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successful.*

We tried to develop something in sports--• fresh approach for
the non-sports fan . . I tried to get somebody to write sports who
didn't know anything about it, a good writer though. Then Charles
McCabe came along.

It was my theory--! say mine because this was my own style--
that a newspaper is built upon the written word. And it's not
built, basically, on motion pictures or on television scenes. We
were in competition by this time, pretty strongly, with television.
Therefore we had to stick to our own medium, which was the written
word. Therefore I thought the Chronicle should be the best or the
most lively or delightfully written daily newspaper that I could
publish.

You want to talk about some of the columnists, is that it?
I've gone from promotions to columns, but it's all part of the same
package. Everything was promotion, and the best of all Chronicle
promotions was the quality of the newspaper and its writing.

Riess: Well, in a PSA Magazine article you are quoted as saying when you
took over you saved the newspaper by "giving it back to its
creators," these people, these columnists."**

Newhall: Well, we got them, yes. It's true the Chronicle was saved by the
people who created it.

Riess : I'm interested in how they came to the Chronicle, and I'm interested
in the business end of it, how you syndicated these people, and what
the benefits to the paper were of that.

Newhall : Well, basically, they were all our own columnists. We had a few
syndicated columns , but few of the syndicated columns will become
popular . They normally don't pack the punch that a local guy will
that you're paying on your own payroll. For example, you can get a
syndicated columnist, a top man, for $25, $30, $40 a week. And
you'll pay your good columnists, you know, $1,000 or $2,000 a week,
depending . That's quite a difference.

Riess: Yes . Well, then did you sell these people to other papers?

*The UCl.A Office of Oral History is conducting an oral history with
Terrence O'Flaherty .

**"Newhall says he saved the paper by giving it back to its
creators: 'We decided that we were going to get every writing talent
we could, and we put together a remarkable group.'" PSA Magazine,
November 1982 .