The late Cyrus H. K. Curtis had a golden touch with magazines (Satevepost, Ladies' Home Journal, Country Gentleman), but his newspaper ventures turned to lead. He bought and killed off three famed Philadelphia newspapers to keep his morning and evening Public Ledger alive, also acquired the New York Evening Post and Philadelphia Inquirer. Before he died in 1933 he turned over management of them to his stepson-in-law, John Charles Martin, who got his business start selling coat hangers to villagers along the Ohio River.
Heir Martin proved a good advertising salesman but...