By Michael Miner

In the eyes of a voracious conglomerate, the Daily Herald is an especially delectable meal. It’s a thriving daily with a circulation of about 150,000 that reaches a perfect audience–the suburban well-to-do. Even better, the family that owns it might be ready to abandon ship. The above letter was written to me in late summer. The Herald’s future became even more conjectural on October 4, when Robert Y. Paddock, executive vice president and vice chairman of the board of Paddock Publications, died at the age of 82. His sister Margie Flanders had died in 1997, and of the Paddock siblings who controlled the Herald during its ascent to suburban powerhouse, only one now remains: older brother Stuart Paddock Jr., chairman of the company. Stuart Paddock is 84 and requires an electric scooter to move about.

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The future of the newspaper that his grandfather Hosea Paddock founded in 1872 preoccupies him. “We have no intention of selling the company,” Stuart Paddock told me this week. “After I’m gone, things are set up so we will continue as a family-owned family business.” That setup is something the family doesn’t wish to discuss, but it must somehow contend with whopping inheritance taxes, plus the reluctance of Stuart Jr., who holds a majority of the Paddock stock, to pass control to his son Stuart III. At one time the heir apparent, who moved from department to department for grooming, Stuart III is at this time too ill to take over.

A motto coined by his great-grandfather still runs each day on the editorial page. “Our aim: To fear God, tell the truth and make money.” Robert Jr. says he’s never tired of the ring of it.

“Over the years we’ve had a variety of inquiries. I guess we’re one of the few papers that are growing, and that always attracts interest.”

“But what about you, Governor? What does this spreading scandal say about the way you managed–or mismanaged–that office? And can the citizens of Illinois rest assured that nothing similar will happen now that you’re in the governor’s office?”

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