Place at the Top

It is no secret in magazine publishing that Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. (Collier's, American Magazine, Woman's Home Companion) is in trouble. Once one of the most successful magazine publishers in the U.S., the company slipped from net earnings of $6,500.000 in 1946 to a mere $76,000 in 1952, lowest earnings of any major U.S. publishing company. This year ' Crowell-Collier, with all its magazines losing money and only its book department in the black, will have the worst year in the company's history. Estimated 1953 losses: between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000. Five months ago, as the first step in a radical recovery program, the company changed over its biggest troublemaker, Collier's, from a weekly into a biweekly (TIME, May 18), thereby headed off company losses that might have reached $12 million by year's end.

This week Crowell-Collier took the second big step in its recovery program. Into the president's chair went Paul Smith, 45, to replace Clarence Stouch, 62, who is stepping up to chairman of the board. New President Smith came to Crowell-Collier as a vice president eight months ago from San Francisco, where he had bossed the Chronicle for 17 years. At $40,000-plus a year, Smith was given the assignment of roaming the company to see where it needed his journalistic talents until Crowell-Collier finally decided that the best place for him was at the top. Smith, a congenital optimist, once known as the "wonder boy of U.S. journalism," is not a bit fazed by taking over the presidency of Crowell-Collier. He thinks Collier's changeover to a biweekly can bring it into the black again by the end of 1954, sees signs that the other magazines are also turning a corner. Says he: "I think we have going on what may be one of the great turnarounds in publishing history. If that happens, I may be able to hold on to my job."

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