| Moses Annenberg | |
| Birth Name: | Moses Louis Annenberg |
| Birth Date: | February 11, 1877 |
| Birth Place: | Kalwischen, Province of Prussia, German Empire |
| Death Place: | Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.) |
| Occupation: | Newspaper publisher |
| Spouse: | Sadie Cecilia (Friedman) |
| Children: | 8, including Janet, Enid, and Walter |
| Relatives: | Wallis Annenberg (granddaughter) Lauren Bon (great-granddaughter) |
Moses Louis Annenberg (February 11, 1877 – July 20, 1942) was an American newspaper publisher who owned the Daily Racing Form[1] and the Philadelphia Inquirer.[2] He also owned General News Bureau, a wire service that reported the results of horse races.[3]
An immigrant who rose from a newspaper boy to newspaper owner, he was the father of TV Guide creator Walter Annenberg.
Moses Louis Annenberg was born in Kalwischen, Province of Prussia (German Empire) in 1877 to a Lithuanian Jewish family. He left Germany and immigrated to Chicago in 1900.[4]
After starting out as a newspaper boy hawking papers on the street, Annenberg rose through the ranks, first as a newspaper salesman at the Chicago Tribune, later for the Hearst Corporation, which owned the Chicago American, the Chicago Examiner and the Chicago Herald, rising to circulation manager. Annenberg bought the Daily Racing Form in 1922 and The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. He also owned The New York Morning Telegraph, a broadsheet that was focused on entertainment and horse racing.
In the fall of 1934, Annenberg purchased the defunct Miami Beach Tribune, moved operations to Miami, and relaunched it as a tabloid called the Miami Tribune. In an asset swap involving cash, Annenberg sold it to John S. Knight, owner of the Miami Herald, for $600,000 and the Massillon Independent, a profitable newspaper based in Massillon, Ohio. The last edition was published on December 1, 1937, and then the Miami Tribune was absorbed by the Herald.[5]
The assets of his publishing company, the Cecelia Corporation (named after his wife) became the foundation of Triangle Publications, which was created in 1947 by his son Walter to hold his and his sisters' inherited assets.
During the Roosevelt administration, he was indicted for tax evasion on August 11, 1939, for income tax evasion for the years 1932–1936, totaling $3,258,809.97 in income taxes evaded.[6] On April 4, 1940, Annenberg pleaded guilty to the 1936 income tax evasion count in the indictment that charged him with evading $1.2 million in taxes ($ million today).[7]
Judge James Herbert Wilkerson, the same judge who previously sentenced Al Capone, sentenced Annenberg to three years in prison and a fine of $8.0 million ($ million today) "the largest single tax fraud penalty in history" at the time.[7]
Annenberg married Sadie Cecillia Freedman (1879–1965). They had one son, the publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, and seven daughters;[8] Diana Annenberg (1900–1905), Esther Annenberg Simon Levee (1901–1992), Janet Annenberg Kahn Neff Hooker (1904–1997),[9] Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906–2005),[10] Lita Annenberg Hazen (1909–1985),[11] Evelyn Annenberg Jaffe Hall (1911–2005),[12] and Harriet Beatrice Annenberg Ames Aronson (1914–1976).
Annenberg was released from Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary prison on June 3, 1942,[13] and died at the Mayo Clinic on July 20, 1942, after having surgery for a brain tumor.[14] His Ranch A in eastern Wyoming is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.