Family Affair

The conservative, staid Cincinnati Times-Star (circ. 154,579) has always been a family affair. Directed by aging (76) Publisher Hulbert Taft, the paper is controlled by the Taft family; a 5% block of stock is held by the estate of Publisher Taft's cousin, the late Senator Robert A. Taft, and Bob Taft's son Lloyd is a vice president of the paper today. Last week Publisher Taft made sure that the paper will remain under Taft family control. He stepped down as publisher and into his chair went his cousin, David Sinton Ingalls, 55, Bob Taft's campaign manager. No newsman himself. Dave Ingalls, a grandnephew of President William Howard Taft, became the U.S. Navy's only ace in World War I. He served as Assistant Navy Secretary for Air under Hoover, was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Ohio (1932). Lawyer Ingalls went into the Navy again, rose to the rank of commodore during World War II, worked on Taft's campaigns after coming out.

In his new job, Publisher Ingalls, who has long been a director of the paper, will leave the news side to the paper's editorial staff, concentrate on boosting ads and circulation. It will not be an easy task. Ever since the Times-Star tried to buy the Cincinnati Enquirer and lost out when the Enquirer's employees bought the paper instead (TIME, June 16, 1952), the Times-Star has been in a neck-and-neck battle with its evening competitor, the Scripps-Howard Post. Newsmen guessed that the battle might end in a merger of the two papers, leaving the afternoon field with only one daily. But on his first day at his new job, Publisher Ingalls made it clear that the Times-Star intends to fight the competition rather than buy it. Said he: "We have no present intention of making any sale, merger or purchase of any newspaper properties."

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