Donald E. Newhouse, son of Samuel I. Newhouse, dies at 96
Donald E. Newhouse, son of Samuel I. Newhouse, died Tuesday at 96, The New York Times reported. He inherited his father's media empire and ran the newspaper division of Advance Publications. Leonardo Eriman | Daily Orange File Photo
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Donald Newhouse, former leader of Advance Publication’s newspaper division and son of Samuel I. Newhouse Sr., died Tuesday at 96 at his New Jersey estate, nj.com first reported. Donald’s son Steven Newhouse confirmed that the cause of death was lymphoma, The New York Times reported.
Both Donald and his brother Samuel I. Newhouse Jr. attended Syracuse University and left college early to join their father’s company, the Times reported. After Donald left SU, he became a circulation manager at The Long Island Press.
Samuel I. Newhouse Sr. purchased the Staten Island Advance in 1922 and began to expand his privately held media conglomerate from there. Donald and his older brother, who died in 2017, inherited the empire after their father’s death in 1979.
In 1964, after a gift from Samuel I. Newhouse Sr., SU opened the Newhouse I building. Seven years later, in 1971, the Newhouse School of Public Communications was officially formed when SU’s School of Journalism merged with its television and radio academic program, named in honor of the school’s main benefactor. The S.I. Newhouse Foundation donated $15 million in 2003 to fund the construction of Newhouse 3.
Donald announced in 2020 that the foundation would pledge $75 million to the Newhouse School, the largest gift in SU’s history.
In 2024, Donald returned to SU to unveil the Newhouse Family Plaza during the Newhouse School’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
“I am fortunate to have the chance, in the same month that I celebrate my 95th birthday, to look back with overwhelming pride at the record of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It is one of the great joys of my life,” Donald said at the event.
Advance Publications, through its subsidiary Condé Nast, runs several magazines, including The New Yorker, Architectural Digest and Wired, in addition to media organizations across the country. Donald, however, ran the newspaper subsidiary, which included large papers like The Oregonian and The Plain Dealer.
Although he maintained the title of president, Donald stepped back from Advance Publications’ operations in the mid-2000s, the Times reported. He instead put effort into research and awareness of frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia that his wife Susan Marley died from.
“Donald Newhouse was always clear and confident about his values as an owner and as a newspaperman,” Sandra Mims Rowe, leader of The Oregonian from 1993-2010, said. “Newspapers were in his DNA, and it showed.”
