Susan Tifft, who with her husband, Alex Jones, had become one of the best known newspaper historians in the country, died this past week after a tough battle with cancer.

A longtime journalist and one of the notable chroniclers of the business, she lost her life at the age of 59.

“Ms. Tifft was a writer and editor at Time magazine when she joined forces with her husband to write “The Patriarch: The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty” (Summit Books, 1991). At the time, Mr. Jones was covering the news media for The New York Times," The New York Times wrote. “With a wealth of detail, it told the story of the Binghams, owners of The Louisville Courier-Journal, and the mutual suspicions, jealousies and rivalries that led to the sale of the newspaper to the Gannett chain in 1986. The family's tortured relationships made for a rich, Gothic-tinged family drama and a cautionary tale at a time when several important American newspapers were being sold to chains”