Editing The Philadelphia Inquirer (section)

===20th century===
{{Further|Inquirer Building}}
After Elverson's death in 1911, his son by his wife Sallie Duvall, James Elverson Jr. took charge. Under Elverson Jr., the newspaper continued to grow, eventually needing to move again. Elverson Jr. bought land at [[Broad Street (Philadelphia)|Broad]] and Callowhill Streets and built the 18-story Elverson Building, now known as the [[Inquirer Building]]. The first issue of ''The Inquirer'' was printed at the new building on July 13, 1925. Four years later, in 1929, Elverson Jr. died, and his sister, Eleanor Elverson Patenôtre, widow of [[Jules Patenotre des Noyers|Jules Patenôtre]], assumed leadership of ''The Inquirer''.<ref name="Inqhistory"/>

Patenôtre ordered cuts throughout the paper, but was not really interested in managing it, and ownership of the newspaper was put up for sale. [[Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis|Cyrus Curtis]] and Curtis-Martin Newspapers Inc. bought the newspaper on March 5, 1930.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=March 17, 1930 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738833-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023173441/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738833-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 23, 2012 |title=Again, Curtis-Martin |magazine=Time }}</ref>

Curtis died a year later and his stepson-in-law, [[John Charles Martin]], took charge. Martin merged ''The Inquirer'' with another paper, the ''Public Ledger'', but the [[Great Depression]] hurt Curtis-Martin Newspapers and the company [[Default (finance)|defaulted]] in payments of maturity notes. Ownership of ''The Inquirer'' then returned to the Patenôtre family and Elverson Corp.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=August 10, 1936 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762298,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215075508/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762298,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2008 |title=Philadelphia Purchase |magazine=Time }}</ref>

Charles A. Taylor was elected president of The Inquirer Co. and ran the paper until it was sold to [[Moses Annenberg|Moses L. Annenberg]] in 1936. During the period between Elverson Jr. and Annenberg ''The Inquirer'' stagnated, its editors ignoring most of the poor economic news of the Depression. The lack of growth allowed [[J. David Stern]]'s newspaper, ''[[The Philadelphia Record]]'', to surpass ''The Inquirer'' in circulation and become the largest newspaper in Pennsylvania.<ref name="Pressa" /><ref name="Annenberg">{{cite book |last=Ogden |first=Christopher |year=1999 |title=Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |location=New York |isbn=0-316-63379-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/legacybiographyo00ogde }}</ref>

Under Moses Annenberg, ''The Inquirer'' turned around. Annenberg added new features, increased staff and held promotions to increase circulation. By November 1938 ''Inquirer''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> weekday circulation increased to 345,422 from 280,093 in 1936. During that same period the ''Record''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> circulation had dropped to 204,000 from 328,322.

In 1939, Annenberg was charged with [[Tax avoidance and tax evasion|income tax evasion]]. Annenberg pleaded guilty before his trial and was sentenced to three years in prison. While incarcerated, he fell ill and died from a [[brain tumor]] six weeks after his release from prison in June 1942.<ref>{{Cite web |title=From Paperboy to Philanthropist |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/25/reviews/990725.25smit.html |access-date=May 29, 2022 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> Upon Moses Annenberg's death, his son, [[Walter Annenberg]], took over.

In 1947, the ''Record'' went out of business, and ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' emerged as Philadelphia's only major daily morning newspaper. While still trailing behind Philadelphia's largest newspaper, the [[Philadelphia Bulletin|''Evening Bulletin'']], ''The Inquirer'' also continued to operate profitably.

In 1948, Walter Annenberg expanded the Inquirer Building with a new structure that housed new printing presses for ''The Inquirer''. During the 1950s and 1960s, Annenberg acquired [[Seventeen (American magazine)|''Seventeen'' magazine]]  and ''[[TV Guide]]''.<ref name="Inqhistory" />

In 1957, Annenberg bought the ''[[Philadelphia Daily News]]'' and combined the ''Daily News''<nowiki>'</nowiki> facilities with ''The Inquirer''<nowiki>'s</nowiki>.

In 1958, a 38-day strike in 1958 hurt ''The Inquirer'' and, following the strike, so many reporters had accepted buyout offers and left that the newsroom was noticeably empty, leaving many copy clerks with little experience responsible for reporting.

One of the few star reporters of the 1950s and 1960s was investigative reporter [[Harry Karafin]], who exposed corruption and wrote exclusive stories for ''The Inquirer'', but also [[Extortion|extorted]] money out of individuals and organizations. Karafin told sources that he had harmful information on them, and would demand money in exchange for him not making the information public.<ref name="Annenberg" /> This went on from the late 1950s into the early 1960s before Karafin was exposed in 1967 and was subsequently convicted of extortion a year later, in 1968. As the newspaper entered the 1970s, circulation and advertising revenue was declining, and the newspaper had become, as [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] reported, "uncreative and undistinguished."<ref name="Time" />