Alicia Patterson was an American editor and publisher.
Background
Alicia Patterson was born on October 15, 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. She was the daughter of Joseph Medill Patterson and Alice Higinbotham. Her father was the founder and publisher of the tabloid New York Daily News, and her paternal grandfather, Robert Wilson Patterson, was editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, which he took over from his father-in-law, Joseph Medill, the Tribune's developer and publisher for forty-four years. Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Tribune, was a cousin, and Eleanor ("Cissy") Medill Patterson, owner of the Washington Times-Herald, was an aunt. With this background Patterson naturally was close to journalistic discussion, decision making, and practice from girlhood. She was twelve when her father left the Chicago Tribune to launch the New York Daily News (first called the Illustrated Daily News).
Education
Alicia Patterson attended the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia, and several other private schools where her short stays were anything but outstanding.
Career
After obtaining an overall view of the Daily News while working in its promotion department (1927 - 1928), Alicia Patterson became a reporter. But her erroneous use of an incorrect name in an article on a divorce involving prominent people brought a libel suit that halted her newspaper career. Patterson returned to Chicago, and later in 1928 she married James Simpson, Jr. , son of the board chairman of Marshall Field, on a twelve-month "trial basis. " At the end of the year, she separated from Simpson (they were divorced in 1930) and became a staff writer for Liberty magazine, also owned by her family. Using the nom de plume Agnes Homberg, she wrote articles based on her experiences while working as a department store detective, a magazine seller, and a cashier in a theater. Patterson was also literary critic for the New York Daily News (1932 - 1943). Patterson's father influenced her in many ways. For example, he persuaded her to share his interest in aviation.
By 1931 Alicia Patterson was a pioneer woman transport pilot, and she continued to fly until 1942. During this time she established several records for women fliers. Her writing for Liberty included articles on how she learned to fly and on her life in the air. To prove to her father that a woman could develop and manage a newspaper, Patterson put approximately $70, 000 of her husband's money into the acquisition of the defunct Nassau County Journal, on Long Island. She renamed it Newsday, assembled pages for the first tabloid-size issue in a converted garage in Hempstead, New York, and on September 3, 1940, printed the first 15, 000 copies on an outmoded press. She surveyed her handiwork and announced, with characteristic self-criticism, "I'm afraid it looks like hell. " The Newsday of Alicia Patterson, she always used her maiden name, won quick acceptance. In two years it achieved a circulation of 32, 000, and in less than fifteen years the total press run went well above 200, 000.
After 1949 it was published in Garden City, New York. Much of Newsday's success was due to zoned news coverage, achieved through the publication of four separate editions. Also a factor was the emphasis on attractive appearance. The paper's use of three columns instead of the usual tabloid five and its willingness to venture into new page layouts caused Time magazine to assert: "Newsday looks like no other U. S. daily. " In 1952 and in 1955 Newsday received the N. W. Ayer and Son award for "excellence in typography, makeup and printing. " The 1955 citation emphasized "ease of reading, " "balance and harmony of different elements on a page, " and "treatment of pages as a unit of design. " Patterson, as fully concerned with content as with form, dug into local problems that were going unexplored. She strongly supported managing editor Alan Hathway's exposure of corruption at racetracks, which brought about the conviction of William De Koning, building trades union leader, for extorting payments from Roosevelt Raceway contractors at Westbury. These articles received the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for "meritorious public service. "
Patterson's campaigns included such diverse causes as seeking better service on the Long Island Railroad, calling for a low-tuition college for Long Island, and raising funds to purchase the Huntington, New York, home of Walt Whitman as a memorial museum. Editorially, Patterson broke with her isolationist New York and Chicago kin by supporting internationalist positions in foreign affairs. Her job, as she saw it, was "to make Newsday readable, entertaining, comprehensive, informative, interpretive, lively but still sufficiently serious-minded so that no Long Islander will feel compelled to read any New York City newspaper. " Patterson was active in professional organizations, and did not hesitate to take her ideas to fellow editors and publishers, whom she urged to cover community needs more adequately, as a counter to the competition of television. Alicia Patterson died in New York City after a series of operations for a stomach ulcer on July 2, 1963. Her ashes are interred beneath a live oak at her favorite hunting lodge in Kingsland, Georgia.
Achievements
Alicia Patterson was co-founder and longtime publisher and editor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper Newsday. She also had a career in comics, creating the character Deathless Deer with Neysa McMein. Patterson served as a trustee of the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation and of the Fund for the Republic and in various other public-service capacities.
Politics
Alicia Patterson was generally a Republican, but on Long Island she sometimes supported the Democratic ticket. She called for the recognition of Communist China, denounced Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and favored moderation in race relations.
Connections
On December 23, 1931, Alicia Patterson married Joseph W. Brooks, an All-American football star, World War I army captain, and insurance man. They had no children. This union, strongly promoted by her father, ended in divorce after seven years. On July 1, 1939, she married Harry F. Guggenheim, a diplomat, business executive, and philanthropist. They had no children.
