Here’s What Print Execs Are Saying About Doom And Gloom

Philip M. Stone August 13, 2008

The bad news from Dean Singleton – “We are selling the Connecticut Post to Hearst and paying down a lot of debt.” The good news from Hearst CEO Frank Bennack, Jr’s response, “Newspapers will be viable as far as the eye can see.”

Singleton and Joseph Lodovic, Media News President, told employees in a company e-mail update, “Proceeds from the sale were used to repay almost 25% of our outstanding bank debt. Secondly, the transaction provides a unique opportunity to approach our bank lenders with a ‘win-win’ proposition. In exchange for the large repayment, our banks agreed to relax certain key aspects of our credit agreement to provide more room to navigate over the coming years. In sum, the sale, coupled with the changes to our credit agreement, provide us the runway we need to execute our strategic plans, position the Company to be opportunistic, and to continue to lead the industry into the future.”

The really good news in the transaction is that Hearst is still a buyer of newspapers while practically everyone else is begging off. And Bennack put the reason why Hearst remains in the newspaper business in non-financial terms. “Newspapers play a vital role in American society. We are not about to give up on that. Who will watch city hall?”

Singleton’s viewpoint: “The newspaper industry has gone through some tough times. We believe the future of newspapering is bright, but the transition will continue to be painful.”

And nowhere is it more painful than at the Tribune newspapers that are all cutting back staffing and redesigning for far fewer pages. But Tribune CEO Randy Michaels, when asked by a Chicago Tribune staffer “Should we be mourning what we’re losing at The Tribune”, responded that “We should grieve for those who have been downsized. We should not be mourning the loss of anything else. Everything has its time. Do we want to look like the Tribune of June 10, 1847? How about 1900? 1910? 1970? This paper has changed with the times, and must continue to do so. We cannot stop change, so the only brave thing to do is lead it.”

Lee Abrams, Tribune’s chief innovation officer, continued, “I think it would be more appropriate to mourn the loss of readership and the reality that newspapers are not as relevant anymore. But I think a more realistic approach is to accept the reality and fight hard to correct the problems facing the medium. It’s not the values at stake; it’s the failure to accept that those values cannot impact the public unless their delivery is re-evaluated to connect with today’s media.”

And when asked if there was a need for introspection Michaels responded, “Introspection is a wonderful thing. Self-indulgence is not. We are in tough times. Many are saying that we won’t make it, but don’t make plans to sit Shiva (in Judaism, a week-long mourning period) for us. We are going to prove them wrong. We have a great history and we should study it, but we can’t turn back the clock or live in the past. The most important part of the history of The Tribune is the one we are going to create. We have the opportunity to make it the best yet.”

Abrams in one of his weekly blogs asked himself the question many publishers are asking themselves these days –“How will newspapers evolve in order to survive?” His response, “By aggressively addressing the problems, throwing out the rule book, liberating ourselves from the past, parking denial at the door, regrouping and doing anything and everything, regardless of how painful. Dramatic problems require dramatic solutions.”

As ftm has often written it is the metropolitan newspapers that are in the most trouble and when you get down to the smaller community newspapers that are truly local in outlook – editorial and advertising – then things don’t seem near as bad. And maybe it’s a lesson the metros could learn from. Paul Davis, publisher of the weekly Tuskegee News in Alabama explained, “Community newspapers are doing quite nicely, thank you, because they have not forgotten their mission, their responsibility to their readers, the service they must provide to their advertisers, their duty to report the good and the bad; to expose corrupt public servants who betray the public trust and seek to serve themselves first at the expense of the taxpayers.”

That sounds very idealistic and there is much that can be argued. Metros, for instance, have more competition, metros have always relied on heavy classified advertising while community newspapers don’t, and with a lot of community newspapers it is somewhat questionable editorially whether most of them really do bite the various hands that feed them. But it sounds nice, anyway.

In Florida the Ledger in Lakeland had to announce an 11% cull and this is how publisher Jerome Ferson explained his situation, “This is a very dynamic time we are in. I would characterize it as a struggle of epic proportions.”

So if there is a difference between the columnists and the bloggers and the like it seems to be the bloggers believe “the end is near” whereas many publishers are saying, “We’re going to have to change a whole lot to keep going.”

 Perhaps the best wrap on the situation comes from Abrams of Tribune: “Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A Changin’ is to me a timeless message that applies to the era we are in very well.” But will Changin’ Times come soon enough to save the patient?