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US nationally syndicated Sunday magazine From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
McClelland Barclay cover for This Week (September 24, 1939) | |
| Editor | Marie Mattingly Meloney (1935–1943) |
|---|---|
| Categories | news magazine, fiction |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Publisher | Joseph P. Knapp |
| Total circulation (1963) | 14.6 million |
| First issue | February 24, 1935 |
| Final issue | November 2, 1969 |
| Company | Publication Corporation[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City, New York |
| Language | English |
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,
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:
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":
By 1963, This Week reached its highest circulation.[3]
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
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:
A memorandum to the 160 This Week employees pledged that
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]
Contributors to This Week included:
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