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Suburban newspapers work to keep their niche 

Nan Bialek knows her challenge.

As beat reporter for the Milwaukee suburb West Allis, each day she must dig deep to find the stories that reflect the community of about 60,000. For Bialek, that means listening to her readers tell human-interest stories they want to see in the paper -- not listening to some shirt sitting in an office at Journal Communications. 

Bialek works for the West Allis Star, one of 23 newspapers owned by CNI newspapers, a chain bought about five years ago by Journal Communications, an employee-owned company that owns several media entities in Milwaukee such as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WTMJ television. In 1986, the then-Journal Company completed its acquisition of a chain of nine newspapers in suburban Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin called Add Inc.

The move by Journal Communications to purchase many metro-Milwaukee newspapers worried some readers in the area, according to CNI employees. A lot of the community members didn’t want another Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- they already had access to that. These suburban readers wanted access to a community newspaper doing community journalism -- stories about the National Merit Scholars at the high school or the fish fry the whole neighborhood is sure to attend.

Stories you don’t see in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Doing their own thing
Bialek, 51, began working for CNI in 1994, at that time rewriting press releases and doing odd jobs around the newsroom. She started her career working in advertising and public relations but left to raise her children. She has covered West Allis for five years now, and was around during the Journal Communications acquisition of the CNI newspaper. Although Bialek, like the other reporters in the newsroom, was worried about the change and its effects on their daily reporting, the result hasn’t been bad. 

“People thought we would be heavily influenced editorial-wise,” Bialek said, while conducting interviews from her home recently. “But they’ve never said ‘This is what you should put in your paper.’ ”

This was a common concern by a lot of reporters because the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a metro daily newspaper, makes up such a big part of Journal Communications, Bialek said. 

“But they really let us do our own thing,” she said. “In fact, we consider them the competition.”

Weekly challenge
The only news item that are shared between the Journal Sentinel and its community newspapers are the police reports, Bialek said. 

“If we shared anything more than that, it would be bad,” she said. “When you’re a community newspaper you really have to reflect the community you are in.” 

Making a big deal out of local achievements is something their readers want to see, Bialek said, and they often give it to them. They want to know what is going on in local government and see lots of human-interest stories. Even then, sometimes Bialek isn’t sure if readers accept that the West Allis Star is really their own paper. 

“It’s something we have to prove to them every week,” she said.

A change in suburban coverage?
Bialek has gotten used to being the lone reporter at the school board and other meetings in West Allis. It didn’t used to be that way, though.

But that doesn’t mean Journal Communications is using its other media entities to fill in what the Journal Sentinel can’t do. They are just simply using other methods, such as calling the day after the meeting, Bialek said.

“Our stories are not forwarded on to the Journal Sentinel,” Bialek said. “That’s just not how it’s done.”

Better benefits
Many journalists on chain papers would prefer to work for an independent paper, according to a survey of 585 Midwest journalists done by University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire journalism students this spring. Among those on chain papers who once worked for an independent paper, only 11 percent like chain papers better. 

Some employees who once only worked for CNI and Add Inc. have some things they like better about working for the larger company. In terms of benefits, things are much better with Journal Communications, Bialek said. Being an employee-owned company means they have stock options. 

“None of us are really whining about that,” she said.

As a single mom, Kris Radish isn’t complaining either. The benefits are attractive, she said, and they are one of the main reasons, besides wanting to practice community journalism, that she came to CNI in December as managing editor. Once a nationally syndicated columnist, Radish now oversees its 23 papers, 22 reporters and 12 photographers. 

Benefits are increasing more at non-union newspapers, according to the survey. Of journalists at those papers, 32 percent say their benefits are better than when they started their jobs, compared to 14 percent of the union members who say that.

Taking it to the bank
As one of the managers, although new to the job, Radish doesn’t think the change in ownership has affected the news value of the paper. Like Bialek, the Journal Sentinel relationship is a competitive one. But she realizes CNI’s papers are different.

“We’re community journalists,” she said. “We provide a service, a sense of community value.

“But we try to go beyond being that.” 

Because she’s in a management position, Radish hears a lot more about the bottom line than her reporters do.

