At a certain advanced age, we become unobserved by others. Strolling on a delightful late summer morning in New York City’s Central Park, we speculate as to who are the elderly homeless, retired workers, and multi-millionaires and billionaires. At their age and from their attire, it is not possible to tell the difference. Some solace comes from the reflection that we can enjoy a solitary and anonymous stroll that neither President Barack Obama nor President Bill Clinton will ever be able to take on their own.
Our thoughts turn to the Lancaster Newspapers, the precipitous recent retirement of its president, the appointment of the husband of one of the Steinman family to be interim CEO despite no background in the newspaper industry, the re-hiring of the highly controversial New Era editor to oversee all news operations, and the engagement of an unidentified consultant presumably for recommendations and long term strategy.
We have no inside information whatsoever concerning the operations of the newspapers. We do know from The Frederick Steinman federal 990 Reports that its income has been declining despite the diversity of the Steinman Company’s holdings. Given the difficulties that newspapers are facing throughout the nation, it would not be surprising if the drop of earnings is due to fewer profits (or more losses) from the newspapers.
But what we do believe is that in ten to fifteen years, and as likely sooner than later, publication of print editions will cease and the remainder will be the www.LancasterOnLine.com web site.
So we ask ourselves, what would we do if we were the owner of Lancaster Newspapers, Inc?
The obvious first answer is to sell out to a national chain, if available and willing to pay significant (albeit painfully small price), because they would enjoy economies of scale and have both the will and the ability to significantly reduce the cost of operations. Nor would they have the compunctions about greatly reducing staff.
The funds received could be redeployed to Steinman profitable business endeavors and to expanding the meritorious contributions to the community by the Steinman trusts.
We chuckle to ourselves at our hard nose advice, because selling off something that has been one’s life’s work is easier to recommend to others than to do oneself.
The alternative is to come up with a time chart which envisions steps needed now and in years to come as part of the decade or so exit from the newspaper publication business. (For example of an early step, the Harrisburg Patriot-News will now publish five days a week while further developing its for-pay web site.)
Yet it is not a slam dunk that LancasterOnLine will be the pre-eminent web site in a decade. Will it be able to afford to report local and sports news at a superior level? If not, will it be vulnerable to competition from another web site that will have access to news feeds both national and international as well as for Pennsylvania. (NewsLanc’s coverage of the state is already competitive due to a Pennsylvania news feed. National and international coverage is available through AP or links.)
Continuing our fantasy, we reflect on what immediate steps we would take were we in charge.
Certainly we would not engage a former editor whose work product was at best mediocre and who is viewed with deserved hostility by a significant portion of the Lancaster community. The embracing of a failed past is opposite to what LNLP should be doing: Clean the slate with an apology for its reporting concerning the evolution of the Convention Center Project, and, if at all possible, extricate itself from its partnership in Penn Square Partners, the equitable owner of the Marriott Hotel.
LNP desperately needs fresh blood…not more nepotism and leaders chosen largely on the basis of a life time of service and loyalty to the company.
We would bring from outside our region an innovator and a ‘cleaver wielder’ who would dispassionately take the necessary steps to adapt the newspapers to the current and future market place. We would encourage that person to live in York, Reading or the western Philadelphia suburbs, so as not to become a social hostage to the Lancaster establishment.
As we say earlier, it is easier to fantasize such advice than to act accordingly. We hope the newspapers will be around half a century from now, proving us wrong. Apart from a rough patch a few years ago, they and their foundations have and continue to make great contributions to our community. We wish them well.
