Newsmaker
Roy W. Howard, the Mastermind Behind the Scripps-Howard News Empire From the Gilded Age to the Atomic Age
By (author) Patricia Beard Foreword by Pamela Howard
Publication date:
01 July 2016Length of book:
384 pagesPublisher
Lyons PressISBN-13: 9781493017539
In the first half of the 20th century, the golden age of newspapers, the colorful, charismatic, and controversial Roy W. Howard reigned as the most famous publisher, editor and journalist of his time. Named one of “The 29 Men Who ‘Rule’ America’” on the front page of the New York Times, Howard built the United Press; was chairman of Scripps-Howard, one of the two biggest newspaper empires in the United States; and was president and editor of the New York World-Telegram. The first global news entrepreneur, he was a model for journalism in the digital age.
Howard traveled 2.5 million miles to land unique scoops, and was the privileged confidante of every US president from Woodrow Wilson to Dwight D. Eisenhower. He met privately and conducted one-on-one interviews with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Churchill, and the Emperor of Japan, and advised the most renowned figures of his time, among them a muddled Duke of Windsor, a grieving Charles Lindberg, and a desperate Chang Kai-shek.
Based on fifty years of Roy Howard’s privately held diaries, and thousands of pages of his “Strictly Confidential” memoranda, Newsmaker’s author Patricia Beard takes the reader behind the scenes of a turbulent era, and provides background to the role of journalism in the digital age.
Howard traveled 2.5 million miles to land unique scoops, and was the privileged confidante of every US president from Woodrow Wilson to Dwight D. Eisenhower. He met privately and conducted one-on-one interviews with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Churchill, and the Emperor of Japan, and advised the most renowned figures of his time, among them a muddled Duke of Windsor, a grieving Charles Lindberg, and a desperate Chang Kai-shek.
Based on fifty years of Roy Howard’s privately held diaries, and thousands of pages of his “Strictly Confidential” memoranda, Newsmaker’s author Patricia Beard takes the reader behind the scenes of a turbulent era, and provides background to the role of journalism in the digital age.
Roy Howard was one of the most influential newspaper men of the twentieth century. At twenty-five he became general manager of what was then United Press and by thirty-nine he was chairman of the newly renamed Scripps-Howard news empire. He was central to the reporting of two world wars, the Depression, and the creation of the American century. Patricia Beard’s Newsmaker draws on a treasure trove of personal papers to create the full picture of a man who by dint of will and determination helped create a world of journalism that lasted decades. Journalism is always evolving and much can be learned from Beard’s lively and illuminating description of a man who was at the center of global events.