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Steven Newhouse has a polite answer to even the most naive, or stupid, questions. Asked if he has a resume, he softly chuckles. No, "it's a family business," he says.
Mr. Newhouse, an heir to one of the most powerful and wealthy dynasties in publishing, had maintained a very low-profile in New Jersey until earlier this month. That's when the 32-year-old's name was mentioned as a possible successor to Robert Bernstein, who abruptly departed as chairman of Random House Inc.
Mr. Newhouse, editor of The Jersey Journal in Jersey City, wasn't chosen to head Random House, part of his family's Staten Island-based Advance Publications Inc.
But it is likely this soft-spoken, intelligent and hard-working Newhouse -- more obsessed with journalism than profits -- will be heard about again.
Steven Newhouse's uncle is S.I. "Si" Newhouse Jr., Advance's chairman. Steven's father, Donald, is president of Advance, an empire that includes not only Random House, but more than a dozen newspapers (the Journal included), Manhattan-based Conde Nast Publications and Parade.
In keeping with his family's practice of being private and publicity-shy, Steven Newhouse declined to be interviewed. But he's somewhat of a maverick within the rising young generation strewn throughout the nepotistic empire. He's the one interested in editorial operations, particularly of its papers, instead of the business side.
"At one point, he said the family couldn't understand why he was interested in this end of it," says Peter Weiss, a political columnist at the Journal. "Most editors are not owners."
Still, it would have been quite a leap for Mr. Newhouse to have gone from running a medium-sized Hudson County, N.J., newspaper to heading an $800 million publishing house.
When Mr. Newhouse emerged as a candidate to head Random House, his reporters...