Urban journal
As the new year starts, a major change is taking place in local
media: the Messenger Post newspaper group has been sold.
The newspapers — the weeklies in the suburbs ringing Rochester
and the Daily Messenger in Canandaigua — will continue to publish. What’s
making some of us nervous is that the new owner is a national chain, GateHouse Media
Inc.
GateHouse, which owns more than 400 newspapers, recently
moved its corporate headquarters to Perinton, so it’s now a locally based
company. And maybe GateHouse officers will sink down roots here quickly. Maybe
they’ll become as passionate about this region as their predecessors — outgoing
publisher George Ewing Jr. and his father and the late Andy Wolfe, from whom Ewing
bought the Post suburban weeklies — have been.
I hope so. But I’m troubled by what’s happening with
chain-owned papers around the country.
In a candid exchange in the Messenger Post papers on
December 13, Ewing and Syracuse
journalism professor John Hatcher discussed the GateHouse purchase. Hatcher, who
is a former Daily Messenger city editor and columnist, worried that “many of
the things that made the Messenger great may be in the past.”
Hatcher cited this statement about the purchase, made by GateHouse
CEO Michael Reed:
“This acquisition fits extremely well with our strategy of
acquiring dominant local media franchises that are accretive to free cash flow
per share.”
“Now, I can’t tell you what it means to be ‘accretive to
free cash flow,'” wrote Hatcher, “but I can tell you that it doesn’t have
anything to do with great journalism.” Reed’s statement, noted Hatcher, wasn’t
meant for the folks who’ve been reading any of the Messenger Post papers. It
was meant for GateHouse investors.
Being interested in good cash flow is no sin, of course. No
company — privately or publicly owned — buys newspapers intending to lose
money on them. A newspaper that can’t make a profit won’t serve the public very
long.
But publicly owned newspapers have been making huge profits,
and their shareholders have gotten used to that. They expect it. Many of those
stockholders care far less about the quality of the newspapers the companies
produce than about the high profits the companies make.
And in some of the most well-known chains, the lust for
extraordinary profits has led to drastic staff cuts and, in some cases, to
sell-offs.
What none of us want to see with the change in Messenger Post’s
ownership is a lessening of quality and public service. Under Ewing’s
ownership, the weeklies have become much stronger journalistic efforts than
they once were. Their editorial pages frequently put the Democrat and Chronicle’s
to shame.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of local ownership for
newspapers. No, local, independent ownership doesn’t guarantee quality. It’s
possible that the new owners will invest heavily and kick the suburban weeklies
and Canandaigua’s daily yet another notch higher.
And in his printed response to Hatcher’s fretting, Ewing
said he was encouraged by his discussions with the new owners. Give them a
chance, he urged.
But now ownership by stockholders replaces the devotion of a
family with deep roots in the community.
George Ewing has given much of his adult life to his
community, through his newspapers. And out of sight of most of his readers, he
has contributed a great deal to the community-newspaper industry, through his
service and leadership in the New York Press Association.
Ewing deserves a big thank-you as he
leaves the company he loved and nourished. Here’s mine.
Losing Pearl
The Rochester
community lost a giant last week. Pearl Rubin died December 20 at age 85, after
a valiant, determined fight with cancer.
In their tributes to her at her funeral service on Friday,
her daughters, a grandson, and friends tried to describe this most remarkable
woman. They laughed about her love of food and her high energy. They referred
to her enjoyment of art, opera, and theater. They called her “the greatest of
mothers,” “the smartest woman in the world.”
And most of all, they talked about her passion for justice
and her commitment to a long list of causes that contribute to the Rochester
community. Close friend Louise Slaughter described Pearl
as the “backbone” in the struggle for justice. “When we would flag,” said
Slaughter, “she would get us going again.”
Al Sigl Center President Dan Meyers described her as “a
warrior, a strategist.” “She didn’t beat the drum,” said Meyers, “she was the drum.”
Pearl was
devoted to women’s rights, noted Slaughter, “and even more devoted to human
rights.” And she had positively railed against the Iraq
war.
Pearl was a
straight talker, someone who looked you in the eye and told you the truth,
always. She was fun, and funny, and had an unforgettable voice. She was an
inspiring role model for hundreds of us. And beyond all that, she had a quality
that was simply indescribable.
“She was an untamed bird singing in full voice of justice
and love,” as one daughter put it. She was “the greatest, the rarest, the most
lustrous,” said Dan Meyer. “Strong as a tree, broad enough to cover everyone,”
said Slaughter.
She should have had many more years of life, and her death
left her friends raging at the injustice dealt her at the end.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2006 – Jan 2, 2007.
