Although the Wisconsin Daily Newspaper League dates to 1918, no documentation exists from this early period. Formal record keeping began in 1927, and from this point league activities are well documented. Included in the collection are correspondence, minutes, newsletters, statistical reports and financial records.
MINUTES document the annual meetings of the league beginning in 1927. In addition to proceedings, the files include correspondence, much of which is routine, concerning preparation for the meeting, choosing a location, securing a speaker, and planning menus. Conference programs and schedules and occasional copies of speeches outline activities and discussions. No doubt suggesting the decline of its later years, the files on the meetings of the 1970s are quite sparse.
CORRESPONDENCE is divided into general and subject categories. Alphabetically-arranged by correspondent, the general correspondence is often routine in nature, also concentrating largely on preparations for annual meetings. The alphabetical subject files include correspondence with the Wisconsin Markets, Inc., a marketing organization supported by WDNL. These files include a few minutes and Spot News-This Week in Wisconsin, a newsletter about advertising issued by Wisconsin Markets, Inc. Correspondence with the league's law firm, Minahan & Bassett and with the newspaper research firm M.S. Kuhns and Company is also included. The Kuhns file includes many statistical studies of Wisconsin newspapers.
The LEGISLATIVE FILES document the activities of league lobbyist and attorney W. Wade Boardman from 1943-1968. These files contain his correspondence with WDNL officers and detailed memoranda prepared for the membership in order to keep them informed about pending legislation that affected newspaper publication. Because little documentation about the work of lobbyists in any field is available in Wisconsin, this file is particularly valuable.
PUBLICATIONS primarily consists of an extensive file of the Bulletin, the newsletter issued by the secretary of WDNL. The organization used the Bulletin as their major form of communication from 1927 to 1944, after which publication ended. The Bulletin announced annual meetings, membership renewals, and other league business. Files in the collection are very complete, and for the two decades that it covers, it is a major source for studying the internal concerns of the newspaper business in Wisconsin. In the 1930s the bulletin often included notes about fraudulent advertisers, while the 1940s saw discussions about employee shortages caused by the war. Also here are copies of several editions of Laws Affecting Wisconsin Newspapers compiled by Boardman and a 1931 market guide, Where 1,500,000 Wisconsin People Go to Market.
FINANCIAL RECORDS consists of loose-leaf ledgers documenting dues, cash received, and disbursements from 1932 to 1942 and from 1950 to 1973.
