Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr.

Samuel Irving "S.I." Newhouse Jr. (November 8, 1927 – October 1, 2017) was an American heir to a substantial magazine and media business. Together with his brother Donald, he owned Advance Publications, founded by their late father in 1922, whose properties include Condé Nast (publisher of such magazines as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker), dozens of newspapers across the United States (including The Star-Ledger, The Plain Dealer, and The Oregonian), former cable company Bright House Networks, and a controlling stake in Discovery Communications.^[1]

Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr.
Born	(1927-11-08)November 8, 1927 New York City, U.S.
Died	October 1, 2017(2017-10-01) (aged 89) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Publisher
Title	Chairman Emeritus, Condé Nast
Spouses	Jane Franke ​ ​ (m. 1951; div. 1959)​ Victoria Benedict ​ (m. 1973)​
Children	3
Parent(s)	Samuel Newhouse Sr. Mitzi Epstein
Relatives	Donald Newhouse (brother)

Early life

He was the son of Mitzi (née Epstein) and Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., the founder of Advance Publications.^[2] Sam Newhouse Sr. had been the young editor of the Bayonne Times and when he asked the owner of the Times for a raise he had long deserved, he was refused. Sam then quit the Times to become associated with the Staten Island paper that formed the basis of his publication future, The Staten Island Advance and Advance Publications, respectively. Newhouse attended the Horace Mann School in New York City.^[3] He later attended Syracuse University, but dropped out and began working at his father's newspapers.^[3] The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University is named for him.

Career

After dropping out of Syracuse University, Newhouse worked for the International News Service in Paris.^[4] He served two years in the U.S. Air Force before going to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to oversee two of his father's daily newspapers.^[4] In 1964, he became publisher of the U.S. edition of Vogue^[4] and in 1975, he took over as chairman of Condé Nast.^[5] In 1985, he purchased the New Yorker.^[5]

Prior to his death, he had an estimated net worth of $9.5 billion, and he was ranked the 46th richest American by Forbes in 2014.^[6]

Newhouse gave money to charity, including $15 million to Syracuse University in 1962.^[7] He was also an art collector,^[8] who at one time owned one of the most valuable paintings in the world, a Jackson Pollock drip painting, No. 5, 1948.^[9] Newhouse was listed by Art News as among the top 200 art collectors in the world.^[10]

Personal life and death

Newhouse was Jewish.^[11] He was married to Jane Franke in 1951 and they had three children together: Samuel I. Newhouse III, Wynn Newhouse (1954-2010), and Pamela Newhouse Mensch.^[5] The Wynn Newhouse Awards, an annual award program that provides grants to artists with disabilities, was established in 2006.^[12]

In 1959 a divorce between Franke and Newhouse was finalized, to much disapproval from his parents. ^[13] In 1973, Newhouse married Victoria Carrington Benedict de Ramel.^[5]

Newhouse's grandson, Samuel I. Newhouse IV, appeared in the documentary Born Rich.^[14]

Newhouse died on October 1, 2017, at the age of 89.^[15][5]

References

1. "Si Newhouse Passes Away at Age 89". Vogue. October 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
2. Staff. "Samuel I. Newhouse, Publisher, Dies at 84; Samuel I. Newhouse, Builder of an Empire in Newspapers and Broadcasting, Is Dead at 84 Relatives on the Payroll Some Takeover Bids Resisted Newhouse Beneficiaries Payment on a Bad Debt Newhouse Publications and Broadcast Stations", The New York Times, August 30, 1979.
3. Hajela, Deepti (1 October 2017). "S.I. Newhouse Jr., low-profile publisher of high-profile magazines, dies at 89". The Washington Post.
4. Arnold, Laurence (October 2017). "'Si' Newhouse, billionaire publisher of Vogue and GQ, dies at 89". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
5. Horwell, Veronica (October 2, 2017). "Si Newhouse obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved October 7, 2017 – via theguardian.com.
6. Samuel Newhouse Jr. – Forbes September 2015
7. "Separate School: Newhouse Unit Formed at SU". The Post-Standard. 5 June 1971. p. 5. Retrieved 28 December 2020 – via Newspapers.com .
8. Felsenthal, Carol (1998). Citizen Newhouse: Portrait of a Media Merchant. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-888363-87-8.
9. Vogel, Carol (November 2, 2006). "A Pollock Is Sold, Possibly for a Record Price". The New York Times.
10. Newhouse reference Archived 2010-10-25 at the Wayback Machine, artnews.com; accessed October 13, 2017.
11. AP. "Media titan Samuel 'Si' Newhouse is dead at 89". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
12. "Wynn Newhouse Awards". wnewhouseawards.com. Retrieved 2023-06-27.
13. "Citizen Newhouse". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-08-10.
14. Sam Dangremond, "How Born Rich Launched Ivanka Trump and Burned Nearly Everyone Else", Town and Country Magazine, May 10, 2017.
15. Meyersohn, Nathaniel (October 2017). "Magazine legend Si Newhouse, publisher of Vogue, dies at 89". cnn.com. Retrieved October 7, 2017.

Further reading

• Astor, Maggie; Ember, Sydney (October 1, 2017). "'Today, We Lost a Giant': S. I. Newhouse, as Recalled by Colleagues". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
• Ember, Sydney (October 1, 2017). "A Media Empire Loses Its King. What Now?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
• Fishman, Steve (June 8, 2009). "Si Newhouse's Dream Factory". New York. New York: New York Media.
• Kandell, Jonathan (October 1, 2017). "S.I. Newhouse Jr., Who Turned Condé Nast Into a Magazine Powerhouse, Dies at 89". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
• Koblin, John (October 2, 2017). "S.I. Newhouse Jr., Unlikely Savior of The New Yorker". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
• Maier, Thomas (1994). Newhouse: All the Glitter, Power and Glory of America's Richest Media Empire and the Secretive Man Behind It. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312114818.
• Pérez-Peña, Richard (July 20, 2008). "Can Si Newhouse Keep Condé Nast's Gloss Going?". The New York Times.