This newspaper is not what it used to be. One long-time reader told me that a few weeks ago.
In her opinion, the newspaper started to decline in quality with the death of C.K. McClatchy, the editor who served from 1974 to 1989, and for her things have never been quite the same.
Other readers have occasionally suggested a similar decline began when C.K. McClatchy took over from his aunt Eleanor McClatchy, whose tenure reached back into the 1930s.
The idea that things were better in the past is raised once in a while by readers when they have a specific complaint about some item that they feel was mishandled by the newspaper — be it sports or politics or comics or television.
But one longtime staff member claims the paper, with its imperfections, is better than ever.
Perceptions are not always driven by facts, so I dug out an old newspaper and looked at The Bee — then and now — closely. I selected a 25-year gap for a reasonable comparison, and chose papers from the last Thursdays in August 1976 and 2001. You can use the information to arrive at your own conclusion.
The research confirms that The Sacramento Bee published in 2001 is substantially different from The Bee of 1976, even though some things look familiar. In August 1976, as in 2001, the State Fair, politics and crime were big news. A Democrat was governor, a Republican was in the White House and a conservative letter writer claimed The Bee was too liberal to be tolerated.
Several things were quite different, among them size, appearance, content and price.
In 1976 The Bee printed 72 pages published in five sections, one of them entirely advertising. Two section covers were all news. The paper cost 15 cents, the columns were narrower and the type used on stories was smaller.
In 2001 the newspaper included 98 pages published in six sections — one of them classified advertising — plus four smaller advertising inserts. Five section covers were all news. The paper cost 50 cents, and the page width was shrunk slightly.
Twenty-five years ago The Bee was an afternoon newspaper printed in the middle of the day and delivered before the dinner hour, primarily by kids on bicycles or afoot. Eleanor McClatchy was president of the company, and her nephew C.K. was the editor.
In 2001 The Bee is a morning newspaper printed in the middle of the night and delivered around dawn, primarily by adult carriers driving cars or trucks. Janis Besler Heaphy is publisher and president, and Rick Rodriguez is executive editor and senior vice president.
The front page
On August 26, 1976, three black-and-white pictures of heavily armed U.S. soldiers cutting down a disputed tree in Korea dominated The Bee’s front page. The top story of the day was an Associated Press report on a national poll that concluded that Gerald Ford had cut into Jimmy Carter’s lead for the November election.
The next story was an AP report on the U.S. Senate approving clear-cuts in national forests. Then there was a wire report on a delay in the Chowchilla kidnapping case, a story that a Dutch prince was involved in a scandal in Europe and a report from The Bee’s Washington Bureau Chief Leo Rennert about the Carter campaign in California.
Four of the five stories continued to inside pages, and the large “Today” index on the left side of the page provided a short synopsis of other news, weather and stocks.
On Aug. 30, 2001, the front page of The Bee was topped by a local story about the sheriff’s department with a six-column headline.
The center of the page carried two color photographs and a story about the fire in Weaverville, written and photographed by Bee staff.
The other Page 1 stories were a Bee Capitol Bureau story on Congressional redistricting, a Los Angeles Times report on Medicare cuts and two New York Times stories, one on medical vaccines and another on endangered species. All the stories jumped to other pages.
The modern newspaper’s index was much smaller and at the bottom, but at the top was a new display of headlines leading inside plus a weather forecast.
The inside pages
Once past the front pages of the newspapers, differences were more obvious.
The majority of 1976 main news (A) section pages had less than one-third of a page of news space, some as small as six inches. Most were filled with short wire stories.
The 2001 newspaper had more than twice as much space available for news in the A section. Pages 2 and 3 have double the space today and provide more news in a packaged format. The Capitol & California page did not exist 25 years ago and Names & Faces — nearly a half page today — was about 20 column inches.
Locally written stories inside 1976′s main news section were by Ted Bell, writing about a mercenary in Angola, and Dick Tracy, writing about the State Fair flower show. Dick Rodda also provided a “Bicentennial Trail” series that day from Boston.
The 2001 Thursday Bee included a full page devoted exclusively to news about congressional redistricting with maps and details.
In 1976 The Bee had one page devoted to the State Fair called “Country Life.” That page had photos of kids with animals and a story on 4H clubs.
The differences in organization of the news were the most striking things I saw. In 1976 the newspaper was filled with two- to six- inch wire stories from all over the world, with one or two state or Capitol stories mixed in. Wire services dominated the entire content, even state and Northern California news.
The back page in both years was used for news.
Remember Superior Cal?
What today has become the Metro or Region section was then called Metropolitan/Superior California news. In 1976 it was a mix of wire service, correspondent and staff stories, most very brief.
Local news filled two pages plus a few inches in 1976. There were six stories, with only one local byline on the page.
In 2001 the Metro Section provided the equivalent of four open pages with 16 news stories and nine photos, with minimal advertising inside. The back page devoted two-thirds of the space to weather maps and details.
The editorial pages, though organized a little differently, were similar to today. The major difference is that today’s Bee offers more space for letters to the editor, and the old Bee carried James Reston, David Broder and Jack Anderson as columnists.
