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Modified on 2010/02/25 10:21 by drb24 Categorized as Uncategorized

(10) » Final Reports » Newport Miner » ranch research

Succession¶

Cataloger writes:I can't remember now if the titles were connected in the existing OCLC records. But in any case, I decided to connect Ranch (North Yakima, Wash.) (.b57920357) to Ranche and range (.b57920503) because:

1) The issues for June 10, 1897- were called new ser. v. 1, no. 10- and also old ser. v. 3 , no. 43-. I was puzzled by the double numbering, but then I counted things out on calendars for 1894-1897 and saw that yes, the June 10, 1897 issue would indeed have been v. 3, no. 43 of Ranch. I put a note in the bib record about the double numbering in a 515 field.

2) They were both published in North Yakima.

3) Ranch (Seattle, Wash.) (.b4083895x), which is most definitely the title that continues Ranche and range, has the very same slogan that appears on Ranch (North Yakima, Wash.): "A journal of the land and the home in the New West."

The double numbering: The last known issue of the old "Ranch" 1894-08-18, vol 1 issue 31. Using a calendar and assuming that one issue was printed each week and that 52 issues constitute a volume, the 1897-06-10 issue of the old "Ranch" would have been vol 4 issue 21. Of course this proves nothing because volume and issue numbering in these early papers tends to be very inconsistent and perhaps the old "Ranch" had stopped publishing in 1896 and the Ranch and Range just picked up the numbering from there. There is an alternate explanation for the parallel numbering, though, which I will now offer.

In the 1897-05-27 issue of Ranch and Range (2 issues before the parallel numbering starts) a publisher's announcement appears: "The Times-Argus subscription list has been sold to Miller Freeman...and he is hearby authorized to collect all delinquent subscriptions due the Times Argus up to May 21, 1897 and hereby agrees to carry out all unexpired subscriptions to said newspaper" Later in the same issue: "by absorption of the Yakima Times-Argus, Ranche and Range has added eight hundred new names to its list this week." I have not found any bibliographic records for the Yakima Times-Argus, but a single issue of the Yakima Argus has survived. This issue is dated 1896-04-02 vol 2 no 25. If Times-Argus continued with the Argus numbering after the merger, and assuming that the paper produced one issue per week and 52 issues per volume, the 1897-06-10 issue of the Times-Argus would have been vol 3 no 35. On this date the Ranche and Range indicates that the "old series" number was vol 3 no 43. This is not the same number, but it is closer than the old "Ranch" number would have been, plus there is a clear motive for including this parallel numbering system. Freeman was under a financial obligation to carry out the unexpired subscriptions to the Times-Argus. By printing the old series alongside the new numbers Freeman could keep track of when the old subscriptions ran out and also clearly communicate that information to the old subscribers. The parallel numbering system was suspended at the end of 1897.

Argus in 1896 Ayers

The slogan: The matching slogan clearly indicated that the Range and Ranch owes an intellectual debt to the old Ranch publication. From Miller Freeman's memoirs (p.36): "For my publication I chose the name "Ranch and Range." There had been a paper in Yakima called "the Ranch" which had been discontinued. I felt that I wanted my paper to include also the vigorous livestock business and so decided on a name which would be indicative of its broader field of interest." Though the two papers are linked intellectually, and perhaps should be linked in the bibliographic record, there is no indication that they are linked financially (that Miller Freeman took over the subscription list, printing equipment, or any other assets of the old Ranch.) In a business sense, the Ranch and Range did not succeed the old Ranch.