Schiff, Dorothy (1903–1989)

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Schiff, Dorothy (1903–1989)

American newspaper publisher who ran the New York Post for over 30 years. Name variations: Dorothy Hall; Dorothy Backer; Dorothy Thackrey; Dolly Schiff. Born Dorothy Schiff in New York City on March 11, 1903; died in New York City on August 30, 1989; daughter of Mortimer L. Schiff (an investment banker) and Adele A. (Neustadt) Schiff; granddaughter of banker Jacob Schiff; graduated from Brearley School in Manhattan, 1920; attended Bryn Mawr College, 1920–21; married Richard B.W. Hall (a broker), on October 17, 1923 (divorced 1932);married George Backer (a publisher), in 1932 (divorced 1943); married Theodore Olin Thackrey (an editor), in July 1943 (divorced 1949); married Rudolf G. Sonneborn (a petroleum executive), in 1953 (separated 1965, divorced); children: (first marriage) Mortimer Ball (b. 1924), Adele Ball (b. 1925); (second marriage) Sarah Ann Backer .

Was the first woman to become a newspaper publisher in New York City; gained control of the New York Post as majority stockholder (1939), and served as director, vice-president, and treasurer (1939–42), and as publisher, president, and owner (1942–76); championed liberal causes and changed the paper to reflect popular tastes; sold paper to Rupert Murdoch (1976).

Dorothy Schiff, the first woman to become a newspaper publisher in New York City, was as much a topic of gossip as the subjects reported in her newspaper, the New York Post. A celebrity in her own right, she was friend, acquaintance, and occasionally lover of the influential, powerful, and glamorous personalities of the time, as well as a crusader for social justice and an adamant supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

She was born in New York City in 1903, the daughter of Mortimer L. Schiff, an investment banker, and Adele Neustadt Schiff . Raised in an atmosphere of wealth and privilege, Dorothy was nonetheless neglected by her absent and uninvolved parents and abused by her caretakers. "There was no joy in my growing up," she once said. "None, absolutely none." She married her first husband, Richard Hall, much against her parents' wishes, primarily to escape her unhappy home life. Her marriage, however, brought her no happiness. Like Schiff's parents, Hall was preoccupied with status, money, and power. His concern over his social standing made him wary of her Jewish ancestry, and he saw her as an impediment to his social ambitions. When her parents died in 1931, she became a wealthy woman in her own right and promptly divorced him. She abandoned her conversion to the Episcopal Church and renewed her concern for European Jews.

Schiff married George Backer, a writer and liberal Democrat, in 1932, and found herself in a world of ideas very different from the shallow international set she had known. Backer introduced her to the Algonquin Round Table of writers and to New Deal politics, with its concern for the welfare of the underprivileged and needy. Inspired by her new interest in social service and government reform, Schiff threw herself into a variety of social causes, serving on the boards of various hospitals and child welfare agencies. As a member of the Social Service Committee at Bellevue Hospital for four years, she was introduced to the harsh realities of poverty. She recalled that it was "a sincere attempt to help, but of course it seemed a pretty feeble effort. It seemed to me that what we were doing was putting a little salve on the sore, not curing the disease." She subsequently held board positions for the Henry Street Settlement, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Women's Trade Union League of New York.

Curious about New Deal politics, Schiff joined the School of Politics of the Women's National Republican Club and studied the unemployment situation from both Democratic and Republican points of view. She concluded that Roosevelt had the best solutions to the problem. After hearing him speak at the 1936 Democratic National Convention, she became such an admirer that she rejected her Republican roots to join the Democratic Party. She was immediately appointed radio chair of the women's division of the Democratic State Committee. She also became close friends with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt . Although there was conjecture that Franklin had once been her lover, she hotly denied it.

In 1937, Schiff became secretary-treasurer of the New York Joint Committee for the Ratification of the Child Labor Amendment. She felt that child labor was "economically stupid, socially unjust, and morally wrong." That same year, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed her a member of the Board of Child Welfare, which provided funds for destitute mothers whose husbands had abandoned them, died, or been disabled. She was chair of two committees for the board, Case Policy and Appeal from Clients and Medical Care. The Board of Child Welfare merged with the Department of Welfare in 1941.

In 1939, Schiff, who had been investing in communications for some time, used her inheritance to buy a controlling interest in the failing New York Post, one of three daily evening newspapers in New York City. Founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1801, it was the oldest continuously published newspaper in the nation. Schiff named her husband editor and publisher and herself vice-president and treasurer. In the first two years of her ownership, the paper lost nearly $2 million. Schiff became terrified of bankruptcy, but her ideas would bring success. She wanted the Post to have more popular appeal, so she changed it to a tabloid format and added comics, gossip, scandal, glamour, and human interest stories. During the 1940s, contributors of Post columns included such notables as Franklin P. Adams, Drew Pearson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sylvia Porter, Elsa Maxwell , and Eric Sevareid. The newspaper became known for crusading liberal causes: it supported trade unions, social welfare legislation, and child labor laws, and called for social justice among the classes.

In 1943, Schiff divorced Backer and married the Post's new editor, Theodore Olin Thackrey. He helped build the paper's circulation and cut its losses, while she became publisher and president, as well as owner. Six years later, she divorced Thackrey and reverted to using her maiden name, although she retained the title of "Mrs." because she thought it more suitable for a grandmother than "Miss."

Admirers of the Post consider the years 1948 to 1961, when it was under the editorship of James Wechsler, to be its golden age. Wechsler, with Schiff's direction, made a point of hiring talented reporters and columnists, and Schiff saw to it that there were plenty of features about sex and celebrities. The paper also took on targets that up until then had been immune to criticism, such as the practices of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and the uncontrolled anti-Communist persecutions of Senator Joseph McCarthy. From 1951 to 1958, Schiff wrote her own column titled "Publishers Notebook," then "Dear Reader." When she became editor-in-chief in 1962, she stopped writing columns. From 1950 on, there were no longer any financial problems for the New York Post. Schiff, however, was never convinced of the financial security of the paper. She constantly complained about her poverty, and kept a tight rein on expenses. She eliminated coverage on matters not directly concerning New York City, and allowed skilled employees to leave for better-paying jobs. She never praised her staff or gave them bonuses because, she claimed, she was not raised that way. Yet, despite her eccentricities, her staff was fond of her and very loyal.

In 1962, a press strike affected the whole of New York City. At first, Schiff joined in the lockout, but a few months before the strike ended, she reopened her plant, complaining that the male publishers had snubbed her during negotiations. Several newspapers went out of business as a result of the strike, but the Post survived. By 1967, it was the only remaining evening paper in New York City.

In 1976, Schiff surprised everyone, including her own staff, by selling the Post to Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch for $32 million. The negotiations had been kept so secret

that her own paper was scooped on the news. She sold the paper because it was "a terrible headache," she said, although she would stay on as a consultant until 1981. That same year (1976), Schiff cooperated with author Jeffrey Potter in the writing of her biography, Men, Money, and Magic. Calling it in later years "that awful book," she revealed intimate details about her childhood and her relationships with many men, both in and out of marriage, and later came to regret much of what she had said. In May 1989, Schiff was diagnosed with cancer, and, characteristically, refused treatment for it. She died in New York City in her apartment on Manhattan's East Side at the age of 86.