Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr.
| Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Solomon Isadore Neuhaus May 24, 1895 New York City, NY, US |
| Died | August 29, 1979 (aged 84) |
| Resting place | Baron Hirsch Cemetery, New York City, NY, US |
| Occupation | Founder of Advance Publications |
| Net worth | USD $1.5 billion at the time of his death (approximately 1/1681th of US GNP) |
| Spouse(s) | Mitzi Epstein (1924–1979) |
| Children |
Samuel Newhouse Jr. Donald Newhouse |
Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. (May 24, 1895 – August 29, 1979) was an American broadcasting businessman, magazine and newspaper publisher. He was the founder of Advance Publications.
Newhouse was born Solomon Isadore Neuhaus in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the eldest of eight children born to Jewish immigrants. His father, Meier Neuhaus, was an immigrant from Vitebsk, Belarus; and his mother, Rose (née Arenfeldt), was from Austria-Hungary. Meier Neuhaus would later Americanize his name to Meyer Newhouse.
Although his father had studied to become a rabbi, he was unskilled and only worked occasionally due to poor health. The family moved to Bayonne, New Jersey where his mother supported the family by peddling linens and in 1908, his father abandoned the family for health reasons to live with his sister in Connecticut. Newhouse quit school and enrolled in a six-week bookkeeping course at the Gaffrey School in Manhattan which enabled him to secure a job as an office boy working for Hyman Lazarus, a lawyer, police court judge, and politician in Bayonne. At age sixteen, he was promoted to office manager of Lazarus' law firm.
Noting Newhouse's work ethic and enthusiasm, Lazarus tasked Newhouse to manage the money-losing Bayonne Times (a local newspaper Lazarus had acquired a majority interest in due to an unpaid legal bill) allowing Newhouse to keep half of the profits if successful. Newhouse quickly determined that the paper was not earning enough fees from advertisements and personally solicited new customers while also assisting them in planning the timing of store sales. The paper returned to profitability and he received a 20 percent ownership interest as payment (after continued success, his share increased to 50 percent). Later, he decided to attend law school in the evenings and in 1916, he graduated from the New Jersey Law School (now Rutgers School of Law–Newark) in Newark, New Jersey. His career in the practice of law was short-lived: he was so humiliated after losing the one case he took to trial, he paid his client the full amount of the damages he had requested. Nevertheless, thanks to his support, Rutgers School of Law-Newark is presently housed in the S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice.
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