Field Enterprises, Inc. was a private

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

that operated from the 1940s to the 1980s, founded by Marshall Field III and others, whose main assets were the '' Chicago Sun'' and '' Parade'' magazine. For various periods of time, Field Enterprises also owned publishers

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

and

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...

, broadcaster Field Communications, and the ''

World Book Encyclopedia The ''World Book Encyclopedia'' is an American encyclopedia. ''World Book'' was first published in 1917. Since 1925, a new edition of the encyclopedia has been published annually. Although published online in digital form for a number of years, ...

''. It also operated a syndication service, Field Newspaper Syndicate, whose most popular offering was the

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

'' Steve Canyon''.

History

Field had founded the '' Chicago Sun'' and the Chicago Sun Syndicate in late 1941. Comic-strip historian Allan Holtz has written regarding the origins of the Field Syndicate and its relationship to the rest of the company: In 1944, soon after its establishment, Field Enterprises acquired the book publishers

and

. The next year, the company acquired ''

''. In 1948, Field merged the ''Chicago Sun'' with the '' Chicago Daily Times'' to create the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

''. Marshall Field III died in 1956; his son Marshall Field IV took over. Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books were sold in 1957. ''Parade'' was sold the following year (to '' New York Herald Tribune'' publisher

John Hay Whitney John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was an American venture capitalist, sportsman, philanthropist, newspaper publisher, film producer and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the '' New ...

). The company acquired the '' Chicago Daily News'' in 1959, publishing that newspaper until it folded in 1978 (the same year the company sold ''World Book Encyclopedia''). Marshall Field IV died in 1965. From 1969 to 1980 investment banker Peter W. Smith was a Field Enterprises senior officer. In 1982, half-brothers Marshall Field V and Ted Field, who each controlled half of Field Enterprises, were at odds on how the company should operate, which left them unable to work together. The two men sold their most valuable asset, the ''Sun-Times'' (as well as the Field Newspaper Syndicate), to

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

in 1983 for US $90 million.Friendly, Jonathan
"Murdoch Buys Chicago Sun-Times,"
''The New York Times'', 2 November 1983, page D1. Field Enterprises was dissolved in April 1984.

References

External links

Field Enterprises Records
at the Newberry Library {{Field Communications Mass media companies disestablished in 1984 Mass media companies established in 1944 Newspaper companies of the United States 1944 establishments in Illinois 1984 disestablishments in Illinois