E. W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers

Abstract

Edward Willis Scripps revolutionized the newspaper industry by applying modern business practices to his chain of more than forty newspapers and creating a telegraphic news service and illustrated news features syndicate. Convinced that big business was corrupting the American press, Scripps actively resisted supporting his newspapers through advertising. He also aimed them at the working class, an audience virtually ignored by most newspaper publishers of his era. Maintaining that the press should support the democratic endeavor by informing its largest constituency, Scripps succeeded in creating a string of small, cheap newspapers that were advocates for the common people: crusading for lower streetcar fares, free textbooks for public school children, municipal ownership of utilities, and pure food legislation, among many other causes. Gerald Baldasty's portrait of this long-neglected entrepreneurial giant is the first major academic study to draw on Scripps' business correspondence. Psalter is one of the most valuable illuminated manuscripts to survive from the Byzantine Empire. One of only a few fixed points guiding the historian's understanding of Byzantine art and society, the Theodore Psalter's illumination is a uniquely rich source of insight into monastic organization, spirituality, book production, and a host of other aspects of Byzantine life. This facsimile CD-ROM version of the Psalter, produced from the original text held in the British Library Rare Books collection, offers unprecedented, virtual hands-on access to this precious volume. The innovative electronic format provides a complete display of all 416 pages, with magnified views of every illustration as well as a fully searchable text in the original Greek and in English translation. Complete with hyperlinked descriptions and full identifications of figures on every page, the facsimile is accompanied by three scholarly essays, by Charles Barber and by John Lowden of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Combining cutting-edge technology with first-rate scholarship, Psalter (electronic facsimile) serves as an indispensable tool for art historians and affords a fascinating opportunity for other adventurous readers to interact with a rare treasure.