Public Ledger (Philadelphia) - The Curtis Era

The Curtis Era

In 1913, Cyrus Curtis purchased the paper from Ochs for $2 million and hired his step son-in-law John Charles Martin as editor. Curtis was owner of the magazines, Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post. His intention was to establish the Ledger as Philadelphia's premier newspaper, which he achieved by buying and closing several competing papers: the Evening Telegraph and the North American among them. Philadelphia went from a peak of 13 papers in 1900 to seven in 1920, a time when the newspaper industry in the United States was consolidating in general.

Under Curtis' ownership, the conservative appearance of the Ledger was increased: it avoided bold headlines and seldom printed photographs on the front page. Its conservative format has been compared by scholars to the Wall Street Journal or New York Times of the twentieth century. Curtis built the Ledger's foreign news service and syndicated it to other papers. From 1918 to 1921, former President William Howard Taft was on staff as an editorial contributor. To broaden the market, and compete against The Evening Bulletin, in 1914 Curtis began publishing the Evening Public Ledger, a bolder paper designed to appeal to a broader public.

The Ledger suffered by competition from an ascendant The Evening Bulletin, which under publisher William L. McLean grew in size from 12 pages in 1900 to 28 pages in 1920, and from circulation of 6,000 to a leadership position of over 500,000 readers in the same time. The Bulletin's bolder and more commercial approach attracted additional advertising, which in turn drew more readers. Advertising, which comprised only 1/3 of the Bulletin in 1900, grew to nearly 3/4 of its pages in 1920. At the same time, the circulation at the Ledger stagnated.

Curtis built a new Public Ledger Building in 1924 on the same site as the old, designed in the Georgian Revival style by Horace Trumbauer.

The paper made money in the 1920s, but saw circulation fall in half and profits disappear in the Great Depression. Some observers criticize the paper for an indistinct editorial policy which may have alienated readers. On the one hand, it endorsed reform politicians, while on the other hand, the paper was decidedly anti-labor. The paper ran anti-union advertisements during the 1919 Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike, but ran no pro-strike ads.

Despite the circulation slump caused by the Depression, Curtis expanded by buying the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1930 for $18 million, but he did not consolidate the two franchises. When Curtis died in 1933, he was estimated to have lost $30 million on his newspaper ventures, with little to show for the investment. In 1934, the Ledger was absorbed into the Inquirer, and management was assumed by John C. Martin, the son-in-law of the second Mrs. Curtis. He became General Manager of Curtis-Martin Newspapers.