The Press: Jock Gets the Trib

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The 117-year-old New York Herald Tribune, tradition-proud, independent Republican and ailing, passed last week from the patrician hands of the Reid family, its owners for 85 years. For the announcement, the Reids gathered in a seventh-floor office of the Trib's Manhattan building on dingy West 41st Street: tiny, doughty Helen Rogers Reid, 75, who ran the paper from the 1947 death of her husband Ogden Mills Reid until 1955, and her sons Whitelaw, 45, and Ogden, 33, who thereafter worked mightily to cure its ills. "This is a development," said boyish Ogden ("Brownie") Reid, "that the Reid family cares deeply about."

The sale of the Trib was a poignant episode for the Reids. The first Whitelaw Reid bought the Tribune in 1873, after the death of Founder Horace Greeley; his son Ogden combined it with the remnants of James Gordon Bennett's racy Herald in 1924. But the credentials of the new buyer softened the blow. He is John Hay ("Jock") Whitney, financier, sportsman, diplomat, art collector, lifetime friend of the Reids and possessor of more than $100 million. "We are happy about it," said Brownie Reid, his arm around his mother. "I think it is a fine step," said she.

Eminent Domain. By buying the Trib, fast-moving Jock Whitney stepped into the major league of U.S. publishers. A month ago he dealt off just under $7,000,000, added the prosperous Sunday supplement Parade to a communications domain that spans four TV stations, interests in the magazines Scientific American and Interior Design, two radio stations, the Great Northern Paper Co. The Trib purchase was no surprise. A year ago, Jock Whitney lent the Reids $1,200,000 with an option to convert the loan to stock. By the conversion, and the purchase of an unspecified number of additional shares, Whitney got control of the Trib and its money-making European edition. The Reids retain a "substantial interest."

Since Whitney has the kind of money that may bring the Trib back to its thriving, prewar heyday, the sale cheered the paper's 1,900 staffers. They have watched gloomily as the Herald Tribune, once a formidable rival of the Times, cut coverage, settled into sixth place in circulation among Manhattan's seven major dailies. Under eager Brownie, who replaced brother Whitelaw as editor and chief executive officer in a 1955 family power squabble, the Trib seemed to ease up on solid reporting and sound writing as it went after circulation with frothy features and tabloid-style gimmicks.

A disconcerting editorial flabbiness also crept in. Example: the Trib recently spiked stories on the Hollywood high jinks of Dominican Playboy Rafael ("Ramfis") Trujillo Jr. (see THE HEMISPHERE), which occurred as the paper was getting out a 48-page advertising supplement on the Dominican Republic. The jazzed-up Trib lost serious readership to the ad-heavy, news-fat Times (circ. 663,106), but gained few readers from the morning tabloids, the crisp News (circ. 2,014,542), Hearst's snappy Mirror (circ. 890,596).