At 66, a Canadian named Roy Thomson has become an international press lord without peer or precedent (TIME, Nov. 14). Beginning in 1934 with a back-country Canadian newspaper, Businessman Thomson has quietly forged a chain of 76 newspapers (including London's prestigious Sunday Times) in six countries. Last week, round, rosy and insatiable, Thomson laid out $5,500,000 to add five new links to his chain in still another country: Northern Ireland.
For his money, Thomson acquires a five-sixths interest in the venerable, liberal Belfast Telegraph (circ. 196,000), biggest and best daily in Northern Ireland's overcrowded...