History
In June of 1923, Brush entered into a partnership with Moore to purchase The Marion Star from then-U.S. President Warren G. Harding for $480,000. Around the same time Brush and Moore bought the Marion Tribune from L. S. Galvin and W. J. Galvin. Harding intended to continue writing editorials for The Marion Star but died unexpectedly in August of 1923. [7] [8] [9] [10]
In 1924, Time noted that The Marion Star, the East Liverpool Tribune, the Salem News and the East Liverpool Review comprised one of the prominent newspaper groups in the country, with a total circulation of 30,906. [11] In 1927, Brush and Moore, with William Henry Vodrey, established Brush-Moore Newspapers, Inc. from their holdings. [4]
In 1935, Brush and Moore lost a case in which they requested to deduct a $13,300 yearly salary, which Harding would have received from The Marion Star had he lived to retire from the presidency, from Brush-Moore Newspapers' income tax; it was ruled that the salary would remain taxable. [7]
On June 5, 1941 the Federal Communications Commission began a series of hearings to determine whether Chester A. Thompson, who had acquired 50% of the Portsmouth radio station WPAY, should be permitted to give his stock to Brush-Moore. The FCC examiner P. W. Steward argued that because Thompson was not involved in WPAY’s operations and did not know how a radio station was run, he had no right to. [12] The attorney for the FCC, Marcus Cohn, alleged that Thompson had colluded, against public interests, with Brush-Moore Newspapers to secure Brush-Moore full ownership of WPAY. [13]
Brush and Moore, whose company already owned the other 50% of WPAY, were called up to testify on June 6 and denied any conflict of interest with Thompson; [13] Brush said only that WPAY’s affairs were Moore’s to deal with, and Moore testified that Thompson had managed the station since 1939. [14] The hearings concluded in August of 1941, [15] but the FCC's ruling that the remainder of WPAY would be transferred to Brush-Moore was not made until April of 1944.
Joseph K. Vodrey, son of W. H. Vodrey, became general manager and vice president of Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1946. In the same year Brush stepped down from president of the company to chairman of the board of directors; Moore succeeded Brush as president. [17]
On June 23, 1948, Brush died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his friend Henry A. Hurst's apartment after falling ill at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he was 76 years old. [18] [19]
Moore, who served as president, executive committee leader and publisher of Brush-Moore Newspapers, lived out his later years in a house near Congress Lake in Ohio. He died there of cardiovascular disease on May 1, 1954 at the age of 66. [6]
The vacancies left by Moore's death were filled by May 25, 1954. G. Gordon Strong, who had been general manager since 1952, was made president of Brush-Moore; John D. Raridon, who had been executive editor since 1927, was made publisher; and William T. Moore, Roy's son, was made head of the executive committee. [20]
W. H. Vodrey, who served as secretary and treasurer of Brush-Moore Newspapers, died aged 81 on December 19, 1954, only seven months after Moore died. [21] His other son, William H. Vodrey, Jr., assumed the newly vacated positions in January of 1955. [22]
In 1967 Brush-Moore Newspapers was sold by Strong to Thomson Newspapers for 72 million dollars, which was at the time the most a newspaper organization had ever been purchased for. [23] Brush-Moore had by that point owned 12 daily papers, including six in Ohio (the Canton Repository , East Liverpool Review, Salem News, Steubenville Herald , Marion Star, and Portsmouth Times ) three in California ( Times-Standard , San Gabriel Valley Tribune , and Oxnard Press-Courier ), and one in Maryland ( Salisbury Daily Times ), Pennsylvania (Hanover Evening Sun), and West Virginia (Weirton Daily Times), with a total circulation of approximately 540,000. [1] [24]
