Publishers: Dynasty's End

Chicago Tribune Founder Joseph Medill's injunction to his family was: "Well, print the news. I can't tell you anything else. Just print the news." The dynasty that followed never forgot this advice, but each of its flamboyant members had something additional to contribute: a stamp of personality that enlivened four generations of American journalism. In Chicago it was the incomparable Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick, in Washington the acid Eleanor ("Cissy") Patterson, in New York the swashbuckling Captain Joseph Medill Patterson. More recently, a raven-haired bundle of energy named Alicia Patterson Guggenheim bore the family banner with her Long...