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{{Short description|US nationally syndicated Sunday magazine}}
{{italic title}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
[[File:This Week magazine cover Sept 24 1939.jpg|thumb|200px|upright|McClelland Barclay cover for ''This Week'' (September 24, 1939)]]
{{Infobox magazine
{| align="right"
| title = This Week
| __TOC__
| image_file = This Week magazine cover Sept 24 1939.jpg
|}
| image_alt =
'''''This Week''''' was a nationally syndicated [[Sunday magazine]] supplement that was included in American newspapers between 1935 and 1969. At its peak in 1963, ''This Week'' was distributed with the Sunday editions of 42 newspapers having a total circulation of 14.6 million.
| image_caption = [[McClelland Barclay]] cover for ''This Week'' (September 24, 1939)
| editor = [[Marie Mattingly Meloney]] (1935–1943)
| editor_title = Editor
| previous_editor =
| staff_writer =
| frequency = Weekly
| circulation =
| category = [[news magazine]], fiction
| total_circulation= 14.6 million
| circulation_year= 1963
| publisher = [[Joseph P. Knapp]]
| company = Publication Corporation<ref>{{cite news |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/10/88920146.html?pageNumber=41 |title=Crowell Collier planning merger; offers $33&nbsp;million stock to Publication Corp., Printers |date=10 January 1968 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |via=timesmachine.nytimes.com |access-date=2016-04-23}}</ref>
| firstdate = February 24, 1935
| lastdate = November 2, 1969
| country = [[United States]]
| based = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| website =
| issn =
}}
'''''This Week''''' was a nationally [[Print syndication|syndicated]] [[Sunday magazine]] supplement that was included in American newspapers between 1935 and 1969. In the early 1950s, it accompanied 37&nbsp;Sunday newspapers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://giam.typepad.com/100_years_of_illustration/2011/10/roy-mckie.html |title=100&nbsp;years of illustration and design |date=October 2011 |author=McKie, Roy |website=giam.typepad.com}}</ref> A decade later, at its peak in 1963, ''This Week'' was distributed with the Sunday editions of 42&nbsp;newspapers for a total circulation of 14.6&nbsp;million.


When it went out of business in 1969 it was the oldest syndicated newspaper supplement in the United States.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14>Henry Raymont, [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20C15FF345E1B7493C6A81783D85F4D8685F9 "This Week Magazine Ends Publication Nov. 2,"] ''[[The New York Times]],'' August 14, 1969, page 27.</ref> The newspapers it was distributed with include the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', the ''[[Dallas News]]'', ''[[The Plain Dealer]]'' ([[Cleveland, Ohio]]), and the ''[[Boston Herald]]''. Magazine historian Phil Stephensen-Payne noted, "It grew from a circulation of four million in 1935 to nearly 12 million in 1957, far outstripping other fiction-carrying weeklies such as ''[[Collier's Weekly|Collier's]]'', ''[[Liberty (1924–1950)|Liberty]]'' and even ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' (all of which eventually folded)."<ref>[http://www.philsp.com/data/data393.html Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central Publications.]</ref>
It was the oldest syndicated newspaper supplement in the United States when it went out of business in 1969.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14>{{cite news |first=Henry |last=Raymont |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/08/14/archives/this-week-magazine-ends-publication-nov-2-39-subscribers-given.html |title=''This Week Magazine'' ends publication Nov.&nbsp;2 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=14 August 1969 |page=27}}</ref> It was distributed with the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', ''[[The Dallas Morning News]]'', ''[[The Plain Dealer]]'' ([[Cleveland, Ohio]]), the ''[[Boston Herald]]'', and others. Magazine historian Phil Stephensen-Payne noted,
: "It grew from a circulation of four million in 1935 to nearly 12&nbsp;million in 1957, far outstripping other fiction-carrying weeklies such as ''[[Collier's]]'', ''[[Liberty (1924–1950)|Liberty]]'' and even ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' (all of which eventually folded)."<ref>{{cite web |last=Stephensen-Payne |first=Phil |title=Data&nbsp;393 |series=Galactic Central Publications |website=philsp.com |url=http://www.philsp.com/data/data393.html}}</ref>


