John S. Knight began assembling what ultimately became one of the largest newspaper groups in the United States at a time when chain newspaper companies were both losing money and being criticized by prominent liberal opinion leaders. Yet Knight managed to create in Knight Newspapers a journalistic enterprise that consistently made profits while granting to each newspaper an editorial autonomy that virtually silenced the chain newspapers' traditional adversaries. In the process, Knight helped to usher in a new phase of newspaper management, one in which rising production costs and competition from newer news media compelled publishers to pay stricter attention to operating expenses and to the possibilities of changes in format. Knight himself was less a great editorial writer than a very shrewd entrepreneur. In a fiercely competitive environment, his papers not only survived but flourished.

John Shively Knight was the son of a prominent Akron, Ohio, editor...