Manhattan's publishing organisms were again diminished in number. For something in the neighborhood of $2,850,000, the sons of the builder of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung acquired and merged the 132-year-old Commercial and the century-old Journal of Commerce. The new hybrid's title was Journal of Commerce and Commercial; its policy was to follow that of the late Journal of Commerce. The new owners contemplated selling their Associated Press franchise, perhaps to the tabloid Daily News. It would bring perhaps quarter of a million.
The new owners were the brothers Ridder Victor F., Bernard H., Joseph E. sons of the late Herman...