“It’s always going to be there,” said Radish, who definitely thinks the amount she hears about the bottom line increased since the 1970s, when she first got into journalism. 

But that doesn’t affect the way they do the news, she said. 

“I like to think that in my heart of hearts, we’re here to give the news and that is our main goal.”

The survey found that chain papers appear to their journalists to be chasing increasing profits more than independent papers do: Among those who work for chain papers, 38 percent say their paper’s emphasis on larger profit margins is “much” greater now and another 43 percent cite “somewhat” greater emphasis on profits. The corresponding figures for journalists at independent papers are 18 percent and 42 percent. 
Editors at CNI and Add Inc. tended to agree with these results.

Beyond the beat
CNI Editor Roger Bartel knows that his reporters and photographers are key to their paper’s goal -- representing the community. 

This means getting beneath the surface, Bartel said, and finding the characteristic things that make up a community

“Each community is different,” said Bartel, who has been with CNI for about two years. “It’s up to them to get to know their community. They are the key people.”

But that can be hard sometimes, especially when the paper must undergo some budget cuts and hiring freezes. Bartel says he’s been understaffed since July, causing some reporters to be in charge of covering two communities. 

But Bartel doesn’t think his newsroom has been hit any harder than other parts of Journal Communications. 

“It’s just the economy – we’re all finding way to cut back,” he said.

Getting the story
Like Bialek, Radish and Bartel, the first word out of Scott Peterson’s mouth at mention of the Journal Sentinel is competitor. 

Because they work at a weekly paper, these journalists realize they aren’t always going to beat the large metro daily paper at breaking news, but they don’t want to be scooped at the human-interest stories going on in their community. 

As managing editor for the Add Inc. papers, Peterson says they also haven’t been able to fill some vacancies at the four papers he oversees. His reporters work very hard, generating about three to four stories a week about the communities they cover. 

Besides competition, Peterson, who worked as a reporter for 22 years, also agrees with the other editors about the better benefits offered to employees by Journal Communications. But he also feels a lot more financial stress.

“More bottom line pressure has been pretty tough,” Peterson said. But like the other editors now under Journal Communications, he hasn’t had a lot of pressure regarding the news they print.

Those surveyed also agreed. Only about 6 percent of journalists said they are “much more” restricted in their news gathering efforts by the owners now than when they started their jobs. 

“They say ‘You guys know best. You do what you need to do.’ That’s nice,” Peterson said. “There’s very little, if any, meddling.” 

ADD-ing on 

Robert Dye isn’t going to talk about the profit margins of Journal Communications when this reporter inquires, wanting to know the reason why its employees are so entranced with their stock options. The director and vice president of corporate affairs says they’re something that are “not discussed because Journal Communications is an employee-owned company.”

So why did the Journal Sentinel feel the need to acquire the papers of Add Inc. and CNI?
After working with the company for 30 years, Dye says it’s simply because Journal Communications wanted to add diversity to the company. 

In 1981, the then-Journal Company bought 52 percent of ADD Inc.’s business because they needed more dollars to grow the business, Dye said. In 1986, Journal Communications bought the remaining portion. When CNI was for sale, Journal Communications also bought the remaining portion because they understood the business, Dye said. All together, Journal Communications owns seven different media businesses including broadcasting, printing, telecommunications, weekly newspapers and shoppers.

What readers want
When Menomonee Falls resident Pat Sargent wants to read hard news about Milwaukee, she picks up the Journal Sentinel. When she wants to know what's going on in town, she flips through the Menomonee Falls News, a CNI newspaper.

"It's nice to be able to read things that are happening in your own area," she said. "I would never not subscribe to (the community newspaper.)"

News about the high school, the local theater group and bulletin board items attract Sargent to the community newspaper.

Another Menomonee Falls News reader, Debbie Turtenwald, used the spend more time looking at the paper when her children were in high school. Now, she still reads the Menomonee Falls News to keep up with everyone else's children.

"The Journal Sentinel is not going to have the prom and wedding pictures that are fun to look at," she said.

Turtenwald thinks the paper does a good job of reflecting its community, but more recently she's seen news an increase in the amount of news about other area communities in the Menomonee Falls newspaper.

"Frankly," she said, "I'm just more concerned with our area news.

"That's just what we want."