Warren Communications passes 40-year-old torch.

Ownership of the largest independently owned publishing firm in the telecommunications field, Washington-based Warren Communications News Inc., has passed from its patriarch, Albert Warren, 80, to his two sons Paul and Daniel.

Warren Communications publishes 16 newsletters and news services in the telecommunications and mass media fields, plus several research reports and directories, including the industry-standard Television and Cable Factbook.

The senior Warren related to the annual meeting of the Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Association, in June 1995, some of the struggles that he went through in the early days when the company published just one newsletter, Television Digest, from 1945 through 1977.

Al Warren purchased the company in 1961, and he told his audience: "We lost money for five years after that, borrowing where we could. We seriously considered quitting, particularly after BNA offered me $80,000 for the company plus a contract for $25,000 a year.

"That was very tempting but we still thought we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.... It took five more years to pay off the debt."

Although the senior Warren has turned over the ownership to his two sons and has moved up to the chairman, he will still be in the office every day because he edits each issue of the company's flagship publication, Communications Daily, the new Washington Internet Daily, and others. He retains titles of editor and publisher.

Paul Warren, 50, is now the president. He joined the firm in 1977 as a reporter after working for several years for the Rochester (NY) Times-Union. Daniel, 46, joined the company as an editor in 1984 following the completion of a Ph.D. in English Literature and a brief university teaching career. He will retain the title of executive editor and assume the position of vice chairman.

The company has some 80 employees with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and bureaus in New York City and the midwest.