Family-owned papers

Thanks for checking in, Justin.

 

haha, nope not him ... but he does oversee a pretty good operation ...

 

I haven't been there long, but I've never heard of a place that treats its employees as well as The Oklahoman. The benefits are incredible. The paper is going in the right direction when it comes to the print product and its Web site. Both are getting redesigned, which will be launched later this year. And, probably most importantly, no one's getting laid off.

The paper has a fitness center, basketball courts, biking trails, sand volleyball, tennis courts, yada yada yada. I know I sound like an ad rep, but my short time here has been well spent, so far.

 

The Waterbury Republican-American has solid family ownership and still puts out a good product despite all of the cuts they've had to endure.

 

The Toledo Blade and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette are owned by the Block family and family members are the publishers. Both have endured cuts like most places but in general have always treated their employees incredibly well. The Blade used to have one of the best benefits packages in the industry until a couple years ago when they had to take pay cuts and start paying (that's right, they were not paying a cent) for health care coverage. But those days are gone.

The Newshouse papers have made cutbacks but if you look at the pay scales, benefit packages and operations in Cleveland, Portland, Newark and New Orleans to name a few they are strong. When the Plain Dealer had buyouts last year they gave something like a year's salary and two years of health care, a pretty soft landing when compared elsewhere. The Newhouse brothers I think are worth a combined $15 billion or something like that. Not saying it's heaven, but look around.

But for stability, how could you do better than the Buffalo News? Not owned by a family, but Warren Buffett operates it like a family and runs one of the most profitable companies in the world. I doubt he gets too upset if the News has a bad quarter or two.

 

Buffett also remains heavily invested in The Washington Post, which stands as a pretty good model for a private;y held or closely held newspaper operation.

Buffalo remains the gold standard for upstate New York newspapers. The work coming out of there is consistently good.

Openings in the sports department have been rare over the last 20 years, but the editors have usually chosen wisely.

 

I think a better way to say family-owned is privately held, as in no stock.
Then that opens up family trusts like Tampa, Anniston and Tupelo. Then small media companies like Little Rock, Chattanooga and Oklahoma City.
With the exception of Tampa, none of those places have had layoffs and most are considered to be really good places to work.