When the Union-Tribune had no publisher

Dear Matthew Alice: On the editorial page of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the paper lists the names of its publishers, past and present. However, between John D. Spreckels (publisher, 1890-1926) and Col. Ira Copley (publisher, 1928-1947), there's a two-year gap. Who was (were) the publisher(s) during these years? — Colin Evans, San Diego

Time to bring in the deep cover squad of the Matthew Alice Library of Media History and Barbecue Sauce Genealogy. A definitive answer is pending, but your query casts doubt on more than that two-year gap in the ’20s.

The paper did not drift aimlessly for those blank years. The man in charge of operations, the tough, powerful editor-in-chief and general manager, was James MacMuIlen. He’d worked for a Spreckels paper in San Francisco and moved to the Union 1899. (Crouched behind a safe in his San Francisco newspaper office, MacMuIlen once held angry reader Wyatt Earp at bay with a rifle.) By today’s standards, according to my U-T source, MacMuIlen might be considered a near equal to the “publisher.” John and Adolph Spreckels owned the paper, though their business interests were so far flung, they may not have been too much involved with it after a while. They fully trusted MacMuIlen to boost their civic interests editorially.

Adolph died in 1924; John died in June of 1926. The Spreckels estate was the legal owner (of the Union and the Trib) until Col. Ira Copley bought them in January of 1928. MacMuIlen remained at his post until his death in 1933. The Spreckels brothers were San Franciscans, and their heirs were more interested in cash and the society life up north, so they were thrilled to see Colonel Copley and his checkbook walk in the door. Anyway, MacMuIlen was still running the show.

My U-T mole suggests that more digging must be done to figure out who could truly be considered the publisher during the Spreckelses’ tenure. Perhaps a masthead change is in order. We’ll keep you posted.