Advance/Newhouse Group: chronology
Landmarks
This chronology is indicative only.
Sponsored links
It covers -
- beginnings (1911)
- buys Conde Nast (1959)
- into book publishing (1980)
- out of books (1998)
Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site.
Beginnings
1873 birth of Conde Nast
1892 Vogue magazine founded by Arthur Turnure & Harry McVickar
1897 Robert Collier revamps Collier's Weekly, employs Conde Nast
1905 Nast gains control of Home Pattern Company
1909 Nast buys Vogue
1911 Solomon Neuhaus, later Samuel Newhouse, becomes editor of ailing Bayonne Times newspaper owned by judge Hyman Lazaru
1913 Nast relaunches Dress & Vanity Fair
1915 Nast buys House & Garden (founded 1901)
1915 co-publishes Gazette du Bon Ton
1916 launches UK edition of Vogue
1920 launches UK House & Garden, French Vogue
1921 buys L'Illustration des Modes, relaunched as Jardin des Modes
1922 Newhouse and Lazarus buy 51% of Staten Island Advance newspaper for US$98,000.
1924 Lazarus sells stake to Newhouse and associates William Wolfe and St John Mclean
1924 Newhouse takes 60% of Staten Island Advance Corporation
1927 IPO of The Conde Nast Publications Inc
1928 Newhouse buys out associates for US$198,000
1928 Nast launches German Vogue and The American Golfer
1932 launches Hollywood Patterns
1932 Newhouse buys 51% of Long Island Press for US$750,000
1933 Nast bailed-out by Camrose after Wall Street Crash
1935 closes The American Golfer
1935 Street & Smith launch Mademoiselle magazine
1935 Newhouse buys 51% share in New Jersey's Newark Ledger
1936 Nast closes Vanity Fair
1938 Newhouse buys and merges Flushing North Shore Journal and Long Island Star for US$250,000
1939 launches Glamour of Hollywood magazine
1939 Newhouse buys Syracuse Herald and Journal from Hearst for US$1.9m, merging them into the Herald-Journal
1939 Newhouse buys Newark Star-Eagle from Block, merged with Ledger to form the Newark Star-Ledger
1942 gains Syracuse monopoly by buying Post-Standard
1942 death of Conde Nast, UK Amalgamated Press takes control of Conde Nast Publications
1945 Newhouse gains control of Jersey Journal
1947 buys Patriot Company, publisher of Harrisburg Patriot and Evening News
1948 buys radio WSYR Syracuse
1949 Staten Island Advance Corp renamed Advance Publications
1950 buys Portland Oregonian for US$5.6m
1951 acquires rest of Jersey Journal
1953 sells KGW Portland to King Broadcasting
1955 buys St Louis Globe-Democrat for US$6.5m
1955 buys Birmingham News and Huntsville Times
1956 buys WAPI Birmingham (founded 1992 as WMAV)
1958 Berrys sell Amalgamated Press to Daily Mirror Group
Buys Conde Nast
1959 Newhouse buys Conde Nast magazine group for US$5m
1959 buys Street & Smith
1961 buys Oregon Journal for US$8m, giving monopoly in Portland
1962 Newhouse buys New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper group
1966 buys Mobile Register, Mobile Press and Mississippi Press-Register
1967 buys Cleveland Plain Dealer for US$54m
1967 newspaper revenue reaches US$500m pa
1967 establishes NewChannels, with ownership of several cable systems
1970 buys 49% of paper mill in Catawba, South Carolina
1971 buys and closes Newark Evening News for US$20m
1976 buys Booth chain of eight Michigan newspapers and Parade magazine for US$304m
1977 Long Island Press closed
1979 death of Samuel I Newhouse. Family claims estate is worth US$182m, taxable at US$48m. US government claims estate is worth US$1.2bn, seeks US$658m tax plus US$305m penalty
Into book publishing
1980 Newhouse's Advance buys Random House book publishing group from RCA for US$70m
1980 five television stations sold to Times Mirror for US$82 million
1980 New Orleans Times-Picayune merged with States-Item
1981 becomes the eighth-largest cable television operator in US after Newhouse Broadcasting buys Vision Cable Communications for US$180m
1982 Cleveland Press closed
1982 launches Self magazine
1982 Random buys paperback publisher Fawcett Books
1982 Advance merges Portland Oregon Journal and Oregonian
1983 resurrects Vanity Fair
1983 buys Gentleman's Quarterly
1984 buys UK Tatler
1984 buys UK World of Interiors
1984 sells St Louis Globe-Democrat
1984 Random buys Times Books from the New York Times
1985 buys New Yorker for US$200m
1986 buys Citibank's Signature for US$25m, rebadged as Conde Nast Traveller
1986 Random buys Fodor's Travel Guides
1987 Random buys Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head & Jonathan Cape
1987 Random buys Schocken Books
1988 buys Details magazine for US$3m
1988 buys Woman magazine for US$10m
1988 Random buys Crown Publishing Group (Crown, Clarkson Potter, Harmony Books and the Outlet Books)
1988 death of Norman Newhouse
1989 Random buys Century Hutchinson
1989 est newspaper revenue US$1.7bn
1990 court decides in favour of Newhouse estate in 1979 tax case
1990 Random launches Turtle Bay imprint
1991 Advance launches Allure beauty magazine
1993 Newhouse invests US$500 million with Barry Diller in QVC's unsuccessful bid for Paramount (acquired by Viacom)
1995 Advance, Tribune Company, Knight-Ridder and Cox buy PRC Realty Systems (real estate listings) from Black and Decker
1995 Advance buys 7% of Open Market ISP
1995 launch of Random House Entertainments
1995 buys American City Business Journals (ACBJ) for US$269m
1997 Random buys trade division of Reed Books
Out of books
1998 Advance sells its book interests to Bertelsmann
1998 Advance buys Sun Newspapers, 23 weeklies in suburban Cleveland
1999 sells 40% holding in Wagadon (The Face) to EMAP
1999 buys Fairchild Publications Inc. from Disney
2000 Advance sales est US$4.5bn
2001 buys Golf Digest
2000 buys Gloucester County Times, Salem Today’s Sunbeam, Bridgeton Evening News, Easton Express-Times and other New Jersey papers from MediaNews
2001 Syracuse Herald-Journal closed
2001 Mademoiseille closed
2002 buys Modern Bride magazine group from Primedia for US$52m
2004 buys YM magazine group from Bertelsmann-controlled Gruner & Jahr