Hearst Corp. Fails to Find Buyer for Daily Paper : Baltimore News American Closes

The Baltimore News American, one of the oldest continuously published dailies in the nation, sent its last edition to press Tuesday after its owners failed to find a buyer.

“So Long, Baltimore,” read the boldface headline of the final edition, which was on delivery trucks just hours after Publisher Maurice Sparby told editorial employees of the Hearst Corp. decision.

“This is a sad day for newspaper people,” Sparby told employees. “The owners and the employees of the News American have done their very best to prevent this from happening. But, unfortunately, the revenues just weren’t there.”

The closing leaves Baltimore with a morning and an afternoon daily newspaper, both owned by the same company.

The News American, formerly an evening newspaper known as the News Post, enjoyed higher circulation than any other newspaper in this city for most of this century. But circulation declined during the 1970s in a familiar trend of big-city evening papers having difficulties, including traffic snarls in delivering the paper and competition with evening television news.

The News American had a weekday circulation of 107,900, according to the 1985 edition of Editor and Publisher yearbook. Its competitors had circulation of 192,000 in the morning and 155,600 in the evening, according to the yearbook. As of September, the News American said, its weekday circulation had fallen by 101,000 copies.

Five hundred News American employees were left jobless, with the promise of severance pay.

Baltimore Sun Publisher Reg Murphy said: “The decision of the News American to cease publication stills a voice that has long been associated with the proud heritage of both our city and our business.”

The News American shifted to morning and evening publication in 1983, putting it in head-to-head competition with the Baltimore Sun in the morning and the Baltimore Evening Sun, both owned by A. S. Abell Publishing Co.

As circulation and advertising lagged, Hearst, which has owned the News American since 1923 and publishes 14 other daily newspapers, suffered financial losses. It had been seeking a buyer since last November.