NUDE AWAKENING
One of the big success stories of US publishing was the Playgirl magazine, which in three issues had rocketed to over a
million sales. The magazine, which carriednude male pins-ups, still had a longway to go to catch Playboy, which sold 6,700,000 copies per issue.
A SORRY SITUATION
A seven-day dispute involving the NUJ at the Evening Advertiser, Swindon, over publication of an apologetic footnote to a letter, was settled.
The NUJ had objected that the footnote to a letter from a school head reflected on the integrity of one of the most respected journalists on the paper’s staff.
The dispute was solved after editor Frederick Hazel agreed to run a letter from the NUJ chapel.
SNOW FESTIVE PAPERS
It was announced that for the first time there would be no newspapers published in Scotland on Christmas Day.
The decision was taken by members of the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society as well as DC Thomson, publisher of the Dundee Courier and Evening Telegraph.
ESTHER EYES THE BULL
Broadcaster Esther Rantzen and Evening Standard editor Charles Wintour were pictured at the judges’ dinner after picking London’s pub of the year.
The judges’ choice? The Pied Bull at Streatham.
ICE CREAM IN BED FOR THE BOYS
The August issue of Australia’s Cosmopolitan magazine featured “25 Thoughtful things to do for a
Man in the Bedroom”.
Number 17 read: “Rum raisin ice cream in bed by candlelight or an elegant crystal goblet of Madeira.” Dog commented: “No wonder we’ve been failing with potato crisps and a can of Foster’s lager.”
NO CAKE FOR FOCUS STAFF
A judge ruled that The Banbury Cake newspaper should be banned following an application to the court by owners of The Focus free paper which was distributed in Banbury.
The court heard that the general manager and seven staff of The Focus had walked out of their jobs with the intention of launching The Banbury Cake.
The Cake eventually launched and is still around today, owned by Newsquest.
TEENAGE LITTLEJOHN
A 19-year-old Richard Littlejohn was joining the Raymond’s news agency in Lincoln.
He was formerly with the Sharman group of newspapers at Peterborough and Wisbech.
PORRIDGE MENU
Merseyside journalists were pictured sitting down to a prison meal of cabbage soup, stale black bread and raw herrings.
They had been invited to the “banquet” at the St George’s Hotel by a group campaigning for the release of jews imprisoned in Russian labour camps.
CLASSIFIED DISPUTE
A dispute between Sun management and the National GraphicalAssociation print union led to the paper appearing without classified adverts. The NGA was taking action in support of a pay claim. In the same month The Sun lost five million copies in a dispute about conditions in the machine room.
Continuing ill feeling about non-payment of the cost of living rise denied to newspaper workers by Government legislation and temperatures in the high 80s were said to be contributory factors to the unrest.
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN
The Scotsman was celebrating reaching its highest circulation in its history.
Its half year January to June ABC figure was 80,113, an increase of 4,233 over the same period the previous year. It was the first time since the founding of the paper in 1817 that the circulation had exceeded 80,000.
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