Newspaper publisher and former AP board chairman Donald Newhouse dies at 96

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald E. Newhouse, president of one of the largest family-controlled publishing companies in the nation and a former board chairman of The Associated Press, died Tuesday. He was 96 and died at his home in New Jersey, his family said.

During his career, Newhouse served as president of the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey and head of Advance Publications’ newspaper group, which he navigated into the internet age.

“You reveled in his company. He filled you with energy and humor when you felt doubtful and weak,” said Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue and Conde Nast’s chief content officer.

“He was scrupulous about not interfering in editorial business, but if you turned to him for counsel, he invariably offered judicious advice,” she said in an obituary released Tuesday night by the Newhouse family.

Newhouse, who lived in New York, spent nearly 50 years overseeing the 35 newspapers of Advance Publications, the media business started by his late father, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., in 1922. His older brother, S.I. Newhouse Jr., was chairman of the company and oversaw Conde Nast magazines. He died in 2017.

Louis D. Boccardi, retired president and CEO of the AP, said Newhouse was an extraordinary chairman for the cooperative.

“His voice was never the loudest in the room, but it was often the wisest,” Boccardi said. Newhouse was instinctively private, but behind that, Boccardi said, was a generous man,...