The Associated Negro Press has been in existence less than four years but during that time it has rapidly grown and achieved great success. Today it has a membership of more than 100 newspapers. The establishment of the A. N. P. was the first effort in Negro Journalism to assemble and distribute regularly general news from all sections of the United States and other countries affecting Colored people. Through the work of this organization big news stories now appear simultaneously in all of the leading Negro newspapers. The A. N. P. maintains executive offices in Chicago and permanent bureaus in Washington and New York. [Sidenote: PAPERS OF THE PERIOD] Among the present day papers established in this period are: _The Boston Guardian_, _The Nashville Globe_, _The Atlanta Independent_, _The Chicago Defender_, _The Detroit Leader_, _The Pittsburgh Courier_, _The St. Louis Argus_, _The Dallas Express_, _The Cleveland Advocate_, _The Negro World_, _The Indianapolis Ledger_, _The Indianapolis Recorder_, and _The Chicago Whip_. CHAPTER VI PRESENT DAY PAPERS [Sidenote: 250 SECULAR WEEKLIES] Today over 250 secular Negro newspapers are being published in the United States, with a total circulation of over one million five hundred thousand copies. These papers are published in 34 states and in the district of Columbia. [Sidenote: PAPERS HAVE JOURNALISTIC APPEARANCE] Papers published in the larger centers where the Negro population is large, such as New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Washington, Detroit, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Atlanta have developed to a high degree. Their make-up on the whole is good; their news stories for the most part conform with accepted journalistic style; their leads are of the summary type; their headlines, although somewhat sensational, are usually well constructed; their news treatment is becoming more impersonal; on the whole they are a great improvement over the Negro papers of the past. [Sidenote: DEFENDER HOUSED IN $200,000 PLANT] Negro newspaper offices are being transformed from mere receiving stations for news to newspaper plants. During May, 1921, _The Chicago Defender_, one of the leading Negro newspapers, moved into a new building fitted up by its owner, Robert S. Abbott, at an expense of over $200,000. The new _Defender_ plant compares favorably with that of any paper of its size in the United States. Its equipment includes four linotype machines, each equipped with two magazines, geared to cast seven lines per minute. The press on which _The Defender_ is printed is a 32-page and color machine, made by the celebrated Goss Printing Press Company. It is driven by a 30 H.P. motor and six men are required for its operation. It prints, folds and counts the papers all in one operation at a speed of 35,000 copies per hour. The paper’s circulation is over 200,000. [Illustration: Abbott, Editor and Owner of The Chicago Defender, Chicago, Illinois]