LEGITIMIZING THE VETERAN PUBLICATION
By JERROLD OWEN, Editor the Pacific Legion
[Mr. Owen read this comprehensive review of the veteran-publication field before the trade and class publication section of the recent Oregon Newspaper Conference. Mr. Owen’s paper indicates a determination to keep this class of publications on a high ethical plane as well as on a commercially paying basis.]
MENTION of “veteran publication” to the average newspaper man, and by that I mean any man who has worked
up through the newspaper profession, is
like waving a red flag at a gentleman cow. This instinctive prejudice is not without
considerable reason. For too many years
the so-called ex-service man’s magazine
has been a vehicle of graft and inefficiency, fulfilling no particular need and
seeking advertising which has been thinly
veiled donations.
This condition still
prevails in some quarters, and the purpose of my little talk today is merely to
point out that illegitimate tactics are not
necessary, and that it is possible for the
veteran to uphold the best publication
traditions and ethics.
Before the conflagration, involving most of the civilized nations, veteran publications were not numerous. They were representative of a comparatively small slice of the country’s population.
After the war came the deluge. Ambitious publishers and opportunists in newspaper and advertising ranks realized that 4,000,000 young men recently out of service cut a considerable swath in organized society. They found patriotism still at high tide, and a general desire on the part of business men to assist the returned veteran.
FLOOD OF NEW PUBLICATIONS
The immediate result was a flood of so-called “veteran publications,” of which virtually none remain today.
These first publications, with a few exceptions, were circulation grafts. Crews of that hardboiled species known as “sheet writers” combed
months, which was long enough to permit
able when subscription obligations were
3 Year or more, dying when their circulation income began to dwindle and advertising revenue became imperative but
could not be found.
those interested in them to gather in sufficient shekels to make retirement profit
not carried out.
At that time there were scores of small veteran organizations springing up, most of which were very short lived. At the present time there are but three major organizations of veterans—the Amefiqan Legion, whose membership rolls are open to all men who served in the army forces of Uncle Sam during the World War; the Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose membership includes Spanish war vete rans as well as overseas veterans in the last war; and the Disabled American Veterans of the World War, composed of men who were wounded or contracted disease in line of duty during the war with Germany.
Of these three, the American Legion is by far the greatest, both numerically and in
of
accomplishment
for
Each of these national organizations has a national publication. The Ameri
size to support state publications, which there are now about 38.
the
country,
coining
money for themselves and the promoters
of the desultory publications.
Few of
these magazines lived more than three
of
FIVE TYPES OF PAPERS
record
country and comrades.
can Legion is the only one of sufficient
turned veteran.
Some dragged along for
We now come to classification of vete
ran publications in the field today. First, there is the magazine or news paper that is privately owned and oper ated without endorsement of any organi zation but for “our boys” and “disabled men in hospitals.” Advertising solicitors for such publications feature the sym
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