Barry Bingham, US newspaper publisher

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Former publisher Barry Bingham Jr (72), who guided The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times to three Pulitzer Prizes before the newspapers were sold as the family battled over finances, has died.

Bingham, a third-generation publisher of the family-owned newspapers, took over in June 1971 from his father, Barry Bingham Sr, and quickly emphasised ethics and public service journalism. He led the newspapers until his family sold them in 1986 despite bitter opposition from Bingham Jr.The newspapers won Pulitzers in 1976 for photos of court-ordered busing.The Courier-Journal won a Pulitzer in 1978 for a series of articles on the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire that killed 164 people and in 1980 for reporting on Cambodian refugees in Southeast Asia.Dissension among the children surfaced in 1984, when daughter Sallie Bingham challenged her brother’s control of the companies.She and her sister, Eleanor Bingham Miller, were ousted from the board of directors.Sallie Bingham turned down a family offer of US$26,3 million (about N$163 million).The newspapers were sold by Bingham’s family to Gannett Co Inc in 1986 for more than US$300 million (about N$1,8 billion).The Louisville Times, an afternoon publication, was dissolved in 1987.His family had placed the media properties on the market after nearly two years of family infighting.Barry Bingham Sr said he couldn’t find a solution that was fair to everyone.Bingham Jr saw the future of computer-based media long before the rise of the Internet.In a 1984 story published in The Courier-Journal, Bingham proposed that computers would eventually replace newsprint as the medium for newspapers.Calling newsprint an “arcane” way to deliver information, he saw computer-delivery of news as a solution for the rising cost of newsprint and other problems, like ink-stained fingers.”Readers would get their news from a computer monitor, like a television screen.They’d switch the thing on and push a button for news, and an up-to-the-minute front page would scroll past,” the article said.The Bingham reign began in 1918, when Robert Worth Bingham spent more than US$1 million to buy a controlling interest in The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times.Bingham Jr graduated from Harvard with a degree in history in 1956 and served in the Marines before starting in broadcast journalism, working for CBS and NBC in New York.One of his daughters, Molly Bingham, a freelance photographer, was in the headlines in 2003 when she and three other journalists were briefly held in Iraq’s Abu-Ghraib prison shortly after the war broke out.- Nampa-APHe led the newspapers until his family sold them in 1986 despite bitter opposition from Bingham Jr.The newspapers won Pulitzers in 1976 for photos of court-ordered busing.The Courier-Journal won a Pulitzer in 1978 for a series of articles on the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire that killed 164 people and in 1980 for reporting on Cambodian refugees in Southeast Asia.Dissension among the children surfaced in 1984, when daughter Sallie Bingham challenged her brother’s control of the companies.She and her sister, Eleanor Bingham Miller, were ousted from the board of directors.Sallie Bingham turned down a family offer of US$26,3 million (about N$163 million).The newspapers were sold by Bingham’s family to Gannett Co Inc in 1986 for more than US$300 million (about N$1,8 billion).The Louisville Times, an afternoon publication, was dissolved in 1987.His family had placed the media properties on the market after nearly two years of family infighting.Barry Bingham Sr said he couldn’t find a solution that was fair to everyone.Bingham Jr saw the future of computer-based media long before the rise of the Internet.In a 1984 story published in The Courier-Journal, Bingham proposed that computers would eventually replace newsprint as the medium for newspapers.Calling newsprint an “arcane” way to deliver information, he saw computer-delivery of news as a solution for the rising cost of newsprint and other problems, like ink-stained fingers.”Readers would get their news from a computer monitor, like a television screen.They’d switch the thing on and push a button for news, and an up-to-the-minute front page would scroll past,” the article said.The Bingham reign began in 1918, when Robert Worth Bingham spent more than US$1 million to buy a controlling interest in The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times.Bingham Jr graduated from Harvard with a degree in history in 1956 and served in the Marines before starting in broadcast journalism, working for CBS and NBC in New York.One of his daughters, Molly Bingham, a freelance photographer, was in the headlines in 2003 when she and three other journalists were briefly held in Iraq’s Abu-Ghraib prison shortly after the war broke out.- Nampa-AP