Staten Island Advance
Encyclopedia
The Staten Island Advance is a daily newspaper published in the borough of Staten Island
in New York City. The only daily newspaper published in the borough, and the only borough to have its own major daily paper, it covers news of local and community interest, including borough politics. As of April 25, 2007, Monday-Friday circulation was down 3.9% from the previous year, to 59,461. Sunday dropped 4.6% to 73,203. It is currently owned by the Advance/Newhouse Group
, which derives its name from this newspaper.
In 1908, Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr.
started working for New Jersey Democratic machine politician, Bayonne Times newspaper owner, and Judge Hyman Lazarus's law office as an office-boy, bookkeeper and rent-collector. By the time Samuel Newhouse Sr. was twenty-one in 1916, his boss, Judge Lazarus rewarded him with a salary of around $30,000 per year, and twenty-five percent ownership of the Bayonne Times, for loyal service.
Newhouse purchased the Staten Island Advance with Judge Lazarus in 1922. This was one of the first newspapers he acquired. When Lazarus died in 1924, Newhouse bought his family's share of Staten Island Advance stock.
During the 1920s, the Newhouse family loaned money to Henry Garfinkle, which enabled him to open newsstands that increased sales of the Newhouse family's Staten Island Advance at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island, and later opened newsstands throughout Manhattan, as well as LaGuardia Airport, Newark Airport, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal (the world's largest and most lucrative newsstand).
Even during the Great Depression
in the 1930s, the Newhouse family had enough money to buy the Long Island Press in Jamaica and competitors Long Island Star, North Shore Journal and Nassau Journal, as well as the Newark Ledger
, the Newark Star and newspapers in Syracuse. The Newhouse family paid its non-unionized newsroom employees at the Long Island Press, one third less than the unionized New York Times and New York Daily News paid its reporters for similar work in the 1930s. Newhouse paid himself a salary greater than the total of all the salaries paid to the sixty-five newsroom employees there.
The Newhouse family purchased newspapers in Syracuse, Jersey City and Harrisburg in the 1940s, and in St. Louis, Oregon and Alabama in the 1950s. Some began to wonder how the Newhouse family obtained so much money. The Newhouse family's wealth approached $200 million in the late 1950s, enabling it to purchase Vogue
and other Conde Nast magazines. Author Richard Meeker describes the mounting suspicions about the Newhouse family's source of wealth in "Newspaperman: S.I. Newhouse And The Business Of News":
"Newspaper analysts were so suspicious of the source of Newhouse's funds that they discussed openly the possibility that he was laundering money...Some went so far as to suggest that his newspaper operations had been used as a front for the notorious Reinfeld mob, a group of booze-peddling hoodlums whose boss had made millions during prohibition."
One way the Newhouse family apparently was able to accumulate so much money so rapidly during the 20th Century was by hiring accountants and lawyers who figured out unique ways for the Newhouse dynasty to avoid paying a fair share of taxes on their rapidly growing family wealth. As Newspaperman reported:
"‘They played every tax game there was’, recalled one man who once served as publisher for several Newhouse newspapers. That meant that every cost that could conceivably be written off as a business deduction was, that assets were depreciated as rapidly as possible, and that new acquisitions were ‘written up’ as high as the law allowed... Where Newhouse developed a special advantage was in the way he avoided paying taxes for the profits that remained to him after the payment of corporate taxes...
"Thanks to an ingenious device created by his accountant, Louis Glickman, and implemented by his attorney, Charles Goldman, Newhouse was able to avoid paying taxes on accumulated earnings and, thus, to multiply the value of his earnings several times. Doing so involved the creation of a special corporate structure for the various newspapers... Because the Goldman-Glickman construct kept the various enterprises separate--for tax purposes at least--each could claim the right to its own surplus. Taken together, the accumulation that resulted was many times what the IRS
would have allowed had Newhouse simply treated all of his operations as a single corporation."
Meeker characterized the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation as "a charity his Samuel I. Newhouse Sr.'s
lawyers had created as an additional tax dodge", and charged that Newhouse Foundation funds were used by the Newhouse family to finance its $18 million purchase of Alabama's Birmingham News in 1955.
After Samuel Newhouse Sr. died in 1979, his two sons, S.I. Newhouse, Jr.
and Donald Newhouse, were accused of tax evasion by the IRS in 1983. While the IRS dropped tax fraud charges against them in the 1980s, it increased the Newhouse family tax delinquency bill to $1.2 billion, asserting that the Newhouse estate was actually worth $2.2 billion—not $1.2 billion—when Samuel Newhouse Sr. died in 1979, according to the March 13, 1989 issue of The Nation.
One year after Newhouse's death in 1979, the Advance Group purchased Random House
, but sold it to Bertelsmann
in 1998.
The original office of the Staten Island Advance was located on Castleton Avenue in the West Brighton neighborhood. In 1960, the paper moved to the current office on West Fingerboard Road in Grasmere
.
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
in New York City. The only daily newspaper published in the borough, and the only borough to have its own major daily paper, it covers news of local and community interest, including borough politics. As of April 25, 2007, Monday-Friday circulation was down 3.9% from the previous year, to 59,461. Sunday dropped 4.6% to 73,203. It is currently owned by the Advance/Newhouse Group
Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc., is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse, Jr. It is named after the Staten Island Advance, the first newspaper owned by the Newhouse family...
, which derives its name from this newspaper.
