A Phila. publisher of all the news good to print

Joseph Bartash, 93, founder of a good-news, ad-supported Philadelphia tabloid, the Southwest Globe Times, died of respiratory failure Sept. 21 at home in Center City.

Mr. Bartash was a newspaper publisher who knew nothing about journalism and wouldn't print any bad news - and every story was written by people in the neighborhood from 1946 until publication stopped in 2004.

His wife of nearly 70 years, Lillian Weinstein Bartash, died exactly three weeks before he did.

"My grandparents both came from poverty and were also emotionally deprived. I never saw them express love for each other until the day she died," grandson Michael Simon said. "He held her and kissed her and went to the funeral. But then he kept asking where she was."

Mr. Bartash grew up in a house of 10 children that included five cousins who had been abandoned by their parents. Education was a hit-or-miss affair. The family moved often to various Philadelphia neighborhoods to stay one step ahead of eviction.

"He came home one day, and his family had moved and did not leave a forwarding address," his grandson said. Mr. Bartash eventually reunited with the family.

He did just about anything to make money. He married in 1938, and the couple lived in Harrisburg for a few years. When World War II started, he got a job at the Budd Co. and moved back to Philadelphia.

In 1945, he opened a gas station, but knew nothing about fixing cars. His customers had to change their own oil, his grandson said.

After that business flopped, Mr. Bartash met a man who had started a newspaper. "The guy was so dumb, my grandfather figured even he could succeed at publishing," Simon said.

"He studied a map and saw that Southwest Philadelphia had no newspaper, so he founded the weekly Globe Times. The first paper was four pages, and he assembled it in his living room."

The Southwest Globe Times printed only good news about the community and sold ads like crazy. It was delivered to nearly 30,000 homes in its heyday in the 1950s. Mr. Bartash published several other small community papers, including the University City News, the Upper Darby Telegraph, the Point Breeze Times, and his last one, the Sentinel, in Rittenhouse Square. He eventually stopped publishing all the papers except the Globe, which he retained until 2004. He then sold the name to Southwest Community Development Corp.

"My grandfather was an FDR pro-labor Democrat who operated a union shop. When it became too expensive, he closed that shop and hired new [nonunion] people," his grandson said.

Said his son, David: "My father had a great respect for learning. He was sorry he never went to college. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he printed the Daily Pennsylvanian for Penn and several underground newspapers. He talked with the kids to question their commitment. He did not suffer fools gladly."

"Joe was a man for all seasons. He was friend of mayors, councilmen and politicians," said his cousin Robert Daniels, a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge. "Try as I might to convince him there may be another side to a story, his was always the right way."

In 1970, Mr. Bartash's son-in-law, Sidney Simon, bought Bartash Printing. Simon and his son, Michael, expanded it into a specialty printing house employing 300 people - still operating in Southwest Philadelphia.

Mr. Bartash founded and was the first president of the Southwest Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to his brother, brother-in-law, son, grandson and cousin, Mr. Bartash is survived by a daughter, Bonnie Simon; three other grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and three sisters.

Services were last Sunday.