Diurna Vivunt! (Newspapers Live!)

But, some of their promotional taglines could use refreshing.

I took three years of Latin at New Trier East High School, in Winnetka, Illinois, in the mid-1970’s. The theory back then, I suppose, was that learning the ancient Latin language would provide a solid foundation regarding the origin of words, arming students with tools to quickly decipher unknown English words encountered, and enabling a deeper bench of words from which to choose.

The Latin teacher at New Trier East was a quirky guy by the name of John Thomson, who, seemingly in pursuit of satisfying his personal Rule No. 3 (you know, the one about amusing yourself), branded every one of his students with a twisted interpretation of his/her name. As an example, he called a fellow classmate of mine, Scott Harrison, by the name, “Hot Scarrison,” which he delivered in a breathy, suggestive tone. Similarly, Drew Pitt became “Pister Mitt,” playing off the formal title, “Mister Pitt.” My Latin class name became, “Sister Mothern.” ESPN’s Chris Berman, well-known for his penchant for “punnifying” players’ names had nothing to fear from Mr. Thomson, whom, as far as I can recall, we did not refer to as “Tister Momson” or “Ton Jomson.” Not exactly the “carpe diem” stuff of Dead Poets Society, the 1989 film starring Robin Williams as John Thomson, er, I mean John Keating, and a little bit hokey, even for the mid-1970’s, but, we students were modestly amused, and it made learning a dead language slightly more bearable.

Why? you might ask, are you sharing (some might say oversharing) these personal anecdotes from your high school days, in an article ostensibly devoted to the business of newspapers? We hope that you don’t intend a repeat of that January, 2021 incident, in which you dragged us down this high school memories rabbit hole, after wrongly believing that we would be treated to a scholarly discussion of the importance of penitence. . .

Well, I’ll tell you why. Mr. Thomson’s catchphrase, if one could be ascribed to him, was, “Latina vivit!” (Latin lives!), his attempt to convey to students his belief that, even though the language had been retired centuries before, Latin was still very much alive (at least in a handful of Catholic churches worldwide, and in conversations at the local coffee shop in Vatican City (Latin remains the official language of Vatican City) and in mottos carved in stone on government buildings). By the way, the “v” in Latin is pronounced as a “w”; therefore, “vivit” is properly spoken as “wee-wit.”

Much as Latin is considered by most to be dead, there is a belief that newspapers are similarly dead.

Having spent nearly thirty-five years working in the newspaper business, this belief distresses me, and my colleagues. Yes, newspapers have undergone significant change during the past thirty-five years, including a migration to digital media products, elimination of print products in many markets and staff contraction. But, the industry remains active and vibrant, and continues to provide thoughtful, evenhanded, professional journalism.

Perhaps all the newspaper industry needs is strong messaging, as Mr. Thomson was able to provide for the Latin Language, in the form of “Latina vivit!”

But, before attempting to offer promotional advice for the newspaper industry, let’s first examine the landscape of promotional tools which have been used by newspapers in the past.

Some of the best known taglines used by newspapers include: “All the News That’s Fit to Print” (The New York Times); “Democracy Dies in Darkness” (The Washington Post); and “The Nation’s Newspaper” (USA Today).

One of my many newspaper alma maters is the Daily Southtown (nee Southtown Economist), a daily newspaper published and distributed exclusively in the South Side of Chicago and the southern suburbs. A slogan they have used for a long time is, “Daily Southtown - People Up North Just Don’t Get It,” in my opinion, a brilliant double-entendre, suggesting that Chicago’s Northsiders simply don’t understand issues and concerns faced by those living south of the Loop, and, reinforcing the business model which mandates distribution only to locations south of Madison Street (so. . .Sox fans?).

Another one of my postings along the way was in Philadelphia, with The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. I arrived in Philadelphia in the mid-1990’s, years after a longtime competitor, the Philadelphia Bulletin had ceased operations. The Bulletin’s well-known promotional slogan had been, “In Philadelphia, nearly everybody reads The Bulletin.” One of my Inquirer colleagues shared with me the origin story of that slogan: the Marketing Director was charged with developing an appropriate slogan, and presented to his boss, the Publisher, the option, “In Philadelphia, everybody reads The Bulletin.” The Publisher carefully considered the slogan, and indicated to the Marketing Director that, although a healthy number of Philadelphians did indeed read The Bulletin, it was unlikely that everybody read it; but, perhaps it could be considered accurate (and, legally defensible, I imagine) to say that nearly everybody reads The Bulletin - marketing gold!

The Bulletin’s modesty is echoed by my current employer, which publishes two daily newspapers: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Blade (Toledo, Ohio), each of which feature the tagline, “One of America’s Great Newspapers” on their respective front pages, acknowledging that there is more than one “great newspaper,” and perhaps even more than two in the United States.

One such newspaper which didn’t feel the need to step off the pedal of self-promotion was the Chicago Tribune, alas, one of the few newspaper publishers around who is not a former employer of mine. Back in its early days, the Tribune touted itself as the “World’s Greatest Newspaper,” whose initials were co-opted by their one-time stablemates, WGN-Radio and WGN-TV for use as their call letters.

So, armed with this historical perspective, Rule of Three is now equipped to offer invaluable assistance to newspapers in their quest to avoid the death sentence conferred upon the Latin language. Here are a couple of promotional taglines for consideration:

• “The Daily News-Tribune-Gazette - Dispensing Less Misinformation than Tik-Tok and the Site Formerly Known as Twitter.” (admittedly, a low bar).

• “The Daily Gazette-News-Tribune - It’s Been 78 Days Since Our Latest Disturbance in the Newsroom.” (shoutout to Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm).

• “The Daily Tribune-Gazette-News - We’re Journalists, not Content-Providers - So, Read Our Stuff - It’s Good for You.”

Diurna Vivunt! (Newspapers Live!) If you’ve been paying attention, you no doubt realize that “Vivunt” is properly pronounced “Wee-wunt.” And, a bonus from my days of studying Latin: “Semper ubi, sub ubi,” can be translated into English to mean: “Always wear underwear,” by taking liberties with the where/wear homophone thing.

In any event, that should ensure the survival of newspapers for another couple hundred years.

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