily newspapers mobilized to keep their readers /

The author chronicles his term as director of the Newspaper Readership Project (1977-1983), created by the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the Newspaper Advertising Bureau to address the problems of a troubled industry. Bogart, "driven by a missionary goal to improve the American press," came to grips with the dangers of declining readership and related problems, including advertising losses, illiteracy, competition from the electronic media, and a scarcity of newspaper carriers. His conversions were scarce for several reasons: the independence of the sponsoring publishers and their fear of antitrust actions; the project's low budgets; and the industry's pursuit of short-term profits at the expense of enlightened strategies. On the positive side, Bogart says the project promoted unity in the newspaper industry and inspired "soul-searching" and even some action. Bogart is a clear chronicler and perceptive analyst; he is critical of others (and himself) yet never spiteful. But his style, though witty, is dry and riddled with acronyms and excerpts from business letters. Still, he delivered what he promised, an "institutional case history" that should be useful to students of newspapers and other businesses. In his afterword, Bogart rises to eloquence as he pinpoints the newspaper's role in embodying "the collective memory without which no society can exist." He concludes that it is not going the way of the dinosaur.-A. R. Cannella, Central Connecticut State University