Colville's Newspaper War Moves to the Post Office
The Reveille won't print the Examiner publisher's name, the Statesman-Index says the Examiner is losing $40 a week, and the postmaster has refused its second-class mailing status.
The Colville papers are having a regular Kilkenny cat time of it. The Reveille thinks it would be a disgrace to its columns to print the name of the publisher of the Examiner. The Statesman-Index intimates that the Examiner has been running behind at a rate of about $40 per week during the past 10 weeks, and that the editor will soon pack his grip and move from the city. It appears that the postmaster at that point refused to transmit the Examiner as second-class matter last week for some reason or other. The county seat folks should abide in harmony and not fight over the spoils garnered from other portions of the county.
“The county seat folks should abide in harmony and not fight over the spoils garnered from other portions of the county.”
Local newspaper wars once played out in print, at the post office, and over second-class mail—the era's distribution algorithm. The Colville feud is a reminder that media competition has always mixed money, politics, and personal grudges.
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