The Press: Ledger to Brush-Moore?

The late Cyrus H. K. Curtis had a golden touch with magazines (Satevepost, Ladies' Home Journal, Country Gentleman), but his newspaper ventures turned to lead. He bought and killed off three famed Philadelphia newspapers to keep his morning and evening Public Ledger alive, also acquired the New York Evening Post and Philadelphia Inquirer. Before he died in 1933 he turned over management of them to his stepson-in-law, John Charles Martin, who got his business start selling coat hangers to villagers along the Ohio River.

Heir Martin proved a good advertising salesman but very small shakes as a publisher. In five years he has lost—one by sale, one by merger, one by forfeit— three of the papers into which millions of Curtis magazine profits were poured. Last week it appeared that Publisher Martin might soon lose his last one, the evening Public Ledger, too.

Old and bitter family feelings were deeply involved in the matter. Jack Martin and his socially minded wife have long been on chilly terms with the other Curtis heirs—Daughter Mary Louise Curtis Bok, Grandsons William Curtis and Gary Bok. Among the trustees who run the Curtis estate, the Boks can always get a majority. The trustees can fire Publisher Martin when Ledger earnings drop below a certain level. That exactly this has happened was reliably reported after a stormy stockholders' meeting three weeks ago. Pink-cheeked Gary Bok, who was delegated as family "spokesman," declined to discuss the Ledger's future for the present. But when a newsman asked him about reports that Publisher Martin's contract would not be renewed, he snapped: "That much I can confirm."

Last week it was learned that the Boks have even located a prospective purchaser for the Ledger: the Brush-Moore Newspapers, Inc. of Canton, Ohio. President Louis Herbert Brush has owned the small Salem News since 1901. In 1923 he teamed up with Roy Donald Moore to buy the Marion Star from Warren Gamaliel Harding. Other Brush-Moore papers are in Canton, Portsmouth, East Liverpool, Steubenville, Ironton (half interest), Ohio; Salisbury and Wicomico, Md.

Publisher Brush, now 66, sticks mostly around Salem, where he owns a historic house, fishes and dabbles in Republican politics. Publisher Moore, 50, an oldtime telegrapher and Hearst feature salesman, runs things at the Canton headquarters. Last week it was reported that: 1) Brush-Moore has taken a one-month option to buy the Curtis estate's holdings; 2) representatives of Ohio banks are inspecting the property to see about advancing the money; 3) the option expires January 16 and if it is not taken up, the Boks may let Publisher Martin stay on the job for a while.