The banner headline of The Journal's competition, the Providence Star-Tribune, announced on Dec. 21, 1937:
STAR-TRIBUNE SOLD BY COURT.
An unidentified buyer had rescued the dying broadsheet from receivership with a bid of $302,875. The lawyer who handled the deal for the buyer told the Star-Tribune that he was not immediately free to disclose the paper's new ownership.
The front page of the Star-Trib disclosed the buyer the next day in a publisher's message:
"To the People of Rhode Island
The Providence Journal Company has acquired title to the insolvent Providence Star-Tribune through purchase of assets sold by order of the Superior Court."
The Providence Journal was suddenly publishing the competition, though The Journal didn't want the Trib forever:
"The Providence Journal Company does not contemplate, however, continuing publication indefinitely under its ownership. If adequately financed, independent operation of The Tribune can be arranged, through reputable Rhode Island ownership of whatever political complexion, the Providence Journal Company will be glad to dispose of its interest and otherwise to lend its cooperation to that end."
The Journal shortened the paper's name, to The Tribune, and shrank the broadsheet to a tabloid format. In true tabloid style, The Trib used screaming front-page headlines, lots of photographs throughout the paper (especially starlets and swimsuit pictures), and bizarre stories culled from the national news wires.
A sampling of The Tribune, from the April 20, 1938 edition:
Front-page headline:
3 DEAD, 9 MISSING
AFTER ALKY ORGY
The story, on page three, described a party at a state infirmary in Tewksbury, Mass., at which three inmates were poisoned by drinking "wood alcohol."
Also on that page that day were these headlines:
Judge Frees Girl-Tripper
The story described a man who suffered from an "irresistible" impulse to trip girls he would see on the streets. The man had confessed to "tripping a number of women on various streets before police finally caught up with him."
Child-Bride No Cook, but Willing
A wire story from Rehoboth Beach, Del., describing the life of the 12-year-old bride of a 37-year-old husband. "We are perfectly happy," the husband said, "and will continue to be if people will only leave us alone."
Heiress Snatched From Negro Spouse
News wire story with a New York dateline, about an unidentified "27-year-old Park Avenue heiress" who was "torn from the arms" of her husband during their honeymoon by her family, and forced home in the locked compartment of the North Shore Limited train. The romance had been "nurtured in the strange atmosphere of a mystic Harlem cult," the Tribune reported.
The Tribune died four months into The Journal's ownership.
A publisher's announcement on Page One explained the death of the Trib:
"For the past four months the Providence Journal Company has endeavored to establish the Tribune upon a self-sustaining basis . . . Every possibility for success was explored including attempts to find for it independent Rhode Island ownership.
"Because of the failure to achieve a self-sustaining basis and in view of existing conditions, the Journal Company has decided that continuance of publication of the Tribune is not justified."
The Tribune's last front-page headline, April 30, 1938, was about a police investigation:
HUNT MAD SLAYER IN 6 N.E. STATES.
