PM (newspaper)
{{Short description|New York City newspaper (1940–1948)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = PM
| image =
| caption =
| type = Daily newspaper
| format =
| founders = Ralph Ingersoll
| foundation = June 1940
| ceased publication = June 1948
| price =
| owners =
| editor =
| circulation = 165,000
| political = Liberal
| headquarters = New York City
| ISSN =
| website =
}}
PM was a liberal-leaning daily newspaper published in New York City by Ralph Ingersoll from June 1940 to June 1948 and financed by Chicago millionaire Marshall Field III.
The paper borrowed many elements from weekly news magazines, such as many large photos and at first was bound with staples. In an attempt to be free of pressure from business interests, it did not accept advertising. These departures from the norms of newspaper publishing created excitement in the industry. Some 11,000 people applied for the 150 jobs available when the publication first hired staff.
Publication history
The origin of the name is unknown, although Ingersoll recalled that it probably referred to the fact that the paper appeared post meridiem (in the afternoon); The New Yorker reported that the name had been suggested by Lillian Hellman.{{cite magazine|title=Notes & Comment: Newspaper|magazine=The New Yorker|date=18 May 1940|pages=13–14|url=http://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=17601&startpage=page0000016#folio=012}} (There is no historical evidence for the suggestion that the name was an abbreviation of Picture Magazine.)
The first year of the paper was a general success, though it was already in some financial trouble: its circulation of 100,000–200,000 was insufficient. Circulation averaged 165,000, but the paper never managed to sell the 225,000 copies a day it needed to break even. Marshall Field III had become the paper's funder; quite unusually, he was a "silent partner" in this continually money-losing undertaking.
According to a June 21, 1966, memo from Ingersoll:
{{blockquote|Before the end of the War it was actually operating in the black.... In my opinion at the time and these 20 years later−PM
PM was sold in 1948 and published its final issue on June 22. The next day it was replaced by the New York Star, which folded on January 28, 1949.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
Politics
Chronicles has accused the paper of being Communist-dominated,{{Cite web|url=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/03/no_author/leave-dr-seuss-for-dead/|title = Leave Dr. Seuss for Dead}} but Anya Schiffrin has said that the paper frequently opposed the policies of the Communist Party (CP) and engaged in editorial battles with the CP's paper, the Daily Worker.
In 1946, PM published some of the findings of federal investigator O. John Rogge into the inter-relationship during the 1930s and war years of authoritarian beliefs, armed militia groups, antisemitism and collusion between elected U.S. politicians and the German Nazi propaganda mill. Rogge had little success publishing his information elsewhere for many years.{{Cite book |last=Maddow |title=Prequel An American Fight Against Fascism |pages=303–304}}
Staff
=Editors=
Leo Huberman was labor editor.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
=Writers=
I. F. Stone was the paper's Washington correspondent. He published an award-winning series on European Jewish refugees attempting to run the British blockade to reach Palestine (later collected and published as Underground to Palestine). Staffers included theater critic Louis Kronenberger and film critic Cecelia Ager. Kenneth G. Crawford wrote for PM from 1939 to 1942.
The sports writers were Tom Meany, Tom O’Reilly and George F. T. Ryall, who covered horse racing. Sophie Smoliar was the New York City reporter working frequently with photographer Arthur Felig ("Weegee") (submitted by her son and a collection of her original articles). Elizabeth Hawes wrote about fashion, and her sister Charlotte Adams covered food.
=Contributors=
Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, published more than 400 cartoons on PM
Coulton Waugh created his short-lived strip, Hank, which began April 30, 1945, in PM. The story of a disabled G.I. returning to civilian life, Hank had a unique look due to Waugh's decorative art style, combined with dialogue lettered in upper and lower case rather than the accepted convention of all uppercase lettering in balloons and captions. Some dialogue was displayed with white lettering reversed into black balloons. Hank sought to raise questions about the reasons for war, and how it might be prevented by the next generation. Waugh discontinued it at the very end of 1945 because of eyestrain. Cartoonist Jack Sparling created the short-lived comic strip Claire Voyant, which ran from 1943 to 1948 in PM, and which was subsequently syndicated by the Chicago Sun-Times. Cartoonist Howard Sparber (né Howard Paul Sparber; 1921–2018) contributed after World War II.
The Argentine Cartoonist Dante Quinterno publishes: Patoruzú his successful strip in South America.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
Other writers who contributed articles included Erskine Caldwell, Myril Axlerod, McGeorge Bundy, Saul K. Padover, James Wechsler, eventually the paper's editorial writer, Penn Kimball, later a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Myril Axelrod Bennett, Heywood Hale Broun, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene Lyons, Earl Conrad, Benjamin Stolberg, Louis Adamic, Malcolm Cowley, Tip O'Neill (later Speaker of the House; and Ben Hecht.
=Photographers =
Weegee, Margaret Bourke-White, Ray Platnick and Arthur Leipzig were the primary photographers.
