Daniels, who led Playboy empire in ‘70s, dies

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005 | 9:43 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Derick J. Daniels, a former newspaper executive who helped steer Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire through rough patches in the 1970s and was president of the editorial advisory board of VEGAS magazine, died on Saturday at his home in Miami. He was 76.

The cause was lung cancer, his family said.

"He was a flamboyant visionary who had a great sense of style and how to put it on printed pages," said Michael Carr, President of Greenspun Media Group, which publishes VEGAS magazine as well as the Las Vegas Sun. "He had a great ability to bring the party to the people. If you look at VEGAS magazine now or Playboy in the 1970s, as you turned the pages you knew there was a party going on and you wanted to be at it. He had a good eye to recognize when we were doing it right."

Derick January Daniels was born in Washington to a family with roots in North Carolina politics and newspaper publishing. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina in 1950, he worked for various newspapers in the South, though never for the family's paper in Raleigh, The News and Observer. He joined The Free Press as assistant executive editor in the early 1960s, became vice president for news of Knight Newspapers and president of Knight News Services in 1973 and a vice president at Knight-Ridder Newspapers the next year.

He left Knight-Ridder in 1976 when Hefner invited him to become president and chief executive of Playboy Enterprises, with the understanding that he was to train Hefner's daughter Christie to take over and turn around the company, which had grown beyond its core asset of Playboy magazine to include resort hotels, a book club, music and movie theater divisions.

He was later associated with One Woman magazine and the Ocean Drive, Ocean Drive Espaqol and VEGAS magazines. In 2001 he went into a real-estate development partnership, TerraTran L.L.C., in Ormond Beach, Fla.

Daniels is survived by his third wife, Lee Vranes Daniels; two sons from his first marriage, Leigh C., of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Scott J., of Baltimore; a brother, Dr. Worth B. Daniels of Baltimore; two stepsons, Joseph R. Wasserstrom of Cincinnati, and Dirk P. Wasserstrom of Aventura, Fla.; and three grandchildren.