When you looked over the two main news sections of the 1976 paper, it is striking how many of the stories were short wire reports stuffed into small holes on top of large ad stacks. Many of the stories were interesting, though not particularly newsy, and a story on any page might be from Brazil or Auburn, India or Washington, or Rancho Cordova.
In 1976 the third (or C) section was all advertising, except for a six-inch wire story on the back page among the legal ads.
Major changes in Sports
The Sports Section of the 1976 Bee, then labeled as D Section, was very different from today’s version.
In 2001 Bee Sports provided four locally written stories, a local column, four color photographs and no advertising.
The 1976 Sports section ran one picture of a rodeo clown at the state fair, and a large ad on the bottom third of the page. The stories in 1976 were about the Solons, the A’s and the Giants, plus a long story by Bee Sports Editor Marco Smolich on horse racing at the fair.
In 2001 the stories were on the Giants, A’s, Raiders and Monarchs. (The River Cats were inside the section, as were two columns of details on State Fair racing.) Total news space devoted to sports in 1976 was slightly more than three pages, a full page of which was recreational sports (hunting, jogging, fishing and hiking) and half page of horse racing results and handicapping. Box scores were minimal.
The sports “section” in that year overlapped what passed for a business page, with sports getting two columns, business two and advertising two in the middle of the section.
In 2001 the Thursday sports section was in a 12-page section, with six pages of news space for content and the other half for advertising. The modern version devoted almost as much space to box scores and agate lists as the 1976 paper carried in total.
Very little business
The 1976 “Business and Financial” page consisted of about 20 inches of space on a page shared with sports and advertising. It carried 12 short briefs, mostly wire service material.
The New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Mutual Funds used another five columns of space spread over two adjacent pages. The rest was mostly advertising.
The 2001 Business Section was in a six-page section with five pages devoted to news, including three locally written stories and two-plus pages of agate stock listings.
Features that today appear in the Scene section were scattered throughout the paper in 1976.
Behind the sports and business news in the large 1976 D section appeared columns on “Eating Out” by Stanley Gilliam, television listings (beginning at 5 p.m.), “On the Go” and a miscellaneous story or two on art or recording.
There was one comic page with 12 comic strips, one crossword puzzle, the Word Sleuth and the Junior Editor’s Quiz. Classified advertising filled Pages D 15-26 and on Page D 27 was the 1976 version of a weather and obituary page, about 15 inches of space with five two-inch obituaries and a short weather forecast.
Because Classified ran short that day in 1976, about a half page of “Other News” appeared on D27. A full-page ad filled the back of the section.
In 2001 the Scene section included eight pages of local features, columnists, 37 comic strips and panels, two crossword puzzles and a full page of television listings, also beginning at 5 p.m.
Fashions and ‘advertorial’
The last section in the 1976 Bee was an eight-page Fashion section.
Two-thirds of the front page was devoted to one large photo of a woman in a coat and a four-inch story. An ad filled the bottom third. More fashion pictures appeared on two other pages, followed by six wedding announcements, three columns designed for women and two full-page ads.
The final section in the 2001 Bee was a special advertising section labeled “Interiors,” including about 50 percent advertisements and 50 percent “advertorial copy,” material provided by or for the advertisers. It was printed on a higher quality paper stock than the normal paper, and carried the “Special Advertising” section labels on every page.
As I was making notes on these two newspapers, one of The Bee’s newsroom veterans came by to borrow a newspaper and asked what I was doing.
Steve Gibson, reporter, has been at The Bee 35 years. He volunteered these comments as a reaction to those who think the paper has lost quality through the years.
“I think we are better,” Gibson said. “Better written. Better edited. And more in depth on issues. What we don’t do now is cover turn-of-the-wheel developments, or meetings, the way we used to, and I am not sure that’s bad. We often failed to put things into perspective.” He thought about The Bee a while and came back to share one additional thought: “I cringe when I think how superficial some of our stories — including some of mine — were back then. We often failed to put things in context. We do a somewhat better job now.”
My comments: No one suggests the newspaper can’t improve and it is certain some readers will have views of their own.
But after spending an hour or so with the “old” Bee of 1976, and looking at today’s version, I don’t think the good old days were quite as good as some describe them.
Today’s Bee has more local news, more sports, more business and more features. There is more detailed information to help readers understand events. The paper is more inclusive in its coverage.
There are fewer international news stories, fewer short wire stories and fewer brief items from governmental meetings.
Readers can add this up for themselves. For me, in summary: not perfect, but much better.
I share warm feelings about the “good old days” when C.K. ran things. I moved my family across the country 21 summers ago to work for C.K. McClatchy. He was one of the best editors I’ve ever known, and I appreciated Eleanor’s major contributions to the newspaper and the community.
C.K. certainly would encourage improvement. After all, he started the changes that led to today’s newspaper.
He might have wanted a little more national and international news, or maybe not. He might have urged the editorial pages to take a bit more liberal view on some public policy issues, or maybe not.
But I am pretty sure he would approve of the 2001 newspaper. And he certainly would have agreed with the first item on the current publisher’s list of values for The Bee to uphold: “Practice great journalism.”
