To judge from his life, no one ever told Gardner (Mike) Cowles, Jr., that being a newspaper editor and publisher should not be fun. If anyone had, Cowles would have asked so many questions, told so many stories, and exhibited such a joie de vivre that the adviser, not Cowles, would have been the one with second thoughts. Although loyal to family traditions in responsible, public-spirited, and innovative journalism, he also enjoyed working with the young George Gallup to determine reader interests and was a pioneer in photojournalism. He mingled with celebrities, measured the earthshakers of his time, and still had the whimsy to own for a few years the Cardiff Giant--the carved-gypsum man created for a successful 1869 hoax.

The Cowles family brought to American newspaper journalism a tradition of innovation, newsroom independence, and community service that typically is part of the definition of the family owned, regional...