Before radio and television, E. W. Scripps's twenty-one newspapers, major newswire service, and prominent news syndication service comprised the first truly national media organization in the United States. Dale E. Zacher details the scope, organization, and character of the mighty Scripps empire during World War I and reveals how the pressures of the market, government censorship, propaganda, and progressivism transformed news coverage.

Zacher's account delves into details inside a major newspaper operation during World War I and provides fascinating accounts of its struggles with competition, attending to patriotic duties, and internal editorial dissent. Zacher also looks at war-related issues, considering the newspapers' relationship with President Woodrow Wilson, American neutrality, the move to join the war, and fallout from disillusionment over the actuality of war. As Zacher shows, the progressive spirit and political independence at the Scripps newspapers came under attack and was changed forever during the era.

Dale E. Zacher is an assistant professor in the School of Mass Communication at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

Acknowledgments   ix
Introduction   1
1. The concern: June 27, 1914   13
2. Seeds Get Planted: June 1914 to May 1915   32
3. Harsh Realities: May to November   1915   58
4. "Genuine Enthusiastic Support": November 1915 to November 1916   81
5. Democracy versus Autocracy: December 1916 to July 1917   106
6. "To Advocate a Policy and to Yourself Meet Its Requirements": July to December 1917   137
7. Reconsidering an "Ostrich Type of Patriotism": 1918   172
Conclusion: "Harder . . . to Be of Public Service"   211
Notes   225
Bibliography   279
Index   281