“Names make the news”
“Names make (the) news” is a popular axiom of the press. People like to see their names in the press, and several people in government and in business are standard interviews on certain stories. The origin of the saying is unknown.
Time magazine (founded in New York City in 1923) first published a “People” column on May 16, 1927 that stated “Names make news.” Time used “Names make news” frequently and at least popularized the adage.
Wikipedia: Time (magazine)
Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is an American news magazine. A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known as Time Atlantic) is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (Time Asia) is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition. The South Pacific edition, covering Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney.
is the world’s largest weekly news magazine, and has a domestic audience of 20 million and a global audience of 25 million.
Time magazine
People: May 16, 1927
Monday, May. 16, 1927
“Names make news.” Last week the following names made the following news:...
20 May 1928, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, pg. G3:
“Names Make News.”
Google Books
Writing for Print
By H. F. Harrington and Evaline Harrington
Boston, MA: D.C. Heath and Co.
1929
Pg. 137:
The story attached herewith shows how the reporter used the axiom, Names make news.
29 July 1929, New Castle (PA) News, “Sports And Stunts At Park Picnic WIll be ‘Frabjous,’” pg. 18, col. 3:
Now that’s reporting; getting a list like that. Names make news, as any good reporter like us will tell you.
Time magazine
The Press: Names Make News
Monday, May. 19, 1930
Time magazine
People: Names make news
Monday, Oct. 24, 1932
Google Books
The Reporter and the News
By Philip Wiley Porter and Norval Neil Luxon
New York, NY: D. Appleton-Century Co.
1935
Pg. 56:
Names Make News
Another traditional maxim of the newspaper office is that names make news. It is true that most people are glad to see their names in print, if they are not presented in an unfavorable light, and the paper probably gains a friend every time it prints a name.
9 October 1935, Oakland (CA) Tribune, “About New York” by George Tucker, pg. 32, col. 7:
NEW YORK, Oct. 9.—Since names make the news, it seems proper to megaphone a greeting to those who have returned from adjourned in far places.
Google Books
My Scrapbook of Medicine:
A series of squibs in prose and verse, presented in popular medicine style, that are calculated to throw a few highlights on some of the personages and some of the events that have made medical history. With bibliography and index
By Louis Robert Effler
Toledo, OH: Priv. pub. by McManus-Troup co.
1937
Pg. 189:
NAMES MAKE THE NEWS
“What’s in a name?” asks Shakespeare. To which, one might aptly answer: “A conglomeration of consonants and a few vowels to make them unpronounceable.”
14 June 1939, Syracuse (NY) Herald, pg. 4, col. 3:
If Names Make the News,
Dairymen’s Parley Is News
Google Books
17 May 1947, Billboard magazine, pg. 12, col. 2:
The old maxim that names make the news has proved itself justified in the case of this show, which is a favorite in Eastern Iowa.
Google Books
Media for the Millions;
The process of mass communication
By Robert C. O’Hara
New York, NY: Random House
1961
Pg. 207:
“Names make the news.” This cliche has been enormously overworked, but it is still quite literally true.
Google Books
Broadcast News Writing
By G. Paul Smeyak
Columbus, OH: Grid
1977
Pg. 4:
There is an old saying that names make the news.
Google Books
Anadarko: Days of Glory
By N. Dale Talkington and Pauletta Hart Wilson
Houston, TX: N. Dake Talkington
1999
Pg. III:
An old newspaper axiom says: “Names make the news.”
News Blaze
Published: November 26, 2006
Who Should Make the News? You?
by Djelloul (Del) Marbrook
(...)
There’s an adage in journalism that ought to be disgraced; it’s that names make the news. So when you get your first job on a small newspaper or television outlet, you find out who runs the town council, the planning board, the two parties, the zoning board, the highway department, the cops, the firemen. And then you think you know what’s what or who’s who. You figure you know who to call for stories, to get comments, the usual he-said/she-said baloney that passes for news.
Well, you’re wrong. Let me tell you how to cover a town or a city or a state. Let me tell you how to personally hand the government back over to the people. First off, see if you can befriend the local undertaker. They’re calling him or her a funeral director these days. He knows everything. But he’s professionally tightlipped and cagey, so you’ll have to work at getting into his confidence. It’s worth it. He not only knows where the bodies are buried, he knows where they’re going to be buried. He knows where the news is buried. He knows all the dirt. Literally.
Next on your list of confidantes could be the lady who pours your coffee in the local diner.