The Press: The Empire Builder

He was just 27 when he bought the Staten Island Advance for $98,000 in 1922. Since then, short (5 ft. 3 in.), stocky Samuel Irving Newhouse, 63, the son of a Russian immigrant, has strung together an empire of 13 newspapers. Among them: the Newark Star-Ledger, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Portland Oregonian, Birmingham News, Syracuse Herald-Journal and Post-Standard. The prosperous Newhouse chain is surpassed in heft and wealth only by Scripps-Howard (21 papers) and Hearst (17).

What drives Sam Newhouse is the urge to expand, and last week word leaked out that he was chasing one of the brightest properties in the nation:...

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