Troubleshooter

In the last few years, the Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. (Collier's, Woman's Home Companion, American) has been having trouble. To pep up Collier's, the biggest troublemaker, a series of drastic shake-ups was prescribed (TIME, June 22, 1946 et seq.). But there was little improvement. Crowell-Collier's earnings dropped from a high of $6,500,000 in 1946 to a scant $76,497 in 1952, or 5-c- a share, the lowest of any major U.S. magazine-publishing house. This week Crowell-Collier announced that it had hired a new vice president, who will "take a hard look at everything here." The troubleshooter: Paul C. (for Clifford) Smith, 44, who, as editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, was such an important figure that he was petitioned to run for mayor, was called on to settle labor disputes, and had a big hand in the city's civic affairs. Vice President Smith, who quit his job as editor four months ago, will roam the company troubleshooting wherever Crowell-Collier needs him, at $40,000-plus a year.

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