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Media 2023: MIKE REED

Reed has held USA Today publisher Gannett’s top position since its 2019 merger with GateHouse Media owner New Media Investment Group, where he was CEO. Under his leadership, the company has not only been writing headlines but making them. 

On June 5, during Gannett’s annual shareholder meeting, hundreds of Gannett journalists walked off the job in protest of the company’s cost-cutting measures, which had resulted in layoffs, benefit reductions and shuttered newsrooms. Despite protesters calling on shareholders to hold a no-confidence vote, Reed was re-elected board chairman.

Two weeks after the walkout, in an unrelated move, Gannett filed a high-profile lawsuit against Google, alleging that the tech giant holds a monopoly on the digital advertising market. 

Reed has served on the boards of the Newspaper Association of America (now the News/Media Alliance), The Associated Press, the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences and the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Founded in 1906, Gannett is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher by daily circulation, owning 218 daily media outlets spread across 43 states.

Media 2023: KELLY TILL

In 2022, Till became the first woman to lead the Richmond Times-Dispatch in its 172-year history, after leading Southeastern U.S. regional advertising sales for parent company Lee Enterprises, a position she also holds.

Before joining Lee, Till was an ad executive for The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press. An alumna of Old Dominion University, she serves as first vice chair of the university’s athletic foundation and was named a distinguished alumni honoree in 2022.

Till has grown the Times-Dispatch’s in-house, full-service video studio. Although Lee Enterprises recently announced a reduction in publishing frequency for many of its newspapers, including six in Virginia, the Times-Dispatch will remain a daily print paper.

IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET: Marie Curie. She was a badass — the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields. I’d like to learn from her how she successfully navigated her male-dominated field.

NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: We adopted a rescued greyhound — he has captured our heart.

ONE THING I’D CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA: Health care access

Graham to be chair emeritus of Graham Holdings

Donald E. Graham, majority owner of Arlington County-based Graham Holdings Co. and former publisher of The Washington Post, announced Thursday he would step down as chairman of Graham Holdings, although he plans to remain on the board as chair emeritus starting in May. Longtime board member Anne Mulcahy, former chair and CEO of Xerox Corp., will become the board’s new chair.

Graham Holdings is a conglomerate holding company that owns educational services company Kaplan, the online magazine Slate, seven television stations and other properties. It previously was known as The Washington Post Co., when the Graham family owned Newsweek and the Post, which was sold to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in 2013 for $250 million. Before becoming publisher, Graham was a Post reporter and held several other news and business positions at the newspaper and at Newsweek, which was sold in 2010. Graham’s mother, Katharine Graham, was publisher of the Post from 1963 to 1991, leading the paper during its Watergate coverage; she became publisher following the death of her husband, Phil Graham, who had been publisher since 1946.

Mulcahy, who has served on Graham Holdings’ board for 15 years, was chair and CEO of Xerox from 2001 to 2010, after having joined the company in 1976 as a field sales representative and climbing the ranks.

“Anne has been on the board of Graham Holdings since 2008,” said Graham President and CEO Timothy J. O’Shaughnessy, Graham’s son-in-law. “She knows the businesses and the culture hands down, and we are fortunate to have her acumen and expertise. With Anne as chair and Don as chairman emeritus, the company and its shareholders are in an enviable position.”

Mulcahy is also lead director of Johnson & Johnson and serves on the board for LPL Financial, as well as sitting on the board for Save the Children. She is an executive in residence at Harvard University. “It has been a privilege to serve on the GHC board, which has so capably been led by Don as chair and Tim as CEO,” she said Thursday. “I am honored to serve as the next chair in support of a great management team and an esteemed board of directors.”

Gannett restructuring into two units

McLean-based Gannett Co. Inc. is restructuring to create two new U.S. business units, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher announced last week.

The units will be Gannett Media and Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS). Maribel Perez Wadsworth, based in McLean, will lead Gannett Media, while Kris Barton, based in the Los Angeles area, will lead DMS.

“This reorganization ensures our consumer and B2B businesses are strategically optimized for our next stage of growth with incredibly experienced leadership at the helm while championing our culture of inclusion and driving our long-term goals for sustainable revenue and cash flow growth,” Gannett Chairman and CEO Michael Reed said in a statement.

Gannett Media will focus on content, news, business-to-business and subscribers, and Wadsworth will spend most time in the areas of customer satisfaction, audience growth, print stabilization and digital growth.

“It is both a great privilege and responsibility to lead Gannett Media as we build a strong future,” Wadsworth said in a statement. “My focus is on strengthening our journalism — this is our mission, and dramatically diversifying our content portfolio for growth — this is our promise as a vibrant, next-generation media company.”

She has been with Gannett for more than 25 years, starting as a reporter at the Rockford Register Star in Illinois. In 2015, Wadsworth was named Gannett’s first chief strategy and transformation officer, where she focused on digital subscription strategy. She has been running Gannett’s news division, which has more than 230 local news organizations and USA Today.

Wadsworth serves on the boards of the Associated Press and Skillshare Inc., and she chairs the News Media Alliance and is president of the International News Media Association. Wadsworth is also a trustee of her alma mater, the University of Miami.

