Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1920s. Sevellon Brown ushers in bureau system

As the 1920s were beginning to roar, a young man arrived in Rhode Island who would change The Providence Journal forever.

During Sevellon Brown's three decades of leadership, The Journal grew from a Providence newspaper to a Rhode Island institution that Time magazine dubbed "the conscience of New England."

Brown introduced to The Providence Journal and its afternoon paper, The Evening Bulletin, principles that would remain familiar to readers at the start of the 21st century:

A system of news bureaus that stationed Journal reporters across the state.

Investigative reporting.

Fighting with the government to make public records available.

An emphasis on better writing and reporting skills.

Higher standards for gathering and reporting news.

The Santa Claus Fund, through which readers donate money to provide Christmas presents for needy children.

Time magazine said of Sevellon Brown's Journal and Bulletin: "By giving their readers a blend of New York Times-like coverage, combined with the reflective aura of Boston's Atlantic Monthly and the hominess of the Martha's Vineyard Gazette, they have become the best and most respected of New England dailies."

Sevellon Brown Jr. was born Nov. 23, 1886, in Washington, D.C. He attended public schools, but left early to go to work when his father died. He sold ads for the Milwaukee Journal before taking a job in the Washington bureaus of the United Press and two New York newspapers.

In 1911 and 1912, he was chief of the Division of Foreign Intelligence in the U.S. State Department. He served as a captain of ordnance in World War I.

After the war, in 1919, he became Washington correspondent for The Journal. The following year, he came to Providence as managing editor of The Journal and The Bulletin. He would become editor of the papers in 1938, adding publisher to his title in 1942, combining both jobs.

He set to work reshaping the newspaper in the 1920s.

One of his first innovations was investigative reporting. Among the investigations Brown oversaw at The Journal were a survey of houses licensed to board orphaned and unwanted babies in 1923, a study of how much three average working families paid in taxes during a year in 1936 and an examination of the quality of milk in Rhode Island in 1949. The tax story garnered The Journal an honorable mention for the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Journal files

Sevellon Brown reshaped The Providence Journal in the 1920s by introducing investigative reporting, implementing higher standards for gathering and reporting news, and fighting for access to public records.

In 1925, he set up the newspaper's state staff and bureau system, establishing 12 bureaus outside of Providence, including two in Massachusetts. Brown's goal was that, no matter where news broke, a Journal reporter could be there in 20 minutes or less.

The system paid off in 1953, when The Journal's coverage of a bank robbery netted a Pulitzer Prize.

In the mid-1940s, Brown proposed formation of the American Press Institute, where newspaper journalists could study the methods of their work, as well as the social, economic and political problems of the day.

The institute, at Columbia University in New York, opened Sept. 30, 1946.

"Unless we brilliantly improve our skills and techniques, we face what may be described as a crisis of meaninglessness. Innumerable brief reports, presented without perspective or background, can only drive the reader into a mental fog," Brown said at the opening, as reported in that day's Evening Bulletin. "We must lift our sights as to what is news, and exercise increasingly astute and responsible selectivity in deciding what is the significant news of each day."

Brown stepped down as editor in February 1953, continuing on as publisher until his retirement on Feb. 3, 1954. He died Dec. 28, 1956, in Tucson, Ariz., at the age of 70.

One observer said: "The Providence Journal in those days was a hell of a good newspaper and an exciting place to work. It was a monopoly newspaper, but that didn't matter to Brown because he competed against his own standards, which were very tough competition to meet."