The JOA test, and the rivalry as a civic institution with its publisher

1872–1938 · TESTED NEGATIVE FOR THE AGREEMENT; THE RIVALRY DUG

The joint-operating-agreement test, with the searches shown: no joint operating agreement, shared press, or joint agency appears anywhere in the Tribune's, the Enterprise's or the News-Times' records as searched — not in Howard, not in the papers' own histories, not in the JOA literature (Picard's study of the agreements' demise canvasses Indiana's JOAs at Evansville and the renegotiations at Fort Wayne; South Bend is not in the JOA record at all). The structural reason is visible in the preceding article: a JOA yokes two dailies in one city under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, and South Bend's second daily died in 1938, thirty-two years before the Act; the Enterprise was a weekly in another city under other owners. Verdict: TESTED NEGATIVE — there was never a JOA on this ground because there was never the pair of papers one requires. What there was, was a rivalry, and it was a civic institution: for twenty-five years (1913–1938) Republican Tribune and Democratic News-Times fought over the same city's news in what the History Museum calls "high-spirited competition," two front pages on every story, two editorial voices on every question, ward by ward — and the rivalry's end, by the News-Times' closure in 1938, left the Tribune South Bend's only daily for the rest of the century, a one-paper fact every Osceola reader of the next three generations lived inside. The publisher the pattern asks for stands in the broadcast archive: Franklin D. Schurz Sr., Alfred Miller's nephew, editor and publisher of the Tribune (1954–1972 in the Indiana Broadcast History Archive's dating, after F. A. Miller's long tenure), chairman of the Schurz company that held the paper and WSBT together. His famous west-side story — that the publisher took polka lessons and sponsored weekly polka nights on South Bend's Polish west side — is printed as what the sources themselves call it, a popular legend, because a publisher courting the Polish wards is exactly the kind of story a rivalry era mints, and this branch prints legends labeled. F. A. Miller, the preceding publisher, supplies the rivalry's ethic in his university honors citation: he "welcomed competition" — and the Tribune he ran grew to 110,000 circulation, third largest in Indiana, with a competitor across town for most of it.

Sources:

1. JOA searches run for this row: the Tribune/Enterprise/News-Times corporate records (Howard; the papers' histories; the GateHouse/Gannett sale record) and Picard, "Natural Death, Euthanasia, and Suicide: The Demise of Joint Operating Agreements," Journal of Media Business Studies 4(2) (2007) — Indiana JOAs at Evansville; Fort Wayne renegotiations; no South Bend agreement in the record; Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 against the News-Times' 1938 closure.
2. The History Museum (South Bend) — the News-Times/Tribune "high-spirited competition"; the News-Times closure of 27 Dec. 1938 leaving the Tribune the city's only daily.
3. Indiana Broadcast History Archive — Franklin D. Schurz Sr.: longtime editor and publisher of the Tribune, editor-publisher 1954–72, chairman of Schurz Communications. The polka story as "a popular legend," per the Tribune's own biographical tradition, labeled in the text. Indiana University Honors — Frederick A. Miller: welcomed competition; circulation 110,000, third largest in Indiana.