Twins and Trusts

Because Columnist Evie Robert of the Washington Times was having a baby in Manhattan last week, her socialite mother, Mrs. Harold Walker, took over her space for one day and burbled happily from the hospital: "Grandmothers really aren't much these days ! ..."

The remark did not apply to Evie's boss, Publisher Eleanor Medill ("Cissie") Patterson, herself a grandmother,* who the same day chose an unusual way to put in the same publishing box stall the evening Times and its stablemate, the morning Herald. Vivacious, copper-haired Cissie has leased both papers from William Randolph Hearst since August 1937, has had to dip into her ample capital lately to meet their losses (about $900,000 in 1938). Last fortnight she dipped in again for "considerably less than $500,000" and bought them outright. Declaring "it has been [a] waste of time and talent, worry and ceaseless effort to keep these twin newspapers . . . apart," she joined them into a single, all-day Times-Herald, with ten editions every 24 hours.

Publisher Cissie says only 17% of the papers' combined 220,000 circulation was duplicated. She expects to hold most of the rest, and thus give her Times-Herald the largest circulation in Washington.

Other newsworthy management changes of the week:

> In Philadelphia, 56-year-old John Charles Martin stepped out as president and publisher of the Evening Ledger, and 34-year-old Gary William Bok stepped in as board chairman. Mr. Martin is a step-son-in-law of the late Cyrus H. K. Curtis, who founded the Ledger. Chairman Bok is a Curtis grandson. Between Boks and Martins no love is lost. Last month it became known that the trustees of the Curtis estate (among whom are four Boks, one Martin) were ready to fire Publisher Martin because of a slump in Ledger circulation, profits (TIME, Jan. 2).

> In Portland, a 20-year trust set up by the late great Publisher Henry Lewis Pittock to control his beloved Oregonian expired, and Trustee Ore Lee Price, longtime Pittock private secretary, resigned as publisher. Up to fill his job stepped strapping Manager Edwin Palmer ("Ep") Hoyt, 41, who was managing editor of the paper for five years until last autumn. The Pittock two-thirds of Oregonian stock was divided among four daughters and the heirs of a deceased son. Henceforth, the Oregonian will be run by a board made up of two Pittock heirs and Leslie M. Scott, son of its late great editor, Harvey Whitefield Scott.

*Her twelve-year-old granddaughter, Ellen Cameron Pearson, is the daughter of Columnist Drew Pearson (see col. 2) and the present Countess Felicia Gizycka of New York.

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