Helen Miles Rogers Reid (November 23, 1882 – July 27, 1970)[1] was an American newspaper publisher. She was president of the New York Herald Tribune.[2]
Early life
Reid was born Helen Miles Rogers in Appleton, Wisconsin on November 23, 1882.[3] She was the daughter of Benjamin Talbot Rogers, a prominent merchant, and his wife Sarah Louise (née Johnson) Rogers.[4] She was the youngest of eleven children including: Minna Rogers Winslow, James Carson Rogers, Grace Eleanor Rogers, the Rev. Benjamin Talbot Rogers Jr.,[5] Annette Rogers, and Florence Rogers Ferguson.
In 1918, six years after her father-in-law died, her husband brought her in and she began working at the New-York Tribune, becoming an advertising solicitor.[1] Instrumental in merging the New-York Tribune with the New York Herald, she took over as president on the death of her husband in 1947.[3][9] In her obituary, The New York Times described her as follows:
Mrs. Reid was an unflamboyant but powerful force in the newspaper world and in the city's civic and social life. Her business acumen, first displayed as an advertising salesman, and her editorial judgment, in making the paper attractive to women and suburban readers, helped to transform The Herald Tribune into a modern newspaper.[1]
She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950.[10] An active supporter of her alma mater, she served for nine years as chairman of the board of trustees, and in 1963, she helped raise funds for a dormitory at Barnard, which was then named for her.[11] She was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, active in the New York Newspaper Women's Club, and was president of the Reid Foundation, an organization funded and established by her husband to give journalists fellowships to study and travel abroad.[1]