Donald E Newhouse

Donald E. Newhouse, low-profile heir to a media empire, died at 96 in May 2026. He ran the newspaper division of Advance Publications, while his older brother, Si, ran the Condé Nast magazine operation. Son of Sam Newhouse, russian immigrant's son who turned Bayonne Times into Advance Publications, nation's largest privately owned newspaper chain. With brother Samuel took over after father's death 1979; expanded and diversified into cable television. Now own Bright House Cable (2.4 million subscribers). Combining stakes in Discovery Channel and Animal Planet into new publicly traded company later this year. Donald oversees battered newspaper division (New Orleans Times-Picayune, Portland Oregonian, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Newark Star-Ledger). Duo owns stunning art collection, which includes Rubens, Johannes Lingelbach. The New York native and brother of Samuel Irving (S.I.) oversees the newspaper portion of Advance Publications, which runs local papers in more than 25 American cities; Si takes care of magazines under the Conde Nast banner. Fortune up $400 million since last year thanks to the stock performance of media and entertainment network Discovery Communications, owner of Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC and others (he and Si own a stake). Although he dropped out of Syracuse University, Donald established the Wellesley Center for the Humanities at his wife Susan's alma mater. In 1955, he married Susan Marley, who later served as chairwoman of the Fresh Air Fund. She died in 2015 of frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia. Besides their son Steven, Mr. Newhouse is survived by two other children, Katherine Mele and Michael; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson.