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Family-owned newspapers stick to fundamentals

Pieter Graaskamp (photo courtesy of Leader-Telegram staff)

Pieter Graaskamp remembers only one time when Leader-Telegram management pulled a story out of the paper.  In it, staff critiqued local breweries by evaluating their beers.

Some reporters had harsh things to say about a few of the local breweries.  One reporter went as far as to say that a certain local beer, "..tasted like sludge dredged up from the bottom of the Chippewa River," Graaskamp said.

The staff already finished printing the Oct. 1982 insert entitled, "Tasters hop at chance to pop beer tops in suds search."  Mailroom workers were halfway done inserting it into the weekend paper. 

Pieter Graaskamp's father, Charlie, then publisher and general manager of the Leader-Telegram, called everyone back to the mailroom to help take the insert out of the paper.  "This will absolutely not run," he said.

The Leader-Telegram, an independently family-owned newspaper since 1912, has maintained its position in the community through a commitment to the basic fundamentals of good journalism and the community it serves.  Maintaining that position in an industry that is becoming more corporate and profit oriented hasn't been easy, Pieter Graaskamp said. 

"I’m sure Lee [Enterprises] would just love to have this property.  We’re more the type of market they want," he said.

Lee Enterprises, based in Davenport, Iowa, owns three daily newspapers in Wisconsin, including the La Crosse Tribune and Chippewa Herald.  Lee is also half-owner of five other Wisconsin dailies, including the Wisconsin State Journal, the oldest newspaper in the Lee Enterprises family.

Though the Leader-Telegram is boxed-in for the most part by Lee, Graaskamp remains confident about the long-term viability of his paper.

"My feeling is our market is very viable.  We’re in a fairly defensible area as far as the retail and serving our market," Graaskamp said.  "But we still are the county seat and the dominant player in this market." 

Lee has made two offers regarding the purchase of the Leader-Telegram during his tenure so far, Graaskamp said.

The Leader-Telegram is jointly owned by two families.  One of the problems with family ownership is how it spreads out with each generation, Graaskamp said.

"The more you work down the family tree, the more dispersed the ownership interest lies.  The pressure for dividends and return on investment becomes more and more critical. That’s where the threat to family ownership is," he said.

The recent retirement of three family members in senior management has not made it any easier.  Dividends become more important when you're not drawing a paycheck, Graaskamp said.

"Somehow you need to reconcentrate the ownership," he said.

Family ownership

Family ownership has its advantages, too, said Graaskamp.

"Hopefully, we can make decisions a little quicker than they can. Unfortunately, we don’t necessarily have as deep of pockets as they do," he said.

Quick decision making can be a fundamental of good journalism.  Editors only need to walk down a short hallway to get answers.  Sometimes chains may be run farther away in a lot of respects, Graaskamp said.  Leader-Telegram employees take issues more personally.  The paper has a deeper commitment to the community because its employees live here, and it provides jobs here, he said.

"We're saying, 'Hey, we’re right here on site. We’re living right here, we’ve got a commitment to the community and we’re going to be here for awhile,'" Graaskamp said.  Making local decisions locally instead of from a corporate office can be a great advantage for the paper and the community, he said.

"We don’t have the big money tree out in the backyard to do all the things with, but truthfully, neither do they," he said.  Chains have the daunting challenge of deciding which properties are in need of improvement and which properties will have to go without, Graaskamp said.

Also, the Leader-Telegram has more commitment to the editorial aspect of the paper than to profit margin.  "We may not run it quite as much by the numbers as they do," Graaskamp said.

According to the results from a survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, newspapers that increasingly chase higher profits have more unhappy journalists.  More than 91 percent of journalists who said they had less job satisfaction reported a greater emphasis on profit margins by their management.

Additionally, chain papers appear to their journalists to be chasing increasing profits more than independent papers do. Among those who work for chain papers, almost 82 percent said their paper’s emphasis on larger profit margins is greater now than when they started their jobs. The corresponding figure for journalists at independent papers is about 59 percent, according to the survey data.

"It takes clout to deal with clout," Dave Skoloda, editor of Onalaska Community Life and the Holmen Courier, said.

Skoloda finds it very hard to be critical of organizations with a different approach, as long as they follow an ethical compass.

"If they can go to bed with a clear conscience, then so be it," he said.

The time of independent newspapers is coming to a close the same way the era of small-town hardware, small farms and grocery stores did, he said.

"People say, 'Wasn't the world great before Wal-Mart?'  Well, society has changed," Skoloda said.  Now a paper has to be an institution to survive.  The world economic model has changed, he said.  It's time for people to stop lamenting."

Pay and benefits

Gary Johnson (photo courtesy of Leader-Telegram staff)

Gary Johnson, local news editor at the Leader-Telegram, started with the company at its former Rice Lake bureau in 1986.  The La Crosse Tribune offered him a job that year, Johnson said.

