Theodore O. "Ted" Thackrey was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist and publisher, best known as the editor of the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
in the 1940s, and the founder of the leftist
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
newspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
The Daily CompassThe Daily Compass was an American leftist newspaper in New York City, New York, published from May 16, 1949 through November 1952. It is best known for its columns by the investigative journalist I. F...
.
Biography
Following the demise of the leftist
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
newspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
PMPM was a leftist New York City daily newspaper published by Ralph Ingersoll from June 1940 to June 1948 and bankrolled by the eccentric Chicago millionaire Marshall Field III....
, published from June 1940 to June 22, 1948, and that paper's first successor, the
New York Star, published from June 23, 1948, to January 28, 1949, Ted Thackrey founded
The Daily Compass. Thackrey had been the features editor of the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
before marrying
Post owner
Dorothy SchiffDorothy Schiff was an owner and then publisher of the New York Post for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob H. Schiff...
in 1943, after which the two became co-publishers/co-editors. In 1948, he become solo publisher of the
Post at the behest of his wife, leading to a disastrous three-month tenure in which major advertisers dropped the paper and Schiff returned to take over. Thackrey "left with a following of firebrand writers to start his own paper", buying the building and physical plant at which
PM and the
Star had been published, at Duane Street and
Hudson StreetHudson Street is a north/south oriented street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Running from TriBeCa to Greenwich Village and through Hudson Square, Hudson Street has two distinct one-way traffic patterns that meet at Abingdon Square, at the street's intersection with Eighth Avenue and...
in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. With private financing, he founded
The Daily Compass as its publisher and president. The paper began publishing on May 16, 1949, and ceased publication in November 1952.
After
The Daily Compass ceased publication, Thackrey joined the
public relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm
Ruder FinnRuder Finn is an United States public relations firm founded in 1948 by David Finn and William Ruder.Ruder Finn is a privately held, family-owned company that employs more than 600 people...
. In 1959, Thackrey and Goldstein testified at the U.S. Senate's "Hearings Before the Select Committee in Improper Activities on the Labor or Management Field", which investigated alleged improprieties by the newspaper deliverers union and forcible payoffs in order to ensure
Compass distribution.
Family
His son, Ted Thackrey, Jr. (1918–2001), the editor, associate publisher and general manager of the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, whose stepmother was
Dorothy SchiffDorothy Schiff was an owner and then publisher of the New York Post for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob H. Schiff...
, later worked as a reporter for
The Wichita EagleThe Wichita Eagle is a daily newspaper published in Wichita, Kansas. It is owned by The McClatchy Company, which publishes 31 other newspapers, including The Kansas City Star.It is the largest newspaper in Wichita, Kansas and the surrounding area....
in
Wichita, KansasWichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, before joining the
Los Angeles Examiner in the 1950s. He went on to the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
in 1968, where he eventually became a rewrite man. He died in July 2001.