Looking Forward

Ira Clifton Copley figures that the time is ripe to set up shop in more small cities and print "chatty, back-fence community newspapers like we knew as children." Only that sort of paper, he is convinced, can compete with radio and national news magazines in the years ahead.

Ira Copley already owns 17 such dailies in Illinois and southern California, including two in San Diego (TIME, March 6). Last week he launched a 25-year expansion plan. As first steps he: 1) upped Scripps-Howard-trained Edward Thompson Austin to be his chain's executive editor; 2) set up a Washington bureau; 3) secured Associated Press franchises in four Illinois and southern California towns which now have no dailies; 4) prepared to build at least four new plants.

Small, spry Publisher Copley, who made a fortune in public utilities, looks forward to an active quarter-century. He also looks forward to next Oct. 25, when he will celebrate his 80th birthday.

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