Walter Annenberg

From New World Encyclopedia


Walter H. Annenberg KBE (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American billionaire publisher, philanthropist, and diplomat. He is best known for founding TV Guide and Seventeen among others while head of Triangle Publications. Before his death, Annenberg dedicated his wealth to philanthropy and founded the Annenberg Foundation.

Life

Annenberg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Sarah and Moses "Moe" Annenberg in 1877. His parents were minor publishers. Walter Annenberg attended high school at the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, graduating in 1927. He attended college at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1931.

Annenberg married Veronica Dunkelman in 1938. The marriage failed in 1949 after 11 years. His only son, Roger, committed suicide in 1962. (Harvard University, where Roger was a student at the time, now has a Roger Annenberg Hall in his honor.) Walter's marriage to his second wife, Leonore "Lee" Rosentiel, was, by all accounts, a lasting and fulfilling relationship. Lee was a niece of Harry Cohn, founder and successful mogul of Columbia Pictures.

Annenberg led a lavish lifestyle, enjoying his riches. His "Sunnylands" winter estate in Rancho Mirage, California near Palm Springs hosted gatherings with such people as Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Charles, Prince of Wales. It was Annenberg who introduced Reagan to Margaret Thatcher, and the Reagans often celebrated New Year's Eve with the Annenbergs. Sunnylands covers 400 guard-gated acres on a 650-acre parcel surrounded by a pink stucco wall at the northwest corner of Frank Sinatra Drive and Bob Hope Drive; the property includes a golf course.

Annenberg died at his home in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, in October 2002, at the age of 94. He was survived by his wife Lee, daughter Wallis, and two sisters, Enid Haupt and Evelyn Hall. Including those by his wife's daughters from her first marriage (Diane Deshong and Elizabeth Kabler), he left behind seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.[1]

Work

At age 32, after his father's death, he took over the family businesses and even made successes out of some that had been failing. He bought other print media as well as radio stations and television stations, successfully managing them as well.

His biggest success was the creation of TV Guide in 1952, which he started against the advice of his financial advisors. He also created and made a fortune from Seventeen magazine.

While he ran his publishing empire as a business, he was not afraid to use it for his own ends. One of his publications, The Philadelphia Inquirer, was influential in ridding Philadelphia of its corrupt city government in 1949. It also attacked Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s when most other publications feared McCarthy. It campaigned for the Marshall Plan after World War II. He also made many enemies: activist Ralph Nader, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, boxer Sonny Liston, and many politicians became "non-existent" in his newspapers. Their names were never mentioned, and they were even air-brushed out of group photos.[2]

In 1966, Annenberg used the pages of the Inquirer to cast doubt on the candidacy of Democrat Milton Shapp, for governor of Pennsylvania. Shapp was highly critical of the proposed merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad with the New York Central and was pushing the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission to stop it. Annenberg, a significant shareholder of the Pennsylvania Railroad, wanted to see the merger go through. Unfavorable press coverage of Shapp, including presenting false charges of a stay in a mental asylum and Shapp's subsequent denial, contributed to his defeat by Raymond P. Shaffer.[2]

After Richard M. Nixon appointed him as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1970, Annenberg sold the Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News to Knight Newspapers for $55 million.

TV Guide

Annenberg purchased numerous regional television listing publications such as TV List, TV Forecast, TV Digest, Television Guide and TV Guide to launch as a national publication in 1953. Thanks to Annenberg's vision, this publication became an almost instant success with the magazine becoming the most read and circulated magazine in the country by the 1960's. The initial cost was just 15¢ per copy. In addition to subscriptions, TV Guide was a weekly selection from its familiar rack at grocery store check-out counters nationwide; into the 1970s, each week's issue's features were promoted in a television commercial. Under the ownership of Annenberg's Triangle Publications TV Guide continued to grow not only in circulation, but in recognition as the authority on television programming with articles from both staff and contributing writers.

