A Measure of Freedom

Of the 18 papers in his empire, the late William Randolph Hearst was fondest of the San Francisco morning Examiner (circ. 225.000). Beyond being the No. 1 paper in San Francisco, it has long been the best in the Hearst chain, and The Chief gave it a measure of freedom that he granted to no other. The man who won and well used his independence: Publisher Clarence Richard Lindner, who was as different from most Hearst executives as the Examiner is from other Hearstpapers.

A plump, scholarly man with a connoisseur's taste for fine wines and first editions, Lindner's erudition awed his staff. He was an authority on the theater, a patron of the opera and symphony, a collector of Japanese prints and a dryly witty talker on such topics as 19th century literature. Largely self-taught, he was graduated from Manhattan's DeWitt Clinton High School and worked on several magazines and dailies as a reporter, ad manager and editor before he was spotted by Hearst's Prince of the Realm, Arthur Brisbane, who took him on as his assistant. At 31, Newsman Lindner was sent to Detroit to run the ailing Detroit Times, which Hearst had just bought. Lindner borrowed money from the bank to meet his first payroll, turned the Times into a moneymaker. He was moved up to run the New York American, and in 1929 sent west to be boss of the Examiner.

As publisher of the Examiner, he shied away from canned Hearst projects, built its circulation to the highest in the city by "putting out a neighborhood paper for the guy next door." A quiet, popular boss with an impassive face and bearing of a benevolent Buddha, Lindner let Managing Editor William Wren run the paper, except for occasional suggestions. Almost every day until The Chief became too ill, Lindner was on the phone talking to him, advising old W.R. on financial and editorial matters, listening attentively to "suggestions," adopting some, diplomatically talking The Chief out of others. Lindner was one of the few who often disagreed with The Chief and he often won his points. But he never said so. Once, when asked by an acquaintance what he thought of President Truman's policies, Lindner gave one of his usual dry, diplomatic replies: "I work for Mr. Hearst and therefore have no opinions."

Last week, in his three-story house high atop San Francisco's Telegraph Hill, Clarence Lindner, 62, died of a heart attack. His chief competitor, the San Francisco Chronicle's Editor Paul Smith, provided an epitaph: "I respected Lindner because he outdid me on everything I ever tried to do."

Publisher Lindner's successor: Charles Mayer, 48, a Lindner protege who went to the Examiner in 1926 direct from the University of California, has been business manager for the past 22 years.

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