How Much Independence?

When word of the imminent sale of Long Island's Newsday first leaked to the press (TIME, March 23), the main opposition came from six minority stockholders (49%), all heirs of the late Alicia Patterson Guggenheim. Emotionally committed to Alicia Patterson's strong sense of local identity and control, they were not eager to submit to absentee landlordship. Last week the majority stockholder (51%), Captain Harry Guggenheim, announced that he had indeed sold, for a reported $33 million. "I believe," said the Captain, that the sale "will assure the independence of Newsday." Said Joseph Albright, one of the minority stockholders: "I'll be very interested to find out what they mean by independence."

In addition to concern over how much control the purchaser, the relatively conservative Los Angeles Times Mirror Co.,* plans to exert over the liberal Long Island daily, the transfer of Guggenheim's 51% raises some intriguing questions. Why did he choose to sell at all? The answer: A conservative, Guggenheim was disappointed by the liberal drift the paper had taken under his hand-picked heir apparent, Publisher Bill Moyers. Ailing at 79, the Captain also wanted to ensure that the six heirs of his late wife would not gain control. Alicia Patterson was the force behind the paper for two decades following its founding in a converted garage in 1940 on $50,000. Despite her efforts to gain control of the paper in an increasingly hostile marriage, the Captain would never yield to her the all-important 2% of the stock. Newsday is now among the nation's leaders in advertising carried, and is first in circulation (440,000) among suburban dailies.

Other questions: Will the heirs now sell their remaining 49% to the West Coast publishing giant? Answer: Not likely, at least for some time. Question: Will Newsday's new owners bring the paper into Manhattan to compete against the only afternoon daily, the New York Post? Answer: "Good Lord, no!" says L.A. Times Publisher Otis Chandler. "Why in heaven's name would you want to involve it in city problems?" Question: Will Moyers, who has said that he will work only for a "genuinely independent" newspaper (and who harbors keen political ambitions), stay on as publisher? Answer: Probably not for long.

At Newsday's Garden City plant, where reporters had signed a petition protesting the sale, the news arrived quietly. An editor walked almost unnoticed through the city room with a single sheet of white paper in his hand and tacked it on the bulletin board. Gradually, employees sauntered up for a look and shook their heads. No committed craftsman yields easily to change. "There's no great wailing and gnashing of teeth," said a reporter, "but there is no joy in Newsday tonight."

* The sale caps a decade of acquisitions for the aggressive Times Mirror Co. (after Time Inc. and McGraw-Hill, the third largest in publishing). In addition to the parent Los Angeles Times, the company has acquired the New American Library, the World Publishing Co., Popular Science and Outdoor Life magazines and, with the Washington Post, is partners in an increasingly profitable news service. Most recently, it offered more than $90 million for the Dallas Times Herald and its three local TV and radio stations.

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