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Last week the Mirror was handed the American's daily Associated Press membership. It was thus in a position to draw level pictorially with the rival Daily News by splitting with it the $150,000 yearly
New York fee for the A. P.'s Wirephoto service. Hearst's Evening Journal, occupying the same building as the American and already merged with it in some departments, got most of its features (Maury Paul's "Cholly Knickerbocker," O. O. Mclntyre's "New York Day by Day," Alice Hughes's Shopping column, and "Bringing Up Father" and "Skippy"). Damon Runyon and Robert ("Believe It Or Not") Ripley went to the Mirror. The Sunday American containing the powerful American Weekly supplement was kept intact, with added features from the Journal. Thus, Hearst's only Manhattan duplication now was in the Sunday field, but both papers were doing well, the Sunday American with 1,036,297 circulation, the Sunday Mirror with 1,319,919.
Chief assets which the Journal received from the American were its classified advertising and its publisher, W. R. Hearst Jr., ablest of the Chief's five sons. He and his rivals at once ran big ads in each other's papers bidding for the American's, classified business. Another problem facing young Hearst was the American'?, 2,800 employes. "I want you to know," he said, "that my father and I are deeply concerned over the fact that anyone will lose a job because of this necessary move, and that we are both very hopeful that the eventual result of this consolidation will be employment for a great number of people.'' If Publisher Hearst, 74, should leave the publishing scene in the near future, the disposition of his empire would fall on shoulders other than those which would have carried the load two years ago. Young "Bill" Hearst's shoulders are a little broader and steadier; and directly behind the wheel now are a sturdy pair belonging to Thomas Justin White, general business manager of the Hearst organization since 1934. But no longer squared for any Hearst contingency are the Herculean shoulders of sagacious John Francis ("Jack") Neylan, the broad-gauge San Francisco lawyer, up from newshawk, who in 1925 became counsel for all "W. R." Hearst's enterprises.
Bringing some kind of corporate order into the tangled jungles of Hearst finance, and damming up expensive drains like the American, were "Jack" Neylan's foremost objectives. Yet last week the profession learned that, while still Mr. Hearst's friendly adviser, "Jack" Neylan had no immediate part in the demise of the American, and had had no part in the SEC registrations. Jack Neylan turned in his Hearst portfolio two years ago to live out his own life without empire pressure.