The Press: Maverick's Rise

In 1953, after a two-year rise from copyboy to overnight editor of Chicago's hardboiled, fast-moving City News Bureau,* brash, blond Bruce Sagan (rhymes with pagan) paid $2,500 for a withered weekly called the Hyde Park Herald. Breathing life into the body and new fire into the Southside community. Publisher Sagant mounted a hard-hitting campaign for slum clearance, coupled picture spreads of slum dwellings (including owners' names) with authoritative how-to-do-it articles on redevelopment. Outcome: Hyde Park qualified for federal aid as the Midwest's first and biggest project of this type approved under the new...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!