== Syndication ==
== History ==
=== Foundation and early years ===
''This Week'' was being published as the ''New York Herald Tribune Sunday Magazine''<ref name = Time1942/> when publisher [[Joseph P. Knapp]] changed its name and began to [[Print syndication|syndicate]] it to other newspapers.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,754559-1,00.html "Press: Knapp's Week"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', February 24, 1935.</ref> The first issue appeared on February 24, 1935.<ref>William I. Nichols, [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/02/us-doomed-by-a-culture-of-leisure.html quoted in "The Daily Mirror,"] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', February 28, 2010.</ref> The magazine's editor at the time was [[Marie Mattingly Meloney|Marie Mattingly "Missy" Meloney]], who used the professional name Mrs. William Brown Meloney;<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30B17FE3F59147B93C7AB178DD85F478485F9 "Mrs. William Brown Meloney,"] editorial in ''[[The New York Times]],'' June 25, 1943.</ref><ref name = Time1949>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799785,00.html "The Press: Sunday Puncher"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', February 7, 1949.</ref> she had been editing the ''[[New York Herald Tribune|Herald Tribune]]'s'' Sunday magazine since 1926.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770005-1,00.html "The Press: Herald Tribune's Lady"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', October 8, 1934.</ref> In ''The New York Times'', Henry Raymont wrote:
''This Week'' was being published as the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]] Sunday Magazine''<ref name = Time1942/> when publisher [[Joseph P. Knapp]] changed its name and began to [[Print syndication|syndicate]] it to other newspapers.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,754559-1,00.html |department=The Press |title=Knapp's week |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=24 February 1935|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106195013/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,754559-1,00.html |archive-date=November 6, 2012 }}</ref> The first issue appeared on February 24, 1935.<ref>{{cite news |first=William I. |last=Nichols |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2010/02/us-doomed-by-a-culture-of-leisure.html |title=quoted in ''The Daily Mirror'' |newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]] |date=28 February 2010}}</ref> The magazine's editor at the time was [[Marie Mattingly Meloney|Marie Mattingly "Missy" Meloney]], who professionally went by the name "Mrs.&nbsp;William Brown Meloney";<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/06/25/87420140.pdf |title=Mrs.&nbsp;William Brown Meloney |type=editorial |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=25 June 1943}}</ref><ref name=Time1949>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799785,00.html |department=The Press |title=Sunday puncher |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=7 February 1949|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131015821/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799785,00.html |archive-date=January 31, 2011 }}</ref> she had been editing the ''[[New York Herald Tribune|Herald Tribune]]'s'' Sunday magazine since 1926.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770005-1,00.html |department=The Press |title=''Herald Tribune''<nowiki/>'s lady |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=8 October 1934|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106195019/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770005-1,00.html |archive-date=November 6, 2012 }}</ref> In ''[[The New York Times]]'', Henry Raymont wrote:
: During the early years, ''This Week'''s editorial content was made up mainly of fiction articles by such major writers as [[Sax Rohmer]], [[Erle Stanley Gardner]], [[Pearl Buck]], [[P. G. Wodehouse]] and [[Bruce Catton]]. It also published articles on national affairs by such major writers as former President [[Herbert Hoover]], [[Adlai Stevenson II]], [[Richard Nixon]], {{nobr|and [[Nelson Rockefeller]]. — H. Raymont (1969)<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>}}


