New Jockey

Not every owner of a horse rides it himself in hunt meetings; not every owner of a magazine personally sees each issue to press. Horseman & Publisher Richard Ely Danielson, principal owner of the aristocratic Sportsman (monthly) has found the details of active editing too confining. He has hired as managing editor youthful Daniel Rochford. From the Rumford Press at Concord, N. H. last week rolled the first Sportsman prepared by Managing Editor Rochford.

Two alterations were conspicuous in the June issue. The cover design was simplified. The name and personality of Editor Danielson were made more prominent. Under his signature appears a thoroughgoing preview of the Olympic Games at Los Angeles, whither he will go to write a report for the September issue. Also, in place of his former feature "Leaves from a Sportsman's Notebook," he now writes or rewrites tid-bits assembled as "Things Seen and Heard," a Sportsman's version of The New Yorker's sprightly "Talk of the Town." As in previous issues, the layouts and illustrations in Sportsman are superb.

As a reminder to old readers and a notice to new, Managing Editor Rochford reprinted on this month's title page the statement of Sportsman's convictions, from the original issue of January 1927. Excerpts:

"That sport is something done for the fun of doing it.

"That it ceases to be sport when it becomes a business. . . .

"That the good manners of sport are fundamentally important;

"That the code must be strictly upheld. . . ."

Because Sportsman's 15,000 gentlefolk readers are interested primarily in 1) horses, 2) shooting, 3) boats, Managing Editor Rochford intends to serve generous doses of those subjects, fewer esoteric articles on alligator hunting, bird-banding and badminton. Horse-conscious readers were astonished that Sportsman did not print a report on the 1932 Grand National at Aintree, the year's most important steeplechase.

With other class magazines, Sportsman has suffered the Depression. Two years ago the staff celebrated with champagne the sale of 102 pages of advertising in the May issue. In the May issue this year there were 23 pages.

Not a socialite like most of his staffmates. Managing Editor Rochford (pronounced "Rockford") is a sportsman by instinct and modest practice. He has never ridden to hounds, but rides the bridle trails of Middlesex Fels every morning before going to Sportsman's Boston office. Son of a surgeon, he was born in Rockford, Minn., helped edit the Yale Record, studied law for two years at Harvard. A practiced flyer, he was aviation editor of the Boston Transcript, managed publicity for Pan American Airways, wrote flying notes for Sportsman. The past year he helped publicize the Minneapolis Tribune's farm improvement program.

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