Grandsons of immensely wealthy men seldom work very hard. John Barry Ryan Jr., grandson of the late financier Thomas Fortune Ryan, worked ten years as a reporter, aspired to publish his own paper. Last week there appeared in Newark, N. J., the Free Press, owned jointly by Mr. Ryan and Harry Gray, his former managing editor of the Newark Ledger.
Publishers Ryan and Gray first acquired the New Jersey Freie Zeitung, Newark's German language morning paper, which was finding its road rough. In the Freie Zeitung's plant they established their new English paper confident that the thriving port of Newark (pop. 439,506) could well support a second morning paper. The only competition, the Newark Ledger, is a tabloid. The new publishers figured their English paper should even pull its elder German brother out of the hole. Pleased and curious, Newark bought daily an average of 21,000 copies of the new Free Press on its first four days of publication.
Big, good-natured, suntanned Publisher Ryan worked on Philadelphia, London, New York, Newark papers, three years ago married Margaret Dorothy Kahn, daughter of Banker Otto Hermann Kahn. Co-Publisher Gray brings the experience of 23 years' service on eight Hearstpapers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Rochester, Syracuse.