A Present for Mitzie

Mitzie Epstein was just 19 when she quit fashion-design school in 1924, gave up her chance for a career and married Samuel Irving Newhouse, the hustling, 28-year-old publisher of the Staten Island (N.Y.) daily Advance. Last month, when Sam Newhouse went looking for the proper gift for their 35th wedding anniversary, he had a good basis to go on--Mitzie, a delicate wisp of a woman (5 ft., 76 Ibs.) who likes to wear originals by Dior and Givenchy, still has a high interest in high fashion. Last week Sam came home with just the right present: Conde Nast Publications Inc., publishers of the haute couture Vogue (circ. 415,258), House & Garden (circ. 576,196), and their svelte siblings Glamour (circ. 668,062) and Bride's Magazine (circ. 169,902). Grins Newhouse: "I thought Mitzie would get a thrill out of it."

Same Fashion, Same Formula. To land Mitzie her prize present, Sam ("Mr. S.I.") Newhouse operated in the same forthright fashion that he has used for four decades to collect an unusual group of 14 newspapers and five TV and radio stations. Just a fortnight ago, Newhouse heard that Conde Nast President and Publisher Iva Sergei ("Pat") Voidato-Patcevitch, 58, was willing to sell his option to buy controlling interest in the company, which he got last fall from Britain's Amalgamated Press. Hard hit by recession cutbacks in ads, Conde Nast Publications lost $534,528 last year--although Vogue finished in basic black. But Newhouse was so convinced of Conde Nast's potential that he did not even bother to take a hard look at the books, talked only briefly to Patcevitch before agreeing to plunk down some $5,000,000 for 51% control.

Publisher Newhouse will use the same principle with Conde Nast that underlies his newspaper empire: a high degree of local autonomy. Mitzie Newhouse may have an occasional casual chat with an editor, and Mr. S.I. will keep his sharp eye on the ledger, but Conde Nast will continue to be run on the same fashion-plating formula by Publisher Patcevitch and his staffers.

"A Brash Kid." The eldest son of a Russian immigrant factory worker, Sam Newhouse got his first chance at turning a profit from publishing as a 16-year-old clerk for a New York judge. When the judge got control of the floundering Bayonne (N.J.) Times, he gave Newhouse a try at running the show. Within a year Newhouse had whipped the Times into the black ("I guess I was a pretty brash kid"). In 1922 he drummed up $98,000 and bought the Staten Island Advance.

Ever since, shrewd Businessman Newhouse has been completely fascinated by newspapers ("I like the glamour"), has memorized such a store of data about the nation's press that he can often calculate within minutes whether or not to buy: in 1955 he decided to pay $5,500,000 for the Portland Oregonian after a single phone call. Only two of his 14 papers were solidly in the black at purchase (the Oregonian and the Birmingham News); now all are making money.

Money & Autonomy. His eagerness to buy up papers plus the fact that he never writes a line of copy, never wields an editorial pencil, has made Newhouse anathema to many old-line publishers, who consider him an absentee press lord, a businessman only casually interested in the papers themselves. But Newhouse can argue that he cares so much for the autonomy of his papers that he generally leaves editorial matters completely in local hands. A registered Democrat, Newhouse even leaves political stands untouched; e.g., in Syracuse, his Republican Post-Standard scraps with his Democrat-leaning Herald-Journal. One notable exception to his hands-off policy is the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, where he replaced a dozen top editorial staffers, slashed non-editorial expenses and personnel, eventually reaped a bitter strike by the American Newspaper Guild (TIME, March 9), which was 28 days old last week, has so far cost Newhouse more than $1,000,000 in ad revenue. Characteristically, Newhouse at week's end was confident of an early settlement and new success for the Globe-Democrat.

Overseeing his wide holdings, boyish-faced, custom-tailored Publisher Newhouse is so modest that he resolutely dodges speech invitations, never answers the Who's Who in America request for autobiographical information. Most of his profits go back into the business; he pays himself a salary of $250,000. He and Mitzi live in a 14-room Park Avenue duplex artfully done in French Provenc,al, play an occasional game of bridge, manage to take in nearly every Broadway opening. At his death, Newhouse's empire (which he estimates at $150 million-$200 million) will go into a nonprofit educational trust; the business will be run by his two sons, S.I. Jr., 31, and Don, 29. But Mr. S.I. Sr., at 63, is looking ahead only to his next purchase, even now is talking with the money-losing Rome Daily American (circ. 18,540).

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