===Peak===
<blockquote>During the early years, This Week's editorial content was made up mainly of fiction articles by such major writers as [[Sax Rohmer]], [[Erle Stanley Gardner]], [[Pearl Buck]], [[P.G.Wodehouse]] and [[Bruce Catton]]. It also published articles on national affairs by such major writers as former President [[Herbert Hoover|Herbert H. Hoover]], [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai E. Stevenson]], [[Richard M. Nixon]] and [[Nelson Rockefeller]].<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/></blockquote>
[[File:Buchenwald Newspaper American Chandler Nichols Adler 03474.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|American newspaper editors speak with survivors at a hospital in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp, April&nbsp;1945. Left to right: [[Norman Chandler]], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''; William I. Nichols (leaning forward, center), ''This Week'' magazine; and [[Julius Ochs Adler]], ''[[The New York Times]]''.]]
In 1942, ''This Week'' cut its size down and eliminated run-overs onto back pages.<ref name=Time1942>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795692,00.html |department=The Press |title=Different this week |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=5 January 1942|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111182332/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795692,00.html |archive-date=November 11, 2007 }}</ref> It also changed to including 52% articles and 48% fiction; at one time it had contained 80% fiction.<ref name = Time1942/>


William I. Nichols became editor of the magazine in June&nbsp;1943, just before the death of Meloney the same month,<ref name=Time1943>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851808,00.html |department=The Press |title=This week's spirit |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=14 June 1943|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214182305/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851808,00.html |archive-date=December 14, 2008 }}</ref> and a year later the magazine started to turn a profit.<ref name = Time1949/> In 1948, ''This Week'' surpassed the ''[[American Weekly]]'' as the American newspaper supplement with the largest advertising revenue.<ref name=Time1949/> Nichols turned the financial fortunes of ''This Week'' around by "shun[ning] anything controversial":
==Peak==
:"I'm neither pious nor preachy, but my first principle is success and [decency] has paid off in success. You can bore a mass audience to death with acres of flesh. Why did [[burlesque]] {{nobr|die?" — W.I. Nichols (1949)<ref name=Time1949/>}}
In 1942, ''This Week'' cut its size down and eliminated run-overs to back pages.<ref name = Time1942>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795692,00.html "Press: Different This Week"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', January 5, 1942.</ref> It also changed to including 52 percent articles and 48 percent fiction; at one time it had contained 80 percent fiction.<ref name = Time1942/>


By 1963, ''This Week'' reached its highest circulation.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>
William I. Nichols became editor of the magazine in June 1943, just before the death of Meloney the same month,<ref name=Time1943>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851808,00.html "The Press: This Week's Spirit,"] ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', June 14, 1943.</ref> and a year later the magazine started to turn a profit.<ref name = Time1949/> In 1948, ''This Week'' surpassed the ''[[American Weekly]]'' as the top American newspaper supplement in terms of advertising revenue.<ref name = Time1949/> Nichols turned the financial fortunes of ''This Week'' around by "shun[ning] anything controversial": "I'm neither pious nor preachy, but my first principle is success and [decency] has paid off in success. You can bore a mass audience to death with acres of flesh. Why did [[burlesque]] die?"<ref name =Time1949/> By 1963, ''This Week'' reached its peak in circulation.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>


==Cartoonists==
===Demise===
Later, ''This Week'' was owned by Publication Corporation, which was taken over by [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Crowell, Collier & Macmillan]] in a January&nbsp;1968 merger, but the magazine was "already fighting for survival".{{cn|date=October 2023|reason=Quote requires page nr.}} [[William Woestendiek]], former editor of [[IBM]]'s ''Think'' magazine and former city editor of ''[[The Houston Post]]'', was brought in to revamp the editorial format. "We tried hard to turn out a better editorial product," an unnamed Crowell, Coller executive told ''[[The New York Times]]''. "We succeeded in doing it, but nobody wanted it."<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>
The numerous cartoonists who contributed to ''This Week'' included [[Irwin Caplan]], Dick Cavalli, [[Chon Day]], Robert Day, [[Frederick Rowland Emett|Rowland Emett]], [[Paul Giambarba]], Tom Henderson, [[Bil Keane]], Bill King, [[Clyde Lamb]], Harry Mace, [[Roy McKie]], [[Ronald Searle]], Vahan Shirvanian, Ton Smits, [[Ralph Stein]], Henry Syverson, [[George Wolfe (cartoonist)|George Wolfe]] and [[Bill Yates]]. Giambarba's series of ''Angelino'' cartoons ran in ''This Week'' during the late 1950s. Caplan contributed a regular weekly thematic grouping of cartoons, sometimes in the form of a vertical comic strip.


