In 1944, John Cowles, Sr., hired Wisconsin native and former "Tulsa Tribune" editor William P. Steven as managing editor of the two newspapers; Steven became vice president and executive editor in 1954. During his tenure in Minneapolis, he was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association in 1949 and first chairman of the organization's Continuing Study Committee. By August 1960 John Cowles, Jr., was vice president and associate editor of the two papers, and it was soon apparent that he disapproved of Steven's hard-nosed approach to journalism. When Steven chafed under the younger Cowles's management, he was fired.