The Effect of Competition on the Middletown, New York, Times Herald, 1956-1959

During the past two years the attention of many persons interested in the field of journalism, including those of us who vicariously enjoy an association with the profession by teaching journalism subjects in high schools and colleges, has been directed to a situation which points up the question of whether competition stimulates or stifles newspaper enterprise. While mergers of newspapers in the United States have come about to some extent because of the need for economic stability, there are those who claim that the lack of competition has made newspapers complacent, and the fire of leadership and enthusiasm which has led Journalism down its 270-year colorful history in the United States is flickering and in danger of going out