Editing Chicago American (section)

==History==
The paper's first edition came out on July 4, 1900, as ''[[William Randolph Hearst|Hearst]]'s Chicago American''. It became the ''Morning American'' in 1902 with the appearance of an afternoon edition. The morning and Sunday papers were renamed as the ''Examiner'' in 1904. [[James Keeley]] bought the ''[[Chicago Record-Herald]]'' and ''[[Chicago Inter-Ocean]]'' in 1914, merging them into a single newspaper known as the ''Herald''. [[William Randolph Hearst]] purchased the paper from Keeley in 1918.

[[File:1919 Newspaper Circulation Chicago EP July 24 1919 p 31.png|thumb|Circulation figures for Chicago newspapers appearing in ''[[Editor & Publisher]]'' in 1919.  The ''American'''s circulation of 330,216 placed it third in the city, behind the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' (424,026) and ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'' (386,498), and ahead of the ''[[Chicago Herald-Examiner]]'' (289,094).]]  Distribution of the ''Herald Examiner'' after 1918 was controlled by [[organized crime|gangsters]]. [[Dion O'Banion]], [[Vincent Drucci]], [[Hymie Weiss]] and [[Bugs Moran]] first sold the ''Tribune''. They were then recruited by [[Moses Annenberg]], who offered more money to sell the ''Examiner'', later the ''Herald-Examiner''. This "selling" consisted of pressuring stores and news dealers. In 1939, Annenberg was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud and died in prison.

The newspaper joined the [[Associated Press]] on October 31, 1932.<ref>"Chicago American Now A.P. Member", ''The San Bernardino Daily Sun'', San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 1 November 1932, Volume 39, Section 1, Page 1. Associated Press.</ref>

Under pressure from his lenders, Hearst consolidated the ''American'' and the ''Herald-Examiner'' in 1939. It continued as the ''Chicago Herald-American'' until 1953 when it became the ''Chicago American''. The ''American'' was bought by the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' in 1956, and was renamed as ''Chicago's American'' in 1959.

As with many other afternoon daily newspapers the paper suffered in postwar years from declining circulation figures caused in part by [[television]] news and in part by population shifts from city to suburbs. The paper continued as an afternoon broadsheet until 1969 when the ''Tribune'' converted the paper to the tabloid-format ''Chicago Today''. Measures to bolster the paper were unsuccessful, and ''Chicago Today'' published its final issue on September 13, 1974. The ''Chicago Tribune'' inherited many of the ''Today''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> writers and staff and became a 24-hour operation.

The ''American'' was the product of the merger or acquisition of 14 predecessor newspapers and inherited the tradition and the files of all of them.

As an afternoon paper, the ''American'' was dependent on street sales rather than subscriptions, and breaking news helped bring in street sales.

When [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] announced plans to build a mile-high building in [[Chicago]], the ''American'' stole the drawings and printed them.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

The tradition was exemplified by the longtime night city editor of the ''American'', [[Harry Romanoff|Harry "Romy" Romanoff]], who could create news stories almost at will with only a telephone. He ran the city room at night with the help of two rewrite men (including Mike McGovern, noted below), one night photo editor, a sports desk editor ([[Brent Musburger]]'s first job out of journalism school), and one night copy boy who cut and pasted AP and UPI wires for Harry's review. Since the afternoon paper was put together the previous evening, the night city editor was the key news editor. Romanoff enjoyed the fearful but absolute regard of pressmen, the composing room and the entire night staff of the [[Tribune Tower]], which owned and housed the ''Chicago American'''s operations in its final decades.

One night, floods threatened [[Southern Illinois]], and the ''American'' did not have a big story for the front page. Romanoff called fire departments and police stations throughout the region, posing as "Captain Parmenter of the [[Illinois State Police|state police]]" (a nonexistent individual), urging them to take action.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} One fire department, bemused by the call, asked what they should do. "Ring those fire bells! Call out the people!" Romanoff then turned to his [[rewrite man]] to dictate the lead story:

:Fire bells rang over southern Illinois as [[police]] and fire departments called out the people to warn them of impending floods.

It never did flood, but the ''American'' had its banner headline. These headlines were necessary for sales of the early editions. Later in the day, breaking news would generally replace them or reduce their importance. Of course, many stories developed in this way were genuine scoops that would be expanded in later editions.

The ''American'' gave the same attention to smaller stories as to large ones. It was usually first with police news. One notable headline:
:Mother of 14 kids kills father of 9 in police station

Headquarters for the paper was the Hearst Building, located at 326 West Madison Street in Chicago. In 1961, the offices of ''Chicago's American'' were moved adjacent to the [[Tribune Tower]] at 435 North Michigan Avenue, where they would remain until the ultimate demise of ''Chicago Today'' in 1974.