The Failure of Foresight

When redheaded Paul C. (for Clifford) Smith became editor of the San Francisco Chronicle 15 years ago, he was the wonder boy of journalism. Only 29, Editor Smith soon cured the ailing Chronicle, broadened its horizon to include columns heavy with culture, foreign news and features. He picked up new readers steadily, experimented with such ideas as departmentalizing the news, developed a staff studded with columnists and breezy local writers. During World War II, he resigned from the Navy, after serving as a lieutenant commander, to enlist as a private in the Marines, did combat duty in the Pacific and came out a lieutenant. Then he went back into the Navy on active duty as a full commander.

Bachelor Smith's showplace home, high on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill, became a gathering place for West Coast visiting bigwigs and intellectuals. To San Franciscans, Smith and the Chronicle were as inseparable as ham & eggs. Once 40,000 names on a petition urged him to run for mayor; unions and businessmen gave him their labor disputes to mediate. Paul Smith, who stands 5 ft. 8 in. tall, had an eleven-word explanation for his success: "I'm just a little squirt anxious to be a tough guy."

A Refusal. By 1946, he had brought the Chronicle to its peak; daily circulation was up 58% (to 169,000), and the paper was running second only to Hearst's Examiner. But when postwar newsprint and labor costs began climbing, the Chronicle, like other dailies, was hard hit. The price of the paper went up to 10-c-; then Smith put into operation a plan, which with his usual flair, he called the "Theory of Foresight," i.e., expanding the coverage and staff to give the readers more for their money, even though earnings were skidding.

Last week Smith surprised all of San Francisco; he resigned as editor of the Chronicle. The paper's owners, he explained, refused to go along with his Theory of Foresight. Fortnight ago, as the Chronicle dipped into the red, the owners fired 37 staffers while Smith was out of town. As soon as he heard the news, he hustled back with an ultimatum that either he would be consulted about such changes or he would leave. The feeling in the front office seemed to be that he had better leave.

Looking at the Bay. Paul Smith had been brought to the Chronicle as an editor in 1933 by his friend and patron, George T. Cameron, now 79, whose wife is one of the four heirs to the paper. But by last week, George Cameron was no longer the only owner's voice. His nephew, Charles Thieriot, 39, was taking a more active interest in the Chronicle as boss of the paper's TV station, and his younger brother, Ferdinand Peter Thieriot, 32, was on the job as a circulation executive. The biggest stockholder of all, Nan Tucker McEvoy, 33, George Cameron's niece (and wife of Reader's Digest Editor Dennis McEvoy), was also taking an interest in the Chronicle, where she has worked off & on as a reporter. Newsmen had suspected that as their interest grew, Editor Smith would have had more & more trouble running things his way.

Smith's resignation left Publisher Cameron in the editor's chair until he and the other members of the family can find a new editor. Smith's own plans were indefinite. Said he: "I intend to sit and look at the bay for a while."

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