Donald Goodenow; Herald Examiner Editor

Donald Goodenow, who as managing editor of the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner steered the paper through its difficult strike years from 1967 to 1977, has died.

Goodenow died Thursday at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage of a heart attack. He was 78.

Born in Berkeley, Goodenow’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was a toddler. He went to Los Angeles High School and attended UCLA before starting his newspaper career as a copy boy at the Los Angeles Examiner, a Hearst-owned morning newspaper, in 1942.

Goodenow got his interest in journalism from his grandfather, who owned a small newspaper outside Chicago. At the Examiner, Goodenow showed talent for the business and quickly moved up the ladder, joining the copy desk. He moved on to become photo editor and Sunday editor. He started the Pictorial Living magazine for the Sunday paper, which later became known as California Living.

In 1962 the morning Examiner merged with the afternoon Herald Express, giving the Hearst corporation what was then one of the largest afternoon newspapers in America. Two years later, Goodenow was appointed managing editor--then the top editorial department job--of that paper, the Herald Examiner.

Goodenow’s tenure at the Herald came in troubled times, however. By 1967, the morning Los Angeles Times enjoyed a 2-1 lead in advertising, despite only a 120,000 advantage in circulation.

The American Newspaper Guild struck the Herald over wages in 1967. Eleven other unions eventually joined the job action. The strike lasted 10 years, in part, said Herald staffers from the era, because publisher George Hearst wanted to break the unions.

When the strike ended in 1977, Herald circulation had been cut in half to 330,000 and advertising was minimal. The paper never fully recovered, and years of financial setbacks closed it for good in 1989.

A year after the strike ended, Goodenow became assistant to the publisher and held that position until 1982, when he retired. A longtime resident of La Canada Flintridge, Goodenow moved to Palm Desert in 1983.

Staffers at the Herald under Goodenow remembered him as a handsome, well-dressed man with dark, wavy hair. He was said to have a passion for Studebaker Avantis and, despite the strike, was generally in good spirits.

During his years at the Herald he served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1977, was a charter member of the L.A. Press Club and was on the advisory committee at UCLA’s graduate school of journalism.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Grayce; a son, Guy, who is on the staff of the Los Angeles Times photo department; and a daughter, Georgi Ann Edwards of Palm Desert. He also leaves three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.