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Julius "Skippy" Adelman (born around 1924)
- John Albert 1910–1972)
- Bernie Aumuller (né Bernard A. Aumuller; 1920–1971), his father, Bernard George Aumuller (1895–1975) was also a photographer
- Gene Badger
- Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971)
- Hugh Broderick (né Hugh J. Broderick; 1910–1971)
- William "Bill" Brunk (Los Angeles Examiner)
- John S. DeBiase (1901–1954)
- John Derry
- Stephen Derry
- David Eisendrath, Jr. (né David Benjamin Eisendrath; 1914–1988)
- Morris Engel (1918–2005)
- Alan Fisher
- Morris Gordon (1918–2005)
- Irving Haberman (né Isaac Haberman; 1916–2003)
- Martin Harris (1908–1971)
- Dan Israel
- Charles Fenno Jacobs (1904–1974)
- Dan Keleher, (né Daniel J. Keleher, Jr., 1908–1952)
- Peter Killian
- Arthur Leipzig (né Isidore Leipzig; 1918–2014)
- Helen Levitt (1913–2009)
- Leo Lieb (né Morris Leo Lieb; 1909–2001)
- Ray Platnick (né Raphael Platnick; 1917–1986)
- Weegee, (pseudonym of Arthur (Usher) Fellig (1899–1968)
- Mary "Morrie" Morris (né Mary Louise Morris; 1914–2009), one of the first female AP photographers and pioneer of white umbrellas used give a softer look to flash lighting and portraiture. She, in June 1937, married filmmaker Ralph Steiner. In 1963, she married classical record producer for Mercury, Harold Lawrence (né Harold Levine; 1923–2011), who, at the time, was the General Manager of the London Symphony Orchestra
{{div col end}}
= Contributing photographers =
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
- Robert Capa (1913–1954)
- Walker Evans (1903–1975)
- Edward Weston (1886–1958)
- Edward Steichen (1879–1973)
- Ralph Steiner (1899–1986)
{{div col end}}
= Sunday magazine section =
Picture News was the Sunday magazine section of PM.
: Editor: William Thomas McCleery (1912–2000){{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
: Managing editor: Herbert Yahraes (né Herbert Conrad Yahraes, Jr.; 1906–1985){{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
: Associate editors: Lorimer Dexter Heywood (1899–1977), Kenneth Stewart, David Rodman Lindsay (1916–1985), Peggy Wright, Gertrude Stamm{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
: Staff: Raymond Abrashkin (1911–1960), Skippy Adelman, Holly Beye (née Helen Beye; 1922–2011), W. Russell Bowie, Jr. (1920–2002) (son of Walter Russell Bowie), Mary Morris (maiden; 1914–2009), Charles Norman (1904–1996), Roger Samuel Pippett (1895–1962), Robert Rice (1916–1998), Selma Robinson (maiden; 1899–1977) (mother-in-law of Hymen B. Mintz), Dale Rooks (né Rhine Dale Rooks; 1917–1954) (photographer), Lillian E. Ross (née Lillian Rosovsky; 1918–2017){{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
: Art director: H. Russell Countryman{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}
See also
Citations
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
{{cite book |last=Hoopes |first=Roy |url=https://archive.org/details/ralphingersollbi0000hoop |title=Ralph Ingersoll: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Atheneum |year=1985 |page=216 |oclc=1088214949 }}
{{Cite thesis |title=We Are Against People who Push Other People Around: A Study of the Newspaper |type=B.A. |author-link=Anya Schiffrin |last=Schiffrin |first=Anya |publisher=Reed College |year=1984 |oclc=268862072}}
Ingersoll to Mrs. Leighner, Boston University Gottlieb Archives
{{cite news |author-link=Roger Starr |last=Starr |first=Roger |url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/pm-new-yorks-highbrow-tabloid-12638.html |title=PM: New York's Highbrow Tabloid |work=City Journal |issue=Summer 1993 |access-date=2018-01-24}}
{{cite web |url=https://www.asmp.org/resources/about/history/interview-founders/arthur-leipzig/ |title=Interviews with ASMP Founder: Arthur Leipzig |quote=(re: Arthur Leipzig), interview and transcript by Kay Reese & Mimi Leipzig |publisher=American Society of Media Photographers |year=1966}}
{{cite news |title=John S. DeBiase |work=Daily News |date=1954-05-18 |page=27C}} (accessible via {{URL|https://www.newspapers.com/image/453351644|Newspapers.com}}, subscription required)
{{Citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmczAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA54 |title=Jazz Pix: Skippy Adelman's Pictures Have the Spontaniety That is the Very Soul of Jazz |publisher=Popular Photography |volume=18 |number=6 |date=June 1946 |page=54}}
{{Citation |url=https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/44630/1/P_and_W_Book4CD.pdf |title=Tabloid, Inc.: Crimes, Newspapers, Narratives |author-link1=V. Penelope Pelizzon |last1=Pelizzon |first1=V. Penelope |first2=Nancy M. |last2=West |work=Theory and Interpretation of Narrative |publisher=Ohio State University Press |year=2010|hdl=1811/44630 }}
}}
General and cited references
- Jason E. Hill (2018). Artist as Reporter: Weegee, Ad Reinhardt, and the PM News Picture. Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-29143-0}}.
- Paul Milkman (1997). PM: A New Deal in Journalism 1940–1948. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. {{ISBN|0-8135-2434-2}}.
External links
- [http://fultonhistory.com/My%20Old%20Photos/Historical%20Newspapers%20United%20States%20and%20Canada/New%20York%20NY%20PM%20%20Daily/index.html Fulton History] newspaper archive for PM
- [http://www.engelphoto.com/photographs/pm-newspaper/ Morris Engel Archive]
- [http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/PM_newspaper_tabloid_history Old Magazine Articles]
- [http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/miscellaneous/pm.html Kansas State University]
- [http://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/index.html Dr. Seuss Went to War]
- {{cite web |title=90 años de Patoruzú: de cómo un tehuelche se convirtió en el máximo héroe de la historieta argentina |url=https://www.infobae.com/cultura/2018/11/04/90-anos-de-patoruzu-de-como-un-tehuelche-se-convirtio-en-el-maximo-heroe-de-la-historieta-argentina/ |website=infobae |language=es-ES}}
{{Dr. Seuss}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1940 establishments in New York City
Category:1948 disestablishments in New York (state)
Category:Daily newspapers published in New York City
Category:Defunct newspapers published in New York City
Category:Newspapers established in 1940
Category:Publications disestablished in 1948
Category:Socialist newspapers published in the United States