Donald Edward Newhouse (August 5, 1929 – May 26, 2026) was an American businessman who owned Advance Publications. It was founded in 1922 by his father, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., and its properties include Condé Nast (publisher of such magazines as Vogue, Tatler, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker), dozens of newspapers across the U.S. (among them The Star-Ledger, The Plain Dealer, and The Oregonian), a stake in cable company Charter Communications, and a stake in Warner Bros. Discovery. According to Forbes in May 2026, he had an estimated net worth of $15.4 billion.[1] He lived in New York City.[2]
Donald Newhouse | |
|---|---|
 Newhouse in 1966 | |
| Born | Donald Edward Newhouse August 5, 1929 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | May 26, 2026 (aged 96) Lambertville, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Title | President, Advance Publications |
| Spouse |
Susan Marley
(m. 1955; died 2015) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. Mitzi Epstein |
| Relatives | Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. (brother) |
Early life and education
editDonald Newhouse was born in New York City to a Jewish family, and he was the oldest of eight children. His father, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and began the family media business.[3] His mother, Mitzi Epstein, was an arts patron and philanthropist[4] who grew up in an upper middle class family on the Upper West Side, the daughter of a silk tie importer.[5] Donald and his brother Samue (Si)l Irving Newhouse Jr. went to Horace Mann School in the Bronx. Neither of them graduated. Don boxed and played soccer; Si was the assistant editor of the school's newspaper.[citation needed]
Philanthropy
editThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (May 2026) |
In January 2020, Newhouse donated $75 million to Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.[6][7] The communications school is named after his father, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr.[8] It was announced in March 2021 that Donald Newhouse and his wife Susan were launching a fund at the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) with a $20 million donation, the largest donation in the charity's history.[9]
Personal life and death
editNewhouse married Susan Marley in 1955, just after she had graduated from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts[10][11] and they had three children;[4][12] sons Steven O. Newhouse (b. 1957) - current chairman and co-president of Advance Publications, Michael Andrew Newhouse - member of the Associated Press board of directors since 2017, and daughter Katherine Irene Newhouse.
The couple's primary residence was in New York City, but they often spent weekends on their farm in New Jersey. They remained married until her death in 2015 of primary progressive aphasia, a different variant of the same rare disorder (frontotemporal dementia) which afflicted his brother, Si Newhouse.[13]
Newhouse was included on The Jerusalem Post's list of the world's 50 richest Jews in 2010.[14] He died from lymphoma at his estate in Lambertville, New Jersey, on May 26, 2026, at the age of 96.[15]
References
edit- ↑ "Donald Newhouse". Forbes. Retrieved May 30, 2026.
- ↑ Meeker, Richard H. (1983). Newspaperman: S.I. Newhouse and the Business of News. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0899192009.
- ↑ Bond, Shannon (April 1, 2015). "Newhouse family enters cable's top tier". Financial Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
- 1 2 Loomis, Carol J. (August 17, 1987). "The Biggest Private Fortune; Media magnates Si and Don Newhouse control a $7.5-billion empire. It's a tightly private show, but there's no hiding wealth this big. - August 17, 1987". CNN. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ↑ Felsenthal, Carol (1998). "Review of "Citizen Newhouse: Portrait of a Media Merchant"". New York Times. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ↑ "Newhouse Foundation gives SU the school's largest donation ever". syracuse. January 13, 2020. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
- ↑ "Newhouse Foundation Announces Intention to Pledge $75 Million to Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications". SU News. January 13, 2020. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
- ↑ "SU announces $75 million pledge to Newhouse School". The Daily Orange - The Independent Student Newspaper of Syracuse, New York. January 13, 2020. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
- ↑ "Landmark $20MM Donation Fuels AFTD's Work Targeting FTD, Most Common Dementia under 60". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Archived from the original on March 16, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
- ↑ Sturtz, Ken (August 15, 2015). "For Susan Newhouse, Syracuse ties ran deep". syracuse.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ↑ Maier, Thomas (May 1997). Newhouse: All the Glitter, Power & Glory of America's Richest Media Empire & the Secretive Man Behind it. Big Earth Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-55566-191-5.
- ↑ "Miss Newhouse, A Teacher, Weds". The New York Times. August 12, 1991. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ↑ "Susan Newhouse, wife of Advance's Donald Newhouse, dies". silive. August 15, 2015. Archived from the original on July 8, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
- ↑ "The world's 50 Richest Jews: 41-50". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on April 22, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ↑ Risen, Clay (May 26, 2026). "Donald E. Newhouse, Low-Profile Heir to a Media Empire, Dies at 96". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 27, 2026.