The merged company
Cartoonist Stein was also ''This Week'''s Auto Editor, expanding his material into a book, ''This Week's Glove-Compartment Auto Book'' (Random House, 1964). [[Crockett Johnson]] created ''The Saga of Quilby: A Ghost Story Especially Devised for Advertisers Who Stay Up Late'' (1955), a pamphlet designed to sell advertising space in ''This Week''. A collection, ''What's Funny About That? A Cartoon Carnival from This Week Magazine'' (E.P. Dutton, 1954) included a dozen profiles of the magazine's cartoonists and an article on cartoon devices and terminology by [[Mort Walker]]. Many cartoons in ''This Week'' were devised by gagwriter Bob McCully:
: "began to subsidize the magazine last May&nbsp;[1969] in the hope of restoring circulation, build advertising and make it a self-sustaining enterprise by Aug.&nbsp;1".{{cn|date=October 2023|reason=Quote requires page nr.}}
:"There are people who can just look around, on the street or at parties, in restaurants or on buses and see cartoon possibilities in dozens of situations," Bob says wryly. "Not me. I have to sit down and just plain think 'em up." McCully sends his cartoon ideas out on small 6-by-3½-inch cards, using a minimum of words. Here's how the card read which he submitted with an idea that eventually appeared as a cartoon in ''This Week'' magazine. SCENE: Four garbagemen are standing beside the garbage can in the backyard of a house. Each one is holding his cap in his hand. The lady of the house is standing nearby. She seems embarrassed as one of the garbagemen says: TITLE: "... and so we're proud to announce that you've been selected as Miss Sanitary Garbage Can of 1949."<ref>[http://www.profitfrog.com/profitable-hobbies-articles/cartoon-idea-writer.htm Profit Frog: "Cartoonists Follow His Lines"]</ref>
That effort was unsuccessful, and subscribing newspapers, with the then-total circulation of 9.9&nbsp;million, were offered the opportunity to keep the supplement going by paying about $5 for 1,000&nbsp;copies. The attempt was fruitless, said Fred H. Stapleford, president and publisher of United Newspaper Corporation, and he announced that the last number would be issued on November&nbsp;2, 1969.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/> In a letter to the subscriber newspapers, he said:
: I deeply regret having to advise you that the necessary circulation commitment cannot be attained. It is a pity that ''This Week'', so long a distinguished member of the newspaper family, evidently has outlasted its economic usefulness to newspapers and advertisers ... We believe it would be foolhardy to continue publishing when all the vital signs are {{nobr|negative. — F.H. Stapleford (1969)<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>}}


A memorandum to the 160&nbsp;''This Week'' employees pledged that
==Writers==
: "every effort would be made to find [them] jobs in other publications of Crowell, Collier, one of the nation's largest book publishing and educational business concerns."<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>

== Contributors ==
===Cartoonists===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Roymckiedog.jpg|right|thumb|220px|''This Week'' cartoon by [[Roy McKie]] (1954).]] -->
The numerous cartoonists who contributed to ''This Week'' included [[Irwin Caplan]], [[Dick Cavalli]], [[Chon Day]], [[Robert Day (cartoonist)|Robert Day]], [[Frederick Rowland Emett|Rowland Emett]], [[Paul Giambarba]], Tom Henderson, [[Bil Keane]], Bill King, [[Clyde Lamb]], Harry Mace, [[Roy McKie]], [[Ronald Searle]], [[Vahan Shirvanian]], [[Ton Smits]], [[Ralph Stein]], [[Henry Syverson]], [[George Wolfe (cartoonist)|George Wolfe]] and [[Bill Yates]]. Giambarba's series of ''Angelino'' cartoons ran in ''This Week'' during the late 1950s. Caplan contributed a regular weekly thematic grouping of cartoons, sometimes in the form of a vertical comic strip.

