Warren H. Phillips, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and a former CEO of Dow Jones, died on Friday at his Bridgehampton home, The New York Times reports. He was 92 years old.
Mr. Phillips spoke to The Press in 2011 on the occasion of the publication of his book Newspaperman: Inside the News Business at The Wall Street Journal.” He told writer Tom Clavin, “I thought it might be useful to people to see how the media works behind the scenes, and how the performance of the press came to be what it is.”
He spoke of his good fortune, having the opportunity to cover national and world events.
“It was a golden age for journalism,” he said. “After [World War II], with communications getting so improved and bringing countries closer together so that what happened in one place had an effect on the other, was a period of tremendous change and history in the making. During that period, newspapers and media in general did really improve. The quality of newspapers in the 1930s and ’40s was really not that great, but it was much better afterward. The public’s appetite for news was vast and many people in this industry worked very hard to satisfy that appetite with excellent journalism.”
He became the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal at age 30 and rose through the ranks, working for the company for more than 30 years. During his tenure as CEO of Dow Jones, revenue growth went from $200 million to $1.7 billion.
Following his retirement, he and his wife, Barbara, began Bridge Works Publishing in 1992 and set about publishing books. “It was time to move on and try something new while I still had my health and the energy to tackle something new and fresh rather than sit in a rocking chair or play golf all day," he said in 2011.
Mr. Phillips went on to say: “Some people are down about the news media today but I don’t think that’s 100 percent warranted. People desperately need information that is accurate and fair. That may be given to them by other delivery systems, but the content is the same. The challenge is to make sure the news gets to the public with high quality, sound judgment, and integrity. Some people will be up to that challenge in the new media and some won’t—just like some people were up to that challenge in print and some sure as hell weren’t.”
He also spoke highly of his family. “I would say that my biggest accomplishment is my wife and children, but in many ways it’s more my wife’s accomplishment than mine," he said. "She had the lion’s share of the work of raising three daughters who have turned into wonderful people. I’m happy to ride along on my wife’s coattails.”
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on May 10, 2019