Norman Chandler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norman Chandler | |
|---|---|
 Chandler in 1971 | |
| Born | September 14, 1899 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | October 20, 1973 (aged 74) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Newspaper publisher |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Camilla Chandler Otis Chandler |
| Parent(s) | Harry Chandler Emma Marian Otis Chandler |
| Relatives | Harrison Gray Otis (grandfather) Charles Abel Buffum (father-in-law) Mike Chandler (grandson) |
Norman Chandler (September 14, 1899 – October 20, 1973) was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1945 to 1960.
Norman Chandler was born in Los Angeles on September 14, 1899, one of eight children of Harry Chandler and Marian Otis Chandler. His grandfather, Harrison Gray Otis, had been publisher of, the Los Angeles Times from 1881 to 1917, and his father from 1917 to 1944.
As a youth he was raised in his parents' estate on Hillhurst Avenue near the Greek Theater. He delivered copies of the Los Angeles Times in a model‐T Ford.
Chandler attended Hollywood High School, then Stanford University, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter). While at Stanford, he met an athletic coed from Long Beach, who he married, Dorothy Buffum.[1] They raised their two children, Mia and Otis Chandler on their suburban ranch in Sierra Madre. Through his later years, Chandler was a frequent visitor to the California Club, the Bohemian Grove, and his beach house in the Dana Strand Club in Dana Point, CA.[2]
The Los Angeles Times
After dropping out of Stanford his senior year, Chandler started working at the Los Angeles Times on a seven-year training program under his father, Harry Chandler, who had been its publisher since 1917. Norman Chandler became general manager in 1936, president in 1941 and at his father’s death in 1944, the third publisher of the newspaper.[3]
The Times prospered under Chandler, and gained regional, as well as national, prominence. In 1947 it became the largest-circulation newspaper in Los Angeles, and in 1961 the Sunday paper had a circulation of more than one million.
Seeking to create a community-like work environment, Chandler was one of the first newspaper employers to offer benefits to his employees, including health insurance and pension plans, and to foster community spirit.[citation needed]
Time magazine honored Chandler in 1957 by putting him on the cover.[4]
“In the world today,” he said, “we are witnessing education and publishing rivaling the population explosion in dramatic growth. The necessities of life have always challenged man's ingenuity—now the distribution of knowledge has become the challenge of the age.”[5]
Chandler retired as publisher in 1960, leaving the job to his thirty-year-old son Otis Chandler.
