“I don’t ever predict the death of newspapers. [But] the history of the newspaper business tells us that second papers in the Herald’s position are a dying breed,” says Morton.
Or, as one Herald employee succinctly put it: “I think probably we’ll have to reinvent ourselves somehow.”
Give Me Liberty
Several years ago, a story in Crain’s Chicago Business pithily described Liberty as “the largest newspaper empire you’ve never heard of.” Based in Northbrook, Illinois, the company owns more than 270 papers (including 64 dailies) in 15 states.
A fairly typical Liberty publication might be the Wayne Independent, a 128-year-old paper based in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, with a circulation of about 4500; it’s the only daily in the county. Stories about a controversy over high-voltage lines and a borough-hall open house get significant play (at least on the Web site). When asked about the size of his editorial staff, a wary publisher told me it was none of my business.
According to one journalist who covered the company, Liberty had a reputation as “classic bean counters. They didn’t have much of a journalistic reputation at all.” They were “known for running these skeleton crews,” he says. (Liberty officials did not return calls seeking comment.)
But some things have recently changed. Liberty was bought about a year ago by an affiliate of the Fortress Investment Group. Liberty CEO Mike Reed recently came aboard from the Alabama-based CNHI (Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.), where he was instrumental in orchestrating that company’s purchase of the family-owned Eagle Tribune Publishing Company last summer.
“What you really need to look at is the track record of CNHI, which has a sterling reputation,” says Michael Gilligan, a general partner at Heritage Partners, which has been the owner of the Enterprise papers. “Mike is an industry veteran with a lot of experience dealing with weeklies and smaller suburban dailies, with Kirk as the best possible operator to put this together.”
Gilligan is referring to Enterprise NewsMedia CEO Kirk Davis, who provides another little insular twist to this three-party deal. Davis was the president of CNC when it was owned by Fidelity Investments, and for a time he was a holdover when Purcell bought the community chain from the mutual-fund giant in 2001. But he left the CNC empire only to later become the Enterprise CEO. Now he’s once again part of the operation that will run the CNC papers.
Reportedly, all CNC employees will be offered employment by the new owners, and Greg Rush, who is Purcell’s son-in-law and the chief operating officer of CNC, is also expected to stay on after the sale. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be cuts somewhere in the new combined CNC/Enterprise company.
In an interview with the Patriot Ledger, Reed said it was too early to know if there would be staff reductions after the dust settles. But there may not be much fat to trim in the CNC workplace, where Purcell has significantly reduced the work force in the past five years.
