"the staff had to generate extra editorial material to wrap around all the ads." If you get newspapers.com and look at the LA Times in the 70's, this is eviden

"the staff had to generate extra editorial material to wrap around all the ads." If you get newspapers.com and look at the LA Times in the 70's, this is evident: many pages with one inch of article text at the top of a page full of ads, and the article goes on for 10-20 pages or more. I picture the city editor making the "pulling taffy" gesture at his staff to get more words out of them :)