New York Herald Tribune Syndicate


The New York Herald Tribune Syndicate was the syndication service of the New York Herald Tribune. Syndicating comic strips and newspaper columns, it operated from c. 1914 to 1966. The syndicate's most notable strips were Mr. and Mrs., Our Bill, Penny, Miss Peach, and B.C. Syndicated columns included Walter Lippmann's Today and Tomorrow, Weare Holbrook's Soundings, George Fielding Eliot's military affairs column, and John Crosby's radio and television column. Irita Bradford Van Doren was book review editor for a time.

History

The syndicate dates back to at least 1914, when it was part of the New York Tribune.
The Syndicate's first comic strip of note was Clare Briggs' Mr. and Mrs., which debuted in 1919. Harry Staton became the editor and manager of the Syndicate in 1920; other notable strips which launched in the 1920s included Harrison Cady's Peter Rabbit, Charles A. Voight's Betty, Crawford Young's Clarence, and H. T. Webster's The Timid Soul. All of those strips had long syndication runs of at least 25 years.
Strips launched by the Herald Tribune Syndicate in the 1930s included Dow Walling's Skeets and Harry Haenigsen's Our Bill, both of which had long runs. H. T. Webster's arrival in 1931 led to a rotating roster of cartoon features: The Timid Soul was seen on both Sunday and Monday. Youth's glories and the downside appeared on Saturdays and Tuesdays. On Wednesday, The Unseen Audience offered satirical jabs at radio. How to Torture Your Husband was published each Thursday, and the week ended with Bridge on Fridays.
Strips begun in the 1940s included Haenigsen's Penny and Leslie Charteris & Mike Roy's The Saint. Buell Weare stepped in as the Syndicate business manager in 1946 and Harold Straubing was comics editor c. 1946-1954. In the period 1947–1948, the Syndicate tried out a number of weekly filler strips, none of which were particularly successful.
Mell Lazarus' Miss Peach and Johnny Hart's B.C. debuted in 1957 and 1958 respectively, and both went on to long runs.
In 1963, New York Herald Tribune publisher John Hay Whitney acquired the Chicago-based Publishers Syndicate, merging Publishers' existing syndication operations with the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate, Field's Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate, and the syndicate of the Chicago Daily News. When the New York Herald Tribune folded in 1966, Publishers inherited the Tribune Syndicate's strips, including B.C., Miss Peach, and Penny.
In 1967, Field Enterprises acquired Robert M. Hall's New York-based Hall Syndicate, merging it with Publishers to form the Publishers-Hall Syndicate.

N.Y. Herald Tribune Syndicate strips and panels