The Press: Payne’s Successor

The New York Daily Mirror, declared by some to be William Randolph Hearst’s pet property of all his newspapers, will be edited from now on by Victor F. Watson. Mr. Watson sits at the desk left vacant when Philip A. Payne strode confidently from the Mirror shop to the tiny cabin of Old Glory to ride to Rome and write the story for the Mirror. The airplane dived into the Atlantic; and the greatest of tabloid editors died on assignment (TIME, Sept. 19).

Mr. Watson has been with the Hearst publications for 28 years. Famed in reportorial annals was his interview with the train engineer 23 years ago after the disaster in the old train tunnels under Park Avenue, Manhattan. Out of his interview grew the movement that eventually rebuilt that haughty thoroughfare. Mr. Watson has been working since he was 13; has been with the new York American for about a quarter of a century; was its managing editor. He has served Mr. Hearst in many a capacity, likes to be called “special crusader.”

Around littered newspaper offices the news was interesting trade talk, but not startling. Journalists gossiped vividly over the report that Mr. Watson is having his Mirror office painted a gentle grey; has commissioned Joseph Urban, artist, architect, designer of scenery for the Follies, to paint three murals there.