Cartoonist Stein was also ''This Week'''s Auto Editor, expanding his material into a book, ''This Week's Glove-Compartment Auto Book'' (Random House, 1964). [[Crockett Johnson]] created ''The Saga of Quilby: A ghost story especially devised for advertisers who stay up late'' (1955), a pamphlet designed to sell advertising space in ''This Week''. A collection of cartoons<ref>{{cite book |title=What's Funny About That? A cartoon carnival from ''This Week'' magazine |publisher=E.P. Dutton |year=1954}}</ref> included a dozen profiles of the magazine's cartoonists and an article on cartoon devices and terminology by [[Mort Walker]].

Many cartoons in ''This Week'' were devised by gagwriter Bob McCully. One writer noted about him:

{{blockquote|
McCully sends his cartoon ideas out on small 6×3½&nbsp;inch cards, using a minimum of words. Here's how the card read which he submitted with an idea that eventually appeared as a cartoon in ''This Week'' magazine.
:
'''''Scene''''': Four garbagemen are standing beside the garbage can in the backyard of a house. Each one is holding his cap in his hand. The lady of the house is standing nearby. She seems embarrassed as one of the garbagemen says:
:
'''''Title''''': "... and so we're proud to announce that you've been selected as Miss Sanitary Garbage Can of 1949."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.profitfrog.com/profitable-hobbies-articles/cartoon-idea-writer.htm |website=Profit Frog |title=Cartoonists follow his lines |department=Profitable hobbies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306180049/http://www.profitfrog.com/cartoon-idea-writer/ |archive-date=March 6, 2016}}</ref>
}}

===Writers===
Contributors to ''This Week'' included:
Contributors to ''This Week'' included:
*[[Max Brand]]
*[[George Harmon Coxe]]
*[[Agatha Christie]]
*[[Agatha Christie]]
*[[Lord Dunsany]]
*[[Arthur C. Clarke]]
*[[C.H. Garrigues]]
*[[C.H. Garrigues]]
*[[John D. MacDonald]]
*[[Erle Stanley Gardner]]
*[[Wilferd Arlan Peterson]]
*[[Wilferd Arlan Peterson]]
*[[Emily Post]]
*[[Ellery Queen]]

==Demise==
Later, ''This Week'' was owned by Publication Corporation, which was taken over by [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Crowell, Collier & Macmillan]] in a January 1968 merger, but the magazine was "already fighting for survival." William Woestendiek, former editor of [[IBM]]'s ''Think'' magazine and former city editor of ''[[The Houston Post]]'', was brought in to revamp the editorial format. "We tried hard to turn out a better editorial product," an unnamed Crowell, Coller executive told ''The New York Times.'' "We succeeded in doing it, but nobody wanted it."<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>

The merged company "began to subsidize the magazine last May [1969] in the hope of restoring circulation, build advertising and make it a self-sustaining enterprise by Aug. 1." That effort was unsuccessful, and subscribing newspapers, with the then-total circulation of 9.9 million, were offered the opportunity to keep the supplement going by paying about $5 for each 1,000 copies. The attempt was fruitless, said Fred H. Stapleford, president and publisher of United Newspaper Corporation, and he announced that the last number would be issued on November 2, 1969.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/> In a letter to the subscriber newspapers, he said:
<blockquote>I deeply regret having to advise you that the necessary circulation commitment cannot be attained. It is a pity that ''This Week'', so long a distinguished member of the newspaper family, evidently has outlasted its economic usefulness to newspapers and advertisers... We believe it would be foolhardy to continue publishing when all the vital signs are negative.<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/></blockquote>