While the La Crosse Tribune was on a par with the Leader-Telegram size and quality wise, the Tribune could not match the Leader-Telegram's benefits or pay.  The management style was very inflexible in that area.  Reporter's pay was based on seniority, not performance, he said.  

"We do pay above what would be considered the national average for our editorial staff. We’ve always been a paper that tends to reinvest in the product," Graaskamp said.

According to Johnson, the La Crosse Tribune did not share the same attitude.

"They said, 'If we paid you what you’re making right now, you’d be making more than some of our veteran reporters. That’s not the way our system works,'" Johnson said.

He turned down the job offer because he didn't agree with that system.  "Your best reporters should make the most money.  Everybody in journalism has an ego or they wouldn’t be putting their name on everything they write," Johnson said.

Christena O'Brien (photo courtesy of Leader-Telegram staff)

Christena O'Brien, reporter for the Leader-Telegram, worked for Gannett from May 1996 until Nov. 1998 before starting with the Leader-Telegram.  She received a $7-8,000 raise when she came to Eau Claire.  But her job change was less about the money and more about her long-term goals, she said.

"I didn’t leave Gannett to get away from Gannett," O'Brien said.  "I had to ask myself where I wanted to be in 10 years."

Still, many journalists on chain papers would prefer to work for an independent paper.  According to a UW-Eau Claire student survey, only a little more than 11 percent of journalists working for chain papers who once worked for an independent like the chain papers better.  More than 26 percent of those reporters like independent papers better.  By contrast, among those now working for independent papers, a little more than 3 percent prefer chain papers while almost 44 percent would rather remain at an independent.

Gannett had better training for reporters like conferences and workshops.  The company's deeper pockets allowed it to spend a little more in areas the Leader-Telegram can't afford, O'Brien said.

"There was a better web of resources there," she said.  She wishes the Leader-Telegram had more resources and training for reporters.  "It’s hard to get better when you don’t have those things going on."

Julian Emerson (photo courtesy of Leader-Telegram staff)

Julian Emerson, reporter and Home & Garden editor for the Leader-Telegram, has been on staff for about 5 years.  

Though the paper offers reporters more money than an average paper its size, benefits have decreased in recent years overall.  The paper still has a small profit-sharing plan that is part of its retirement package, but it did away with reporters' annual bonuses, he said.

"There's no incentive for busting your ass," Emerson said.

Diversity

While at the Wausau Daily Herald under Gannett, O’Brien was surprised by the paper's push for diversity in its stories.  Management wanted reporters to count female and male sources to ensure equal coverage.  But the push went further than that.

"They said, 'Get an Asian into every story.'  I've never heard that directive before," she said.  

According to UW-Eau Claire student survey data, among minority journalists, about 25 percent said that diversity is less of an influence now than when they started their jobs, while only about 7 percent of whites said diversity was less of an influence.

Turnover

At Gannett, a high internal turnover rate was encouraged, O'Brien said.  Staff members, especially reporters, were encouraged to move from one bureau to another every few years.

That's simply not the case at the Leader-Telegram.  

"If you look out into our newsroom, you see a lot of veteran reporters.  Some are in their mid-40s like me, and most have been here awhile," Johnson said.  Veteran reporters usually know a community better, if only because they've developed so many contacts over the years, Johnson said.

In the 16 years that he has been at the Leader-Telegram, Johnson cannot remember any hiring freezes or staff layoffs.  Although staff members do leave sometimes, no position has gone very long without being refilled, he said.

"You don’t see that at chains.  If your numbers are down, you cut three positions," Johnson said.

Owner restrictions

According to Leader-Telegram staff members, owner restrictions there are almost nonexistent.

"I cannot think of a single story that we needed to do and couldn't because of the cost," Johnson said.  He can remember virtually no editorial stance by the Leader-Telegram management.  They have been almost completely hands-off, he said.

According to UW-Eau Claire student survey data, newspaper quality suffers under restrictive owners.  Among those who feel “much more” restricted by their owners, about 68 percent said the quality of their paper is worse. By contrast, among those who said owner restrictions are “somewhat less,”  about 74 percent said their paper’s quality is up.

Still, management has some input into the paper's content.  "If there’s something controversial, I want to know about it before it gets in print. If there’s something I don’t want in there, we’re at least going to have a discussion about it and you’d better have a good argument about why it needs to be in the paper. But for the most part, I’ve backed them.

"Pretty much laissez-faire up in the newsroom," Graaskamp said.

Quality

Since he arrived at the Leader-Telegram in 1989, Gary Johnson said quality has been rising. The turnaround was a definite conscious effort on the part of the editorial leadership to be a more proactive news operation instead of a reactive one. Since early 1990s, Johnson and Doug Mell, managing editor of the Leader-Telegram, started to improve the paper's quality by bringing people and faces into stories and by covering more issue stories, Johnson said.

