Successful, but Sacked

When William P. Steven had a falling out in 1960 with Publisher John Cowles Jr. and was bounced as executive editor of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, he made a list of U.S. dailies and went searching for a job. He landed one as editor of the Houston Chronicle. He thought his peppy, "print-first-and-plan-afterward" philosophy was just the cure for a paper that ran a poor second in circulation to the Houston Post. Steven souped up local coverage, added a few sparkling features and massively reported the doings at the Houston space-flight center. The Chronicle overtook the Houston Post in 1963 and became Texas' largest paper. Thanks in part to its purchase last year of the Houston Press (circ. 89,000), the Chronicle under Steven increased its circulation by a third, to 283,000.

For all his success, Steven, now 57, was never very popular with the Chronicle's owners. They are the trustees of Houston Endowment Inc., a $400 million nonprofit foundation that was set up by the late Millionaire Jesse Jones and converts earnings from a wide range of interests into scholarships and support for the arts. Steven reversed the paper's conservative policies and put it squarely behind integration. The Chronicle helped integrate the Houston schools and more recently, the all-city symphony orchestra.

Two weeks ago the trustees decided that they had had enough of Steven. When Jesse Jones's nephew, John T. Jones Jr., a firm supporter of Steven, resigned as chairman of the board of trustees, the remaining five trustees voted to sack Steven and three top aides and replace them with the men who had run the paper in its conservative days. The trustees offered no explanations, but Steven had his own: "The conservatives scalped me."

If the trustees had any reason besides politics for firing Steven, they were not making it public. One of them said privately that Steven's editorial policies had "embarrassed" the group. Steven is not everybody's idea of an editor, since he goes heavy on local sensationalism, as does the rival Houston Post. But he should have no trouble finding a job. President Johnson, in fact, offered him one or two after inviting him to lunch at the L.B.J. Ranch. But Steven said thanks anyway, not just now. He plans a six-month vacation far from Houston before he makes up another job-hunting list.

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