THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250796
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: THE LEDGER-STAR: FINAL EDITION
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
With today's edition, The Ledger-Star ceases publication.
Crippled by plummeting readership, the state's once-largest daily joins a procession of evening newspapers that have failed in America since the 1960s.
For months no more than an updated edition of the morning Virginian-Pilot, The Ledger-Star's once-vibrant circulation shrank to about 10,000 by June. It has been published under a combined nameplate with The Pilot since last week, when Hurricane Felix interrupted its evening delivery.
The Ledger publishes a special edition today. Its final press run will number just 2,000 copies - a far cry from days when The Ledger enjoyed a large and loyal following throughout Hampton Roads.
Longtime readers said they were saddened to witness the newspaper's death, which leaves South Hampton Roads a one-newspaper community and ends a journalistic bloodline that began in 1876.
``I grew up reading it,'' said Justine Nusbaum, 95, who was born before the independent Public Ledger, Norfolk Dispatch and Portsmouth Star merged to create The Ledger-Star. ``It was a habit.''
``There was a vitality, with two papers, that we'll miss,'' Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim said. ``When it had a separate sports department and news staff, The Ledger-Star really was a quality paper. When I was growing up, we took both papers. Most everyone did. And that was a very healthy thing for this community.''
Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf shared Fraim's sentiments, saying she would ``mourn the loss of good journalism and good reporting.''
The region's largest newspaper for much of the century's first half, The Ledger reached a peak circulation of 104,000 in the early 1970s. It did not stay that big for long: Television's rising popularity and changes in the nation's workday schedule conspired to batter evening papers across the nation.
The last three decades have seen afternoon newspapers close in dozens of cities from Anchorage to Miami. Close to home, shutdowns have claimed The Richmond News Leader, The Newport News Times-Herald and The Washington Star. The Baltimore Evening Sun will join the list next month.
Many other evening newspapers have switched to mornings: Fifty-four did so in 1993 and 1994. In addition, several all-day newspapers have dropped their afternoon editions.
``They're in bad shape,'' said Shqipe Malushi, a spokeswoman for Editor & Publisher, the newspaper industry's leading trade journal. ``It's a sad situation, to see them declining. It's changing very, very fast.''
Frank Batten Jr., publisher of both The Ledger-Star and The Virginian-Pilot, noted that The Ledger outlasted many evening dailies because the area has a high concentration of readers whose workdays begin and end early in the day, and an afternoon delivery better suited their needs.
Even so, he said, the newspaper's managers ``knew it was a long-term eventuality that we'd have to go to mornings only. Circulation had been declining quite steadily and rapidly.''
The paper staved off closure first by combining its news staff with that of The Virginian-Pilot in 1982, eliminating duplication in covering news beats. The Ledger-Star's independent editorial page, which traditionally had a more conservative voice than The Pilot's, was dropped about the same time.
Over time, The Ledger's news and sports pages became updates of the morning paper, and both publications shared features, food, entertainment and community tabloid sections.
While the morning Pilot's circulation approached 200,000, The Ledger's slipped further - reflecting a national trend that has given big-city morning newspapers more than a 10-to-1 circulation lead over their afternoon counterparts.
Ledger-Star carriers were forced to cover ever-wider territories to earn a living. Eventually those carriers - traditionally paperboys and more recently adults making their rounds by car - could no longer distribute the newspaper profitably.
Consequently, The Ledger discontinued home delivery ``neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city'' over the course of several months, Batten said.
``We started talking about this in 1990, not with the idea of closing The Ledger but of going to an all-day Virginian-Pilot,'' Batten said. ``We eventually announced we were going to do that, then looked at some additional research.
``The research seemed to indicate that as long as we had an afternoon paper, it should keep its distinctive name. We concluded that for at least a while longer we should continue publishing The Ledger-Star.
``But we also knew that it was only a matter of time.''
In its place, nine out of 10 Ledger subscribers already receive The Virginian-Pilot, whose circulation now tops 200,000. The surviving paper, Batten said, will strive to offer readers more complete coverage of local, national and international news, packaged to make it easier to understand and use.
``For most people, this has really been a change in what time they get their newspaper,'' he said. ``I'm sure some people will be sad to see The Ledger-Star go. I'm sure there's some loyalty to The Ledger's nameplate, because of its great history.
``But I think the main loyalty is to reading a newspaper,'' he said. ``I think the loyalty will stay with The Virginian-Pilot, because I think people enjoy getting their news from a newspaper.'' by CNB