A memorandum to the 160 ''This Week'' employees pledged that "every effort would be made to find them jobs in other publications of Crowell, Collier, one of the nation's largest book publishing and educational business concerns."<ref name=NYT1969.08.14/>


==References==
==References==
Line 49: Line 87:
*[http://www.spoonercentral.com/2005/KnappsWeek.html ''This Week'''s J. P. Knapp]
*[http://www.spoonercentral.com/2005/KnappsWeek.html ''This Week'''s J. P. Knapp]


[[Category:American weekly magazines]]
[[Category:Weekly magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:New York Herald Tribune]]
[[Category:New York Herald Tribune]]
[[Category:Publications established in 1935]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1935]]
[[Category:Publications disestablished in 1969]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1969]]
[[Category:Sunday magazines]]
[[Category:1935 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1969 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Newspaper supplements]]

Latest revision as of 11:48, 30 August 2024

This Week
McClelland Barclay cover for This Week (September 24, 1939)
EditorMarie Mattingly Meloney (1935–1943)
Categoriesnews magazine, fiction
FrequencyWeekly
PublisherJoseph P. Knapp
Total circulation
(1963)
14.6 million
First issueFebruary 24, 1935
Final issueNovember 2, 1969
CompanyPublication Corporation[1]
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City, New York
LanguageEnglish

This Week was a nationally syndicated Sunday magazine supplement that was included in American newspapers between 1935 and 1969. In the early 1950s, it accompanied 37 Sunday newspapers.[2] A decade later, at its peak in 1963, This Week was distributed with the Sunday editions of 42 newspapers for a total circulation of 14.6 million.

It was the oldest syndicated newspaper supplement in the United States when it went out of business in 1969.[3] It was distributed with the Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), the Boston Herald, and others. Magazine historian Phil Stephensen-Payne noted,

"It grew from a circulation of four million in 1935 to nearly 12 million in 1957, far outstripping other fiction-carrying weeklies such as Collier's, Liberty and even The Saturday Evening Post (all of which eventually folded)."[4]

History

[edit]

Foundation and early years

[edit]

This Week was being published as the New York Herald Tribune Sunday Magazine[5] when publisher Joseph P. Knapp changed its name and began to syndicate it to other newspapers.[6] The first issue appeared on February 24, 1935.[7] The magazine's editor at the time was Marie Mattingly "Missy" Meloney, who professionally went by the name "Mrs. William Brown Meloney";[8][9] she had been editing the Herald Tribune's Sunday magazine since 1926.[10] In The New York Times, Henry Raymont wrote:

During the early years, This Week's editorial content was made up mainly of fiction articles by such major writers as Sax Rohmer, Erle Stanley Gardner, Pearl Buck, P. G. Wodehouse and Bruce Catton. It also published articles on national affairs by such major writers as former President Herbert Hoover, Adlai Stevenson II, Richard Nixon, and Nelson Rockefeller. — H. Raymont (1969)[3]

Peak

[edit]
American newspaper editors speak with survivors at a hospital in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp, April 1945. Left to right: Norman Chandler, Los Angeles Times; William I. Nichols (leaning forward, center), This Week magazine; and Julius Ochs Adler, The New York Times.

In 1942, This Week cut its size down and eliminated run-overs onto back pages.[5] It also changed to including 52% articles and 48% fiction; at one time it had contained 80% fiction.[5]

William I. Nichols became editor of the magazine in June 1943, just before the death of Meloney the same month,[11] and a year later the magazine started to turn a profit.[9] In 1948, This Week surpassed the American Weekly as the American newspaper supplement with the largest advertising revenue.[9] Nichols turned the financial fortunes of This Week around by "shun[ning] anything controversial":

"I'm neither pious nor preachy, but my first principle is success and [decency] has paid off in success. You can bore a mass audience to death with acres of flesh. Why did burlesque die?" — W.I. Nichols (1949)[9]

By 1963, This Week reached its highest circulation.[3]

Demise

[edit]

