Advertising rates were announced as "reasonable," but only about of ads appeared in the whole paper. This sort of 15 column-inches business may explain why the daily lasted only until July 15, 1868.
General news apparently was dull, local news scarce or reporting enterprise below par, for the big news event in the Record's first issue was a naive account of a Sunday school picnic "last week."
The Record started a weekly edition October 7, 1867, which survived the daily for some time. The paper, both daily and weekly, was typographically restrained, with nothing bigger than single-line heads. There was no effort at classification of material, with all types of matter on every page. The Record appears to have drifted from the scene before 1870. In 1876 Conover (Frank) & Co. were publishing another newspaper under the name Daily Record, but its volume number (No. 3 in August 1878) indicates that it was a new venture and not a continuation of the old Record. In the issue of August 18 the Record advertised itself as the only evening paper published in Salem. It was prosperous-appearing—a five-column, four-page paper, with close to 11½ columns of advertising out of its 20 columns of space. The paper sold for 15 cents a week by carrier, 50 cents a month by mail. Telegraphic news was displayed on page 1, and the multiple-deck (several-division) heads were used, of which this is an example:
Telegraphic
Workingmen's Mass Meeting in Washington
English Wheat Prospects
Recently Arrived Russian Wheat Unsaleable
The More Murder Trials
Jones in a Tight Place
Eastern
This heading followed the old style, common in early days of telegraphic news, of bunching in one continuous string all the column or so of telegraph news received, and giving one section of the head to each separate item. Politics, business, court procedure, and whatnot are here all combined confusingly in the one continuous headline.
The Daily Democratic Tocsin ran for a few weeks in January and February 1868. Jernegan & Company were publishers.
