The Washington Star

 According to The New York Times, two businesses are starting newspapers in Washington, one to be called The Star, one The Washington Star. The latter is suing the former for trademark infringement.

 It is hard for me to see that the name is worth much. The old Washington Star went out of business in 1981.The youngest person to have read it would have to be about 50; the youngest to have subscribed about 65. It is possible that some of them have been thinking, all these years, how much they missed The Washington Star. But how many, how often? Though I did read the Star pretty frequently, I haven't often thought of it since it went out of business.

The New York Times identifies the old Star as "a conservative-leaning afternoon newspaper." I suppose that it was conservative-leaning, though it did employ Mary McGrory. But I think that for the last years of its run it printed in the morning. I am fairly sure I looked at it on morning Metro trips in 1980.

In 1981 my office window looked out onto 15th Street NW, where there were newspaper boxes, one of them for The Washington Star. On the day of the Star's last edition, I saw a long line of persons waiting to buy a copy of it. It struck me then that if so many people had subscribed to The Washington Star or even bought it frequently, the paper could have continued in business.

The Washington Post in those days was a competitor the Star couldn't beat. The Post is much diminished now, but largely by forces that have weakened and closed newspapers everywhere. I will be interested to see what these newspapers look like. I will be surprised if they survive long.