Later, This Week was owned by Publication Corporation, which was taken over by Crowell, Collier & Macmillan in a January 1968 merger, but the magazine was "already fighting for survival".[citation needed] William Woestendiek, former editor of IBM's Think magazine and former city editor of The Houston Post, was brought in to revamp the editorial format. "We tried hard to turn out a better editorial product," an unnamed Crowell, Coller executive told The New York Times. "We succeeded in doing it, but nobody wanted it."[3]

The merged company

"began to subsidize the magazine last May [1969] in the hope of restoring circulation, build advertising and make it a self-sustaining enterprise by Aug. 1".[citation needed]

That effort was unsuccessful, and subscribing newspapers, with the then-total circulation of 9.9 million, were offered the opportunity to keep the supplement going by paying about $5 for 1,000 copies. The attempt was fruitless, said Fred H. Stapleford, president and publisher of United Newspaper Corporation, and he announced that the last number would be issued on November 2, 1969.[3] In a letter to the subscriber newspapers, he said:

I deeply regret having to advise you that the necessary circulation commitment cannot be attained. It is a pity that This Week, so long a distinguished member of the newspaper family, evidently has outlasted its economic usefulness to newspapers and advertisers ... We believe it would be foolhardy to continue publishing when all the vital signs are negative. — F.H. Stapleford (1969)[3]

A memorandum to the 160 This Week employees pledged that

"every effort would be made to find [them] jobs in other publications of Crowell, Collier, one of the nation's largest book publishing and educational business concerns."[3]

Contributors

[edit]

Cartoonists

[edit]

The numerous cartoonists who contributed to This Week included Irwin Caplan, Dick Cavalli, Chon Day, Robert Day, Rowland Emett, Paul Giambarba, Tom Henderson, Bil Keane, Bill King, Clyde Lamb, Harry Mace, Roy McKie, Ronald Searle, Vahan Shirvanian, Ton Smits, Ralph Stein, Henry Syverson, George Wolfe and Bill Yates. Giambarba's series of Angelino cartoons ran in This Week during the late 1950s. Caplan contributed a regular weekly thematic grouping of cartoons, sometimes in the form of a vertical comic strip.

Cartoonist Stein was also This Week's Auto Editor, expanding his material into a book, This Week's Glove-Compartment Auto Book (Random House, 1964). Crockett Johnson created The Saga of Quilby: A ghost story especially devised for advertisers who stay up late (1955), a pamphlet designed to sell advertising space in This Week. A collection of cartoons[12] included a dozen profiles of the magazine's cartoonists and an article on cartoon devices and terminology by Mort Walker.

Many cartoons in This Week were devised by gagwriter Bob McCully. One writer noted about him:

McCully sends his cartoon ideas out on small 6×3½ inch cards, using a minimum of words. Here's how the card read which he submitted with an idea that eventually appeared as a cartoon in This Week magazine.

Scene: Four garbagemen are standing beside the garbage can in the backyard of a house. Each one is holding his cap in his hand. The lady of the house is standing nearby. She seems embarrassed as one of the garbagemen says:

Title: "... and so we're proud to announce that you've been selected as Miss Sanitary Garbage Can of 1949."[13]

Writers

[edit]

Contributors to This Week included:

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Crowell Collier planning merger; offers $33 million stock to Publication Corp., Printers". The New York Times. January 10, 1968. Retrieved April 23, 2016 – via timesmachine.nytimes.com.
  2. ^ McKie, Roy (October 2011). "100 years of illustration and design". giam.typepad.com.
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  6. ^ "Knapp's week". The Press. Time. February 24, 1935. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012.
  7. ^ Nichols, William I. (February 28, 2010). "quoted in The Daily Mirror". The Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ "Mrs. William Brown Meloney" (PDF). The New York Times (editorial). June 25, 1943.
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  10. ^ "Herald Tribune's lady". The Press. Time. October 8, 1934. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012.
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  13. ^ "Cartoonists follow his lines". Profitable hobbies. Profit Frog. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016.
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