The Press: Business Is Business

In their heyday in the '305, Ed and Jim Scripps had eleven links in their Western newspaper chain. By 1947, when the Scripps-owned Seattle Star folded up, only four links were left in the Scripps League. Last week, death came to the Tacoma (Wash.) Times, and there were only three.

The Times muffed its last real chance when the Scripps brothers let Editor Bill Townes quit because they were unwilling to back up his robust, crusading news policy (TIME, March 15, 1948). It was the same policy that E. W. ("Lusty") Scripps, grandfather of Ed and Jim, had used to build his...

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