Jock Gets the Trib

The 117-year-old New York Herald Tribune, tradition-proud, independent Republican and ailing, passed last week from the patrician hands of the Reid family, its owners for 85 years. For the announcement, the Reids gathered in a seventh-floor office of the Trib's Manhattan building on dingy West 41st Street: tiny, doughty Helen Rogers Reid, 75, who ran the paper from the 1947 death of her husband Ogden Mills Reid until 1955, and her sons Whitelaw, 45, and Ogden, 33, who thereafter worked mightily to cure its ills. "This is a development," said boyish Ogden ("Brownie") Reid, "that the Reid family cares deeply about."

The sale of the Trib was a poignant episode for the Reids. The first Whitelaw Reid bought the Tribune in 1873, after the death of Founder Horace Greeley; his son Ogden combined it with the remnants of James Gordon Bennett's racy Herald in 1924. But the credentials of the new buyer softened the blow. He is John Hay ("Jock") Whitney, financier, sportsman, diplomat, art collector, lifetime friend of the Reids and possessor of more than $100 million. "We are happy about it," said Brownie Reid, his arm around his mother. "I think it is a fine step," said she.

Eminent Domain. By buying the Trib, fast-moving Jock Whitney stepped into the major league of U.S. publishers. A month ago he dealt off just under $7,000,000, added the prosperous Sunday supplement Parade to a communications domain that spans four TV stations, interests in the magazines Scientific American and Interior Design, two radio stations, the Great Northern Paper Co. The Trib purchase was no surprise. A year ago, Jock Whitney lent the Reids $1,200,000 with an option to convert the loan to stock. By the conversion, and the purchase of an unspecified number of additional shares, Whitney got control of the Trib and its money-making European edition. The Reids retain a "substantial interest."

Since Whitney has the kind of money that may bring the Trib back to its thriving, prewar heyday, the sale cheered the paper's 1,900 staffers. They have watched gloomily as the Herald Tribune, once a formidable rival of the Times, cut coverage, settled into sixth place in circulation among Manhattan's seven major dailies. Under eager Brownie, who replaced brother Whitelaw as editor and chief executive officer in a 1955 family power squabble, the Trib seemed to ease up on solid reporting and sound writing as it went after circulation with frothy features and tabloid-style gimmicks.

A disconcerting editorial flabbiness also crept in. Example: the Trib recently spiked stories on the Hollywood high jinks of Dominican Playboy Rafael ("Ramfis") Trujillo Jr. (see THE HEMISPHERE), which occurred as the paper was getting out a 48-page advertising supplement on the Dominican Republic. The jazzed-up Trib lost serious readership to the ad-heavy, news-fat Times (circ. 663,106), but gained few readers from the morning tabloids, the crisp News (circ. 2,014,542), Hearst's snappy Mirror (circ. 890,596).

Last fall, buttressed by the Whitney loan, Brownie gave the Trib a sounder turn, overhauling the editorial page, expanding science and education reporting. But the gimmicks went on. The latest Tribulation: an "item count" which forces Tribmen to produce a paper that looks as full of stories as the Times--even if the items have to be cut to less space than their headlines.

Run for the Money. Herald Tribune circulation inched up (from 326,478 daily in September 1957 to 377,400 last March), but the Trib stayed in the red.* Jock Whitney intends to make money. Since his loan, he has had at least one associate watchdogging the Trib's business office; his first move, after taking control, was to replace four longtime Reid friends on the board of directors with Whitney Lawyer Walter A. Kernan and two business associates, Samuel C. Park Jr. and Howard D. Brundage. Brownie and Whitelaw Reid stay on the board, but Whitelaw stepped down from chairman (and Owner Whitney did not immediately name another).

Whitney, who says he will stay on as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's probably until January 1961, takes his new responsibility with dead seriousness. "I have tried," he said last week, "to evaluate the paper, its needs, its outlook, its problems and the role it can play as an even stronger constructive force in New York and in the country. It has a brilliant heritage and a strong following. I propose to preserve its character and to build upon its traditions as an independent Republican newspaper."

*A contributing reason: unlike Manhattan afternoon dailies, which sell on the newsstands for 10-c-, the Times and Trib held at 5-c-. The Times can make money at that price; the thin Trib could not, but dared not raise its price alone.

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