Post by bob q on Nov 6, 2011 9:13:11 GMT -5
I am a showman by profession … and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me."
The news began to hit Northeastern Pennsylvania last Friday that Times Leader editor and publisher Richard L. Connor had stepped down as the CEO of a sister media company, Maine Today Media.
The company owns The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday telegram, The Kennebec Journal in Augusta and the Morning Sentinel in Waterville. It will be run by an interim management team while a search is conducted for Connor's successor in Maine.
Typically, this is not the kind of news that would stir newspaper reporters 400 miles away in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. However, this story has an unfortunate local connection. Later that day, Connor announced he would resign as editor and publisher of The Times Leader and a chain of related local weekly papers, recently renamed Impressions Media. This is the news that has left employees at The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre and readers throughout Luzerne County wondering about the future of the newspaper.
Connor came to Wilkes-Barre in 2006 to "save" The Times Leader from decades of Wall Street ownership by Capital Cities, Disney, Knight Ridder, and the McClatchy Co. He would be the local face of the new organization that would take the name of an old Wilkes-Barre newspaper group, The Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co. However, the money to buy the paper would be supplied by Goldman Sachs through a Dallas, Texas-based private equity firm, HM capital, which has controlled the paper for the past five years. Connor even convinced some local businessmen to invest in the purchase. However, they remained anonymous.
In 2009 Connor convinced HM Capital to finance a second newspaper deal and closed on the purchase of MaineToday Media. He became its CEO. Immediately, the two organizations began to share resources, even though they were separated by different corporate ownership and more than 400 miles. The chains shared several top executives and Maine paid a hefty management fee to The Times Leader.
In 2010, Connor hired another former Times Leader publisher, Dale Duncan, as part of his team in Maine. Duncan also resigned last week as president of Maine Today.
Five years after his purchase in Wilkes-Barre, Connor is abruptly out as the head of both companies. Both organizations have been placed under interim leadership as HM Capital decides on Connor's successor. More questions than answers have been generated in the tumultuous week since his dual resignations.
When contacted last week by reporters, Mark Semer of HM Capital said the firm would have no comment on the resignations or the future of the Wilkes-Barre newspaper. Even when asked if the newspaper would remain open, he had no comment, according to a Times-Shamrock newspapers story.
Rich Connor has made no comments directly related to the future of the paper.
Even as of Thursday, The Times Leader's interim chief executive officer, Prashant Shitut, and chief financial officer, Allison Uhrin, did not return telephone and email messages from reporters at The Citizens' Voice.
It seems the employees, readers and advertisers of The Times Leader deserve better.
"Everyone is a more than a bit panicked," one Times Leader employee said following Connor's departure and the news that the newspaper would be bringing in efficiency consultants.
"We were told to just go in, do our jobs like we've been doing them, and not to worry, but that's completely impossible," the employee said.
As the questions persist about The Times Leader's future, The Citizens' Voice continues to operate under family management that has been in the newspaper business in Northeastern Pennsylvania for more than 116 years and in Wilkes-Barre for more than 11 years. Times-Shamrock Communications purchased The Citizens' Voice in 2000 and has stayed true to our commitment to be in Wilkes-Barre for the long haul.
Corporate ownership comes and goes, but we operate our newspapers decade to decade and make commitments to the communities in which we operate. In short, we are here to stay.
As part of that commitment to community, The Citizens' Voice has made charitable donations in Luzerne County of more than $1 million since 2000 and we continue to fund scholarships at several local universities. We operate our business from our offices in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Recently, we announced an exciting new digital partnership with another Wilkes-Barre company, ReferLocal.com.
In 1895, when our great grandfather Edward J. Lynett bought the struggling Scranton Times, he made a commitment that his newspaper would be "indispensable to its readers" and said, "It is our ambition to publish the best newspaper in Scranton and we will not be content until it is so bright, attractive and readable that no Scrantonian will feel a day well spent unless he reads The Times, and no businessman can afford to be unrepresented in its advertising columns."
Today, 116 years and three generations later, these words are the guiding principles of our commitment to our newspapers and to our communities. We are thrilled to be a part of the great cities of Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton and all of the towns and communities we serve in Northeast Pennsylvania.
During these trying times in our economy and now locally at The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, we at Times-Shamrock Communications want to re-confirm our commitment to our readers and our advertisers in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. We are here to stay.
Thanks for reading.
Matthew E. Haggerty is a fourth-generation owner/publisher of Times-Shamrock Communications. He and cousins Scott Lynett, George Lynett Jr., and Bobby Lynett are also publishers of The Citizens' Voice.