Partners Parted

The torment of taxes has long been a cross which William Randolph Hearst bore noisily. But with that other mortal certainty, death, the many-mouthed publisher was for years too busy to be bothered. No stranger to Hearst, however, was death during the past year. From San Simeon's inner circle it took lovable No. 1 Sob-Sister Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils at 72, money-minded No. 1 Columnist-Editor Arthur Brisbane at 72, exacting No. 1 Sunday Editor Morrill Goddard at 70.

Plainly shocked by these intimate losses, reminded of "my few remaining years," Publisher Hearst at 74 has at last been persuaded to do what Hearst financial managers have been trying to get him to do for years: replenish his cash reserves to pay inheritance taxes against the day when five Hearsts* must shoulder the work of one. Retrenching, within a few months Publisher Hearst killed the New York American, dropped the losing Rochester Journal, shifted the unprofitable Albany Times-Union to the more promising, exclusive morning field, merged International News and Universal Services.

Last week Publisher Paul Block did his good friend's fortune no harm when he tossed into the Hearst till $2,750,000 to buy out the Hearst half-interest in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette which was simultaneously the U. S. paper-of-the-week as it continued its revelations of Hugo La Fayette Black's Klanishness (see p. 10). At the same time Mr. Block was permitted to tear up a ten-year lease on the Hearst Milwaukee Sentinel. Mr. Block's lease, first signed in 1929, assigned to him half the profits. There were no profits. Hoping to remedy that deficiency. Mr. Hearst last week hurriedly consolidated the staffs of the Sentinel with the Hearst-owned Milwaukee Wisconsin News to affect a 33% cut in personnel.

Withdrawal from Milwaukee cut Publisher Block's chain to four papers, but makes his little empire all his own. It also clarifies as it brings to an end a partnership whose details for years provided a topic of speculation in newspaper front offices. Mr. Hearst met Mr. Block when the latter was a reporter on the New York Press. Friends for years, they did not do any business together until 1927 when, over a luncheon table, Mr. Hearst suggested to Mr. Block that he buy the slipping Pittsburgh morning Post and evening Sun. Publisher Hearst in turn volunteered to purchase the sickly morning Gazette-Times and evening Chronicle-Telegraph. Formation of the morning Post Gazette and evening Sun Telegraph at a cost of $8,000,000 financed entirely through Hearst, ended ruinous competition between the papers, made the new owners plenty. No longer partners, but political bedfellows who hate Franklin Roosevelt, Publishers Block and Hearst still have many mutual interests. All Block newspapers are valued clients of Hearst's International News Service; seven key Hearstpapers retain Paul Block & Associates to sell space to national advertisers.

*Hearst sons: George, 33; William Randolph, Jr., 29: John Randolph, 27: Randolph Apperson, 21 ; David Whitmore, 21.

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