The Press: Cowles Conquest

For a bad 24 hours last week a rumor gutted the Minneapolis morning Tribune and evening Times-Tribune. Pressmen huddled together outside the Tribune building on Newspaper Row in Fourth Street. Reporters, some panicky and angry, some stunned or recklessly casual, gravitated toward the bars—to hold a wake for their jobs.

Heard oftenest—usually profanely—that night in Minneapolis bars was the name of John Cowles, 42-year-old publisher of the Minneapolis Star-Journal. Rumor was that John Cowles (rhymes with bowls) had bought the two Tribune papers, was going to fold them for good—as he had the Minneapolis Journal two years before.

Next day John Cowles announced...

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