Walter Annenberg

From New World Encyclopedia


Walter Hubert 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

Walter Hubert Annenberg was born on March 13, 2002 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Sarah and Moses "Moe" Annenberg. Moe Annenberg was a major U.S. newspaper publisher, who purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. He had began his career as a newspaper salesman for the Hearst Corporation, eventually building a fortune and successful publishing company called Triangle Publications, Inc, which published not only The Philadelphia Enquirer, but the Morning Telegraph as well as the horse-racing publication Daily Racing Form. Moe's fortunes waned when, during the Roosevelt administration (to which his papers had been less than kind), he was indicted for income tax evasion and, after pleading guilty, was sentenced to three years in prison. His health failed during that time, and he died shortly after his release.

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.

Annenberg led a lavish lifestyle, enjoying his riches. His "Sunnylands" winter estate in 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.

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

The Inquirer-Daily News Building on North Broad Street in Philadelpha.

Upon Moses Annenberg's death, Walter Annenberg, at age 32, took over the family business. Not long after, in 1947, the Philadelphia Record went out of business and The Philadelphia Inquirer became Philadelphia's only major daily morning newspaper. While still trailing behind Philadelphia's largest newspaper, the Evening Bulletin, The Inquirer continued to be profitable. In 1948, Walter Annenberg expanded the Inquirer Building with a new structure that housed new printing presses. In 1957 Annenberg bought the Philadelphia Daily News and combined the Daily News' facilities with The Inquirer's.

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, Annenberg was not afraid to use it for his own ends. 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.

Annenberg 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 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, becoming the most read and circulated magazine in the country by the 1960s. 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 features were promoted in a television commercial.

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 1950s. The new facility, complete with a large lighted TV Guide logo at the building's entrance, was home to management, editors, production personnel, and 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.

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, containing not only program listings but also articles from both staff and contributing writers.

Seventeen Magazine

Annenberg founded Seventeen magazine in 1944. He astutely realized the lack of publications targeted at the teenage group in America and created Seventeen in response. Its content included articles on fashion, which stores to look for the latest trends, on celebrities, beauty features that included how to take care of your skin, different hair styles, and make-up wearing advice, lifestyle advice, a nutrition section that included healthy foods to eat and how to maintain your weight, a sex and body section, and horoscopes. It also included quizzes about your personality and your love life.

Under Annenberg's direction, its tone was light and positive. The article length was kept deliberately brief, high quality photographs emphasized regular celebrity and clothing themes, and it was well supported by advertising keen to reach the big-spending demographic of young women. Initially focused on white teens, later editors have consciously broadened its content. Today, Seventeen is considered by many to be the most popular magazine for teenage girls, despite facing growing competition.

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

Philanthropy

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

After the sale of the Philadelphia papers, Annenberg 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 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

Walter 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. It can be argued that men should never be allowed to become this rich, but 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 programs 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.[4] 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.[5]

Annenberg's publications continue to hold prominent places in the American media, catering to such braod-based audiences as television 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, NY: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316633798. 
  3. Walter Annenberg Quotes Retrieved December 6, 2006
  4. Creating Opportunities 2005. AnnenbergFoundation.org. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
  5. 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

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.