All of the above served the city of Newark
at some time or other in the 30's. Usually all at the same time.
The Star Eagle was popular with the younger set because it had
a daily section known the as "the pink pages". The pink
pages were filled mostly with the comic strips. In those days the
comic strips were funny or adventurous. No four letter words were
used and nothing of a sexual nature took place.
I recall "The Call" having comic strips on Sundays in
color. That accounted for most of their Sunday sales.
The four papers battled each other for readers and subscriptions.
At one time "The Star Eagle" had a promotion that enabled
a customer to sign up for a three year subscription and for paying
an additional $5.00 they were given an acre of land in Iselin, N.J.
Iselin was a whistle stop on the Penn R.R. at that time. I guess
the only time the train stopped was when someone was getting on
or off.
Some years later I lived in Iselin. I only met one person that
had purchased land as part of a subscription. I heard about others
that bought up all they could afford. Between the 30's and the 50's
the land went from the $5.00 subscription price to about $5,000
an acre. Not a bad profit.
The "Star Eagle" merged with "The Newark Ledger"
and became "The Star Ledger" and is in existence today.
"The Call" and "The Newark Evening News" no
longer exist.
The number of newspapers in most large cities has gone steadily
down since the 30's, all sorts of theories exist as to why. I guess
no one knows for sure. Speaking for myself, I liked having a choice.
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