History
The Advance was created in 1886 by printer John J. Crawford and businessman James C. Kennedy as the Richmond County Advance. The name was changed to the Daily Advance before the current name. When the Advance began there were nine competing daily newspapers in Staten Island. The circulation of the Advance surpassed its early competitors, and the circulation grew from 4,500 in 1910, to over 80,000 by the mid 1990s.In 1908, Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr.
Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr.
Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr. was an American broadcasting businessman, magazine and newspaper publisher. He was the founder of Advance Publications, eventually taken over by his son, Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr..-Biography:...
started working for New Jersey Democratic machine politician, Bayonne Times newspaper owner, and Judge Hyman Lazarus's law office as an office-boy, bookkeeper and rent-collector. By the time Samuel Newhouse Sr. was twenty-one in 1916, his boss, Judge Lazarus rewarded him with a salary of around $30,000 per year, and twenty-five percent ownership of the Bayonne Times, for loyal service.
Newhouse purchased the Staten Island Advance with Judge Lazarus in 1922. This was one of the first newspapers he acquired. When Lazarus died in 1924, Newhouse bought his family's share of Staten Island Advance stock.
During the 1920s, the Newhouse family loaned money to Henry Garfinkle, which enabled him to open newsstands that increased sales of the Newhouse family's Staten Island Advance at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island, and later opened newsstands throughout Manhattan, as well as LaGuardia Airport, Newark Airport, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal (the world's largest and most lucrative newsstand).
Even during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the 1930s, the Newhouse family had enough money to buy the Long Island Press in Jamaica and competitors Long Island Star, North Shore Journal and Nassau Journal, as well as the Newark Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
, the Newark Star and newspapers in Syracuse. The Newhouse family paid its non-unionized newsroom employees at the Long Island Press, one third less than the unionized New York Times and New York Daily News paid its reporters for similar work in the 1930s. Newhouse paid himself a salary greater than the total of all the salaries paid to the sixty-five newsroom employees there.
The Newhouse family purchased newspapers in Syracuse, Jersey City and Harrisburg in the 1940s, and in St. Louis, Oregon and Alabama in the 1950s. Some began to wonder how the Newhouse family obtained so much money. The Newhouse family's wealth approached $200 million in the late 1950s, enabling it to purchase Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
and other Conde Nast magazines. Author Richard Meeker describes the mounting suspicions about the Newhouse family's source of wealth in "Newspaperman: S.I. Newhouse And The Business Of News":
"Newspaper analysts were so suspicious of the source of Newhouse's funds that they discussed openly the possibility that he was laundering money...Some went so far as to suggest that his newspaper operations had been used as a front for the notorious Reinfeld mob, a group of booze-peddling hoodlums whose boss had made millions during prohibition."
One way the Newhouse family apparently was able to accumulate so much money so rapidly during the 20th Century was by hiring accountants and lawyers who figured out unique ways for the Newhouse dynasty to avoid paying a fair share of taxes on their rapidly growing family wealth. As Newspaperman reported:
"‘They played every tax game there was’, recalled one man who once served as publisher for several Newhouse newspapers. That meant that every cost that could conceivably be written off as a business deduction was, that assets were depreciated as rapidly as possible, and that new acquisitions were ‘written up’ as high as the law allowed... Where Newhouse developed a special advantage was in the way he avoided paying taxes for the profits that remained to him after the payment of corporate taxes...
"Thanks to an ingenious device created by his accountant, Louis Glickman, and implemented by his attorney, Charles Goldman, Newhouse was able to avoid paying taxes on accumulated earnings and, thus, to multiply the value of his earnings several times. Doing so involved the creation of a special corporate structure for the various newspapers... Because the Goldman-Glickman construct kept the various enterprises separate--for tax purposes at least--each could claim the right to its own surplus. Taken together, the accumulation that resulted was many times what the IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
would have allowed had Newhouse simply treated all of his operations as a single corporation."
Meeker characterized the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation as "a charity his Samuel I. Newhouse Sr.'s
Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr.
Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr. was an American broadcasting businessman, magazine and newspaper publisher. He was the founder of Advance Publications, eventually taken over by his son, Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr..-Biography:...
lawyers had created as an additional tax dodge", and charged that Newhouse Foundation funds were used by the Newhouse family to finance its $18 million purchase of Alabama's Birmingham News in 1955.
After Samuel Newhouse Sr. died in 1979, his two sons, S.I. Newhouse, Jr.
Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr.
Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr. , nicknamed Si Newhouse, is the chairman and CEO of Advance Publications, which, among other interests, owns Condé Nast, publisher of many marquee brands in the world of magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. He is the son of Samuel Irving...
and Donald Newhouse, were accused of tax evasion by the IRS in 1983. While the IRS dropped tax fraud charges against them in the 1980s, it increased the Newhouse family tax delinquency bill to $1.2 billion, asserting that the Newhouse estate was actually worth $2.2 billion—not $1.2 billion—when Samuel Newhouse Sr. died in 1979, according to the March 13, 1989 issue of The Nation.
One year after Newhouse's death in 1979, the Advance Group purchased Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, but sold it to Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...
in 1998.
The original office of the Staten Island Advance was located on Castleton Avenue in the West Brighton neighborhood. In 1960, the paper moved to the current office on West Fingerboard Road in Grasmere
Grasmere, Staten Island
Grasmere is the name of a neighborhood located on the East Shore of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City.Grasmere although crossed by major roads has retained its quiet suburban character. The area and adjoining Concord was dotted with lakes and ponds similar to the English...
.