Roy Howard Moves Over

As an up & coming editor in E. W. Scripps's newspaper chain, dapper young Roy Wilson Howard once got some advice from his boss: "This is a young man's game. By the time you're 40, if you have any ability, you'd better resign and get into something else." By the time his 40th birthday was approaching, Howard had built up the United Press, was business manager of all Scripps papers. But for ambitious Roy Howard, that was still not enough. Marching into E. W.'s office, he said: "I'm following your advice and offering you my resignation."

Scripps, taking back his advice, said things had changed. He persuaded dynamo Howard to stay, changed the chain's name to Scripps-Howard, let him share the management with Scripps's son & heir Robert. Roy Howard brought the chain its greatest growth, prosperity and editorial vigor. He expanded the chain boldly into New York, Washington, Birmingham, Albuquerque, Fort Worth, etc. Far from making his papers pale stereotypes of one another, he encouraged local editors to lead their communities, as the Cleveland Press's Louis Seltzer has so notably done. Howard, whose vernacular is as colorful as his rainbow-colored shirts, developed Columnists Heywood Broun, Westbrook Pegler, Ernie Pyle, Robert Ruark, lets Mrs. Roosevelt write as she pleases, even though her views often conflict with his.

Howard enjoyed himself most when scoring exclusive interviews with captains and kings (e.g., Stalin, Hirohito). Editorially farsighted, he fought for realistic internationalism, opposed Communist imperialism when few others could even find it, fought corruption. Few men seemed to stay as vigorous with advancing years. But last week. 30 years after he first spoke it, Roy Howard made good his threat to quit. On his 70th birthday next New Year's Day, Howard announced, he will resign as president of the chain's top operating company, E. W. Scripps Co., and a new young team will take over. The members:

P: Charles Edward Scripps, 32, second of the late Bob Scripps's four sons and the only one so far to take an interest in the papers, will become chairman of E. W. Scripps Co. (75% of which is owned by his family's trust set up by E. W.'s will). As such, he will be top boss, succeeds his stepfather William W. Hawkins, 69.* After three years of college (William and Mary and Pomona), Scripps served a reporter's apprenticeship on the chain's Cleveland Press, put in a World War II hitch in the Coast Guard, has since worked on the Denver Rocky Mountain News and the Cincinnati Post.

P: Jack Rohe Howard, 42, Roy's only son, will succeed his father as president. A graduate of Yale ('32), Jack Howard worked on Scripps's Indianapolis Times and Washington News, ran the chain's radio stations and finally became his father's chief troubleshooter.

P: Walker Stone, 48, who has run Scripps-Howard's Washington bureau since 1936, will take on the long-vacant title of editor-in-chief. His main job: laying down policies for the chain's national editorials.

Nobody who knew Oldtimer Roy Howard thought that he was stepping out completely. He keeps his title as president & editor of the chain's bellwether, the New York World-Telegram and Sun, will continue to act as adviser to the new team. Said he: "These young fellows have come along, know all I ever knew, plus whatever they've learned themselves. They couldn't be kept standing still indefinitely without losing some of their high enthusiasm. So I'm moving over."

* Who married Robert Scripps's widow in 1943, five years after her husband's death.

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