The Press: Two Can Live Cheaper …

The Chicago Journal of Commerce (circ. 35,000) had never been healthier. Its staff had never been jumpier. For weeks, in its grubby home on the near North Side, washroom rumors had bubbled up about the paper’s impending sale or suspension. Finally Colonel John D. Ames, editor and publisher, called his 200 employees together and told them what was up. Not death but a marriage was in the offing. Last week, the Ridder Bros.’ New York Journal of Commerce, oldest (120 years) business paper in the

U.S., bought its Midwest namesake for $1,250,000.

To the Ridders and Colonel Ames, it seemed that the Journals were made for each other. Both were businessmen’s bibles; both had a pious regard for the value (and news value) of a dollar. Each had valuable commodity market services and news which the other could use. United, they could afford a bigger network of correspondents, could exchange their news by direct wire. And a merger would add a strong Chicago outpost to the Ridder radio and newspaper empire.

The deal was a sign that a new generation of Ridders was coming along nicely. Three months ago, when New York University Economist Jules Bogen left the editor’s chair at the New York Journal of Commerce, Bernard J. Ridder took over at the Journal. Now Bernard and his brother Eric, two of Founding Father Herman Ridder’s eight grandsons, will go on the board of the Chicago Journal.