Part of that emphasis on quality was concentrating more resources toward the weekend papers.

"If somebody’s going to pay $1.75 for that paper, we want to give them their money’s worth," Johnson said.

According to UW-Eau Claire student survey data, quality is rising at most Upper Midwest newspapers.  Survey results showed about 56 percent of journalists believe their paper's quality has increased since they started their jobs.  Additionally, of those papers like the Leader-Telegram that have publishers with family ties, about 72 percent site greater quality.

Chain-owned papers do not look as promising.  About 72 percent of journalists from independents surveyed said their paper is better now than when they started compared to only about 52 percent from chains with at least 10 papers, according to survey data.

"Until there's a higher calling than the bottom line, the quality of journalism will be in question," Skoloda said.

Civic journalism

There are two reasons why The Washington Post is not civic journalism minded, according to Milton Coleman, its deputy managing editor.  First, civic journalism, at times, steps out of the bounds of what journalism should be doing.  Second, it's kind of gimmicky, he said.

Leader-Telegram staff members largely think that civic journalism is a buzz word for good journalism, although it can be taken too far.  

"Sometimes what people call civic journalism is just fuzzy 'PR' crap," Emerson said.  He thinks newspapers can make a positive influence by practicing good journalism.

"I think reporting wrongdoing and having that changed is the best kind of civic journalism there is," he said.  "There is a real balancing act there, and I don't think I should go into it with a preconceived notion of what the story should be."

Dave Skoloda doesn't think journalism should tailor news for any reason.

"We all know what news is," he said.  "I think we run a bigger risk by asking people what they want to read."

Civic journalism means something concrete to Emerson; its about benefiting the community the paper serves.  "The newspaper should take a stand on certain things and promote certain agendas for the city or community they’re involved in," he said.

The struggle every newspaper has and will continue to have is to be pertinent in the lives of the people it serves, Graaskamp said.

"Our job is to give readers and the members of the various communities we serve information so that they can be better citizens themselves.  We do that balancing act everyday. That’s called ethics," he said.

Not only do chain papers appear to be more supportive of civic journalism than independents, chains also appear to practice it more.  More than 80 percent of journalists who work for chains said their papers have a positive attitude toward civic journalism, and 50 percent of those journalists said their paper practices civic journalism more.  Only 55 percent of journalists from independents said their papers have a positive attitude toward civic journalism and only a little more than 37 percent said their paper practices it more, according to a UW-Eau Claire student survey.

Technology

Technology is a driving force behind the Leader-Telegram’s success, said Johnson. The ability to utilize the Internet for a variety of functions like record checking and information archival allows the newsroom to stay very organized.

"That’s one of our cornerstones. We will continue to invest in technology because, truthfully, that’s the only way we see that we’re able to do a little more with less," Graaskamp said.

Currently, the Leader-Telegram desires to do more pagination in the editorial department.  Editors take care of about half of the pages on average, and three paginators do the rest, he said.

The Leader-Telegram has its own Internet service provider, or ISP.  It is also completely paginated.  Despite having good technology for a paper its size,  Graaskamp said he is looking for a new front-end system because he thinks the staff spends too much time repurposing editorial content to the archives and Web.

"They do a pretty good job at taking care of us," Emerson said.  Every reporter's desk is equipped with Internet access and has been for a few years, he said.  The Leader-Telegram's current system supports an archival system with stories that date back to 1991.

"Good technology equals better news," Emerson said.

Sharing reporters and resources

Cost-cutting measures often involve sharing resources.  Central printing plants are one way that chains in particular save overhead costs.  Another way is through sharing reporters from different bureaus.  Results from these cost-cutting measures are mixed.  By sharing reporters, papers can cut staff numbers and save money.  But there is a downside.

"I think [cost-cutting measures] have a tendency to water down the product," Graaskamp said.

As an independent daily, the Leader-Telegram doesn't really have the luxury of sharing a lot of resources with other papers, other than news services, he said.

"You have problems emphasizing local news if you’re going to share your resources over too broad a region which is something that can happen with chains and potentially central printing plants," Graaskamp said.

The Leader-Telegram has a rather large reporting staff, and devotes a very significant amount of resources to the news gathering function.  Its emphasis on local news demands that kind of a staff, he said.

"When we lose staff and cut back – and those cutbacks really affect what’s in the news column – you lose," Coleman said.  "I would not equate chain ownership, per se, with bad journalism. Chain ownership can be a plus. Chain ownership with an emphasis on bottom-line profits at this time of financial uncertainty – that’s the culprit."

Weekly newspaper illustrates independents' strife