Under Triangle Publications, TV Guide was first based in a small office in downtown Philadelphia until moving to more spacious national headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania in the late 1950's. The new facility, complete with a large lighted TV Guide logo at the building's entrance, was home to management, editors, production personnel, subscription processors as well as a vast computer system holding data on every show and movie available for listing in the popular weekly publication. Printing of the national color section of TV Guide took place at Triangle's Gravure Division plant adjacent to Triangle's landmark Philadelphia Inquirer Building on North Broad Street in Philadelphia. The color section was then sent to regional printers to be wrapped around the local listing sections. Triangle's Gravure Division was known for performing some of the highest quality printing in the industry with almost always perfect registration.

TV Guide is now owned by Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., which is in turn owned partially by News Corporation.

Seventeen Magazine

Annenberg founded Seventeen in 1944. He astutely realized the lack of publications targeted at the teenage group in America and created Seventeen in response. Its content includes fashion and what stores to look for the latest trends, celebrities, beauty that includes how to take care of your skin, different hair styles, and make-up wearing advice, lifestyle advice, a nutrition section that includes healthy foods to eat and how to maintain your weight, a sex and body section, and horoscopes. It also includes quizzes about yourself and your love life. Its tone is light and positive, and is sometimes considered focused on white teens, although the editors are believed to be consciously broadening the content. The article length is kept deliberately brief, high quality photographs emphasize regular celebrity and clothing themes and it is well supported by advertising keen to reach the big-spending demographic of young women. It is today considered by many to be the most popular magazine for teenage girls although it faces growing competition.

It remained in Annenberg's control for many decades through Triangle Publications until he sold the group to Rupert Murdoch in 1991 during Murdoch's debt crisis to the KKR controlled Primedia company. The poor performance of Primedia, prompted the sale of Seventeen magazine to The Hearst Corporation, one of the world's biggest media conglomerates founded by William Randolph Hearst for $182.4 million.

Philanthropy

Even while an active businessman, he had an interest in public service. Richard Nixon appointed him ambassador to the Court of St. James's in 1969, and he became quite popular in Britain, eventually being knighted. His wife Lee was named by President Ronald Reagan as the State Department's chief of protocol.

After the sale of the Philadelphia papers, he established the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. He also endowed another school for communication at the University of Southern California. He became a champion of public television, gaining many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan and the Linus Pauling Medal for Humanitarianism.

In 1989, he created the Annenberg Foundation, then, in 1993, he created the Annenberg Challenge, a $500 million, five-year reform effort and the largest single gift ever made to American public education. After the 1998 sale of TV Guide, Seventeen, and a few other publications to Australian publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch for $3 billion, Annenberg announced that he would devote the rest of his life to philanthropy. The Annenberg Foundation gave away billions, mostly to educational institutions.

Legacy

Annenberg embodied the traditional capitalist philosophy articulated by Andrew Carnegie that a man should spend the first half of his life making his fortune and the second half giving it away. Others following in this vein include billionaire Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Some would argue that men should never be allowed to get this rich, rather that they should be more heavily taxed to support the government. Others argue that this form of philanthropy is more direct and efficient than any government handout could be.

Annenberg said, "Few things are as essential as education."[3] Many school buildings, libraries, theaters, hospitals, and museums all over the United States now bear Annenberg's name. It is estimated that he gave over $2 billion in his lifetime. His collection of French impressionist art is valued at approximately $1 billion and has been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[4]

Annenberg's publications still hold prominent places in the American media and cater to large, important audiences in TV viewers and teenage girls.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  1. Obituary critical of Annenberg in Slate Retrieved December 11, 2006
  2. 2.0 2.1 Ogden, Christopher (1999). Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-63379-8. 
  3. Walter Annenberg Quotes Retrieved December 6, 2006
  4. Walter Annenberg Leaves Fortune to Family, Art Museum, and Charity Retrieved December 6, 2006

Further reading

  • Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-231-09683-6


External links


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