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Former publisher identifies reasons to sell weekly

Former newspaper owner Bill Haupt visiting his alma mater at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. (Photo by Adam Campbell)

Sometimes people don’t want to read their name in the newspaper. Former publisher Bill Haupt described what happens when people don’t like attention.

One woman complained that news of her defaulted debt in the newspaper wasn’t worthy of coverage. The blurb was part of a section of the weekly newspaper on delinquent debts. Haupt defended his decision to print names of debt delinquents as a matter of public record.

“She felt the paper had wronged her,” he said.

The former publisher and owner of The Lodi Enterprise, circulation 2,371 in 2001, sold his newspaper in December 2000 to Hometown News based in Fort Atkinson, Wis. He identified with Glenn Hansen’s reasons of selling the newspaper, saying that personnel expenses were the largest headache in all his 17 years.

“It’s always a challenge,” Haupt said

He said he paid his staff the following salaries: managing editor about $34,000, advertising manager about $30,000 and production manager about $24,000. The median salary for a newspaper editor is $37,560 according to the “Occupational Outlook Handbook” printed by the U.S. Department of Labor. 

In addition to the constant economic pressures, the daily financial issues such as payroll and production costs can drive any small time operation to sell-out for money. Not only was Haupt responsible for salary, but benefits totaling 30 to 35 percent of salary. For example, a reporter making $20,000 would accumulate benefits of $6,000 to $7,000. 

But he said the greatest thing about writing for a weekly is the people in the community.

“Over a period of time you write about a lot of different people.”

Haupt began publishing his newspaper with a broadcast journalism degree from UW-Eau Claire. His desire to run his own business led him to buy the Lodi newspaper in 1983. The staff grew from one to four full-time employees. He is currently a columnist for the newspaper, as part of a two-year agreement to stay with the newspaper.

Most buyers desire to keep the former publisher and popular personalities because readers won’t buy the newspaper if its identity drastically changes, Haupt said.

Hometown News kept the newspaper headquarters in Lodi, unlike the centralized operation of Add-Inc.’s Fox Cities Newspapers. It’s important that the newspaper operation remain in the hometown community, which in Lodi is still on Main Street, Haupt said.

Weekly publications rely on local coverage as the key to their existence. According to the News Crossroads survey of Wisconsin newspapers, 57 percent of the journalists at non-dailies said local coverage at their papers had increased since they first worked at their current newspaper. 

It’s community newspapers that print the students’ names from the honor roll and blue ribbon winners at the county fair. Lodi dedicates two to three pages for high school sports where parents cut out pictures of their children, Haupt said. 

“That’s really the bread and butter of small town newspapers.”

Small newspapers show readers what the better life looks like, avoiding dramatic stories like the UW-Eau Claire resident who gave birth to a baby in a dormitory bathroom. Not to say that Lodi hasn’t had its share of dramatic stories in the last 17 years, including five murders, two of which gained national attention.

For the most part dailies are either losing readers or maintaining circulation, Haupt said. There are three factors for this trend: afternoon dailies aren't popular any more, rising production costs and television and the Internet are more popular media.

The News Crossroads survey found that 28 percent of journalists at dailies reported greater circulations and another 28 percent had equal circulations.

There has been a lot of business exchanges in the newspaper industry in the last 10 years, with fewer print shops printing newspapers. 

“There’s not many independents remaining in the business,” Haupt said. 

It was “quite unusual” for Hansen to buy his newspaper back from a corporation, it was the first time he said he had heard such a transaction occur.

Small newspapers are selling at attractive prices, but fewer entrepreneurs like Haupt can buy a newspaper with today's market change. Yet, it’s still possible for young entrepreneurs to buy a small town newspaper and generate a successful business, Haupt said. 

“You have to have a passion in what you’re doing.”

The key is attitude in writing and getting the story. 

No matter if an operation is corporate or independent, Haupt said passionate people produce financial returns. Newsroom attitude is transparent to readers through the editorial content. 

“A good paper tries to be a mirror of the community,” Haupt said. “It reflects the nature of the community.”