Newhouse, S(amuel) I(rving), Jr (1928– )

US publishing executive. Newhouse and his brother, US publishing executive Donald Newhouse, inherited in 1979 the privately-held Advance Publications Inc., which publishes magazines and newspapers, and has stakes in cable systems and broadcasters. In the 1980s Newhouse moved into book publishing with a series of acquisitions, most notably the purchase of US publisher Random House for $65 million. Newhouse further expanded Advance's presence in the UK with the acquisition of Chatto, Bodley Head, and Jonathan Cape in 1987, Century Hutchinson in 1989, and later the trade division of Reed Books in 1997. Newhouse controls Condé Nast Publications Inc., which publishes The New Yorker and fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, and GQ. His brother manages the newspapers.

In the USA he also bought the paperback publisher Fawcett Books in 1982, launched Villard Books (a new hardcover imprint) in 1983, acquired Times Books from the New York Times Company in 1984, and Fodor's Travel Guides in 1986. In 1988 Advance Publications bought the Crown Publishing Group, whose imprints included Crown, Clarkson Potter, Inc., Harmony Books, and the Outlet Book Company, a major publisher of low-priced books. In 1998 Fortune magazine attacked the finances of the New Yorker, bought by Advance in 1985, reporting that it had lost $114.4 million in nine years. That same year the magazine's high-profile editor, English journalist Tina Brown, resigned. In 1999 Newhouse sold Random House to German publishing group Bertelsmann, run by German business executive Thomas Middelhoff, for $1.4 billion, but strengthened its magazine publishing base with the acquisition of Fairchild Publishing.

Born in New York, Newhouse's father was Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr, the eldest of eight children of Jewish immigrants, who founded the family publishing empire. Newhouse, Jr, dropped out of Syracuse University and only became actively involved in the family business when his father bought Condé Nast in 1958, as a 35th wedding anniversary present for his wife. Newhouse then headed up the magazine operation, which published Glamour, House & Garden, and Young Brides, to build up a collection of high-profile fashion periodicals.