Roanoke Times union, Lee settle on new contract

The Roanoke Times newsroom union said Tuesday it has agreed on a new two-year contract with owner Lee Enterprises, following a brief picket line last week.

Members of the Timesland News Guild, which represents 30 employees of The Roanoke Times and Laker Weekly, will receive 2% annual raises, and minimum full-time pay will rise about 12% to $40,000 per year between now and 2023, according to a statement by the union. Equity adjustment raises also will take place, meaning that nearly half of the guild will receive raises of more than 2% this year.

Negotiations started in mid-February, with sticking points on wages and mileage rates. Layoff policies, more parental leave and paid time off also are included in the contract.

Lee had offered wage increases between 1% and 1.5%, while the guild sought an increase of 4%. The Iowa-based media company, which owns 31 newspapers in Virginia, also wanted to lower the mileage rate from 34 cents per mile to 32 cents per mile, while the union sought the 58.5 cents-per-mile rate set by the IRS. Lee announced it would voluntarily increase its rate by several cents beginning in April, the union said.

“We fought incredibly hard for additional pay raises and a higher minimum so The Roanoke Times can stay competitive with other papers,” Roanoke Times staff writer Alison Graham, the union’s vice chair and bargaining committee member, said in a statement. “Wages and other benefits ensure that our newspaper can continue to punch above its weight and drive important news coverage in Southwest Virginia.”

Roanoke Times union pickets over wages, mileage

The Roanoke Times’ newsroom union staged its first-ever picket line briefly Monday as a message to the newspaper’s owners, Lee Enterprises, which the union says won’t budge on requested salary and mileage reimbursement increases.

Alison Graham, vice chair of the Timesland News Guild and a staff writer at The Roanoke Times, said earlier Monday that the guild, which also represents the Laker Weekly covering Smith Mountain Lake, has been negotiating a new contract for newsroom employees since Feb. 16. The picket line was scheduled to last only a half hour; unlike lengthy strikes, the event is meant to increase public awareness of the union’s negotiations.

“This is not something that’s going to be covered in our own paper, we assume,” Graham said.

The guild is seeking a wage increase of below 4%, which would total less than $60,000 a year, she said, but Lee’s offer has remained in the 1% to 1.5% range. Also, the cost of health insurance is potentially set to rise 13% for employees, according to the guild.

Lee Enterprises did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Also under negotiation are mileage rates, which are currently set at 34 cents per mile for Lee employees. Lee negotiators proposed lowering the rate to 32 cents, despite gas costs rising dramatically due in part to Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the subsequent U.S. ban on Russian fuel imports. The guild first requested the current IRS reimbursement rate of 58.5 cents and lowered its ask to 50 cents, but Graham said Lee has not raised its offer.

“We just live in a really big region,” she said, noting that reporters and photographers are often driving distances of more than 30 minutes each way. The Roanoke Times’ coverage area includes the Roanoke Valley, New River Valley, Rockbridge County, Lexington, Pulaski and Franklin County, as well as occasional stories outside the immediate region, such as Danville or Southwest Virginia.

The decision to picket came a week after the guild purchased a one-page ad in the newspaper, asking readers to sign a petition in support of its requests to Lee, which owns 31 publications in Virginia, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Free Lance-Star, The Daily Progress, Danville Register & Bee, The News & Advance, the Bristol Herald Courier and others.

Last year, the Timesland Guild and other Lee newsroom unions joined in support of the Iowa-based company, which purchased BH Media’s newspaper holdings in 2020, as it rejected a $144 million buyout offer by Alden Global Capital and fought off a slate of the hedge fund’s board nominations in February.

Graham said that members of her guild and other Lee newspaper unions are unhappy that Lee executives don’t appear to recognize the unions’ support in the matter. “We came to your aid when you were trying to stave off this purchase,” she said. “It’s not like we think [Lee is] a great steward of our newspapers, but they’re better than Alden.”

Media matters

It’s hard to have a conversation about anything in the headlines, especially anything to do with technology or politics, without some blame being assigned to “the media,” as if there were one enormous unified communications cloud shaping all our collective thoughts. That would be enormous for certain, but the media is perhaps more consolidated than one might think.

Thinking back, the early cable and pre-internet days seem like living in a land before time, when the economics of the media business were easy, and the industry was represented by voices aplenty.

In 1975, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules to prevent companies from owning newspapers and television stations in the same market.

In 1999, the FCC subsequently adopted an “eight voices” test to ensure that common ownership of media outlets in a single local market would not reduce diversity of opinion or minority opportunities. The underlying thesis was that multiple voices would promote competition and better serve the public interest.

After decades of litigation by broadcast groups and newspaper owners, the FCC ultimately eliminated these rules. Changes in technology and the overall media landscape have made them unnecessary. On appeal, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the FCC’s relaxation but was subsequently overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2021.

Looking back, the emphasis on local markets seems misguided. Nothing was done to curtail the growth of media conglomerates across multiple markets. In addition, the FCC regulations never applied to cable or internet companies. These alternatives originally were called the “500-channel universe.”

Today, traditional cable industry giants such as Comcast Corp., Warner Media LLC, Cox Communications Inc., ViacomCBS Inc., Hearst Communications Inc., Fox Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. all have revenue in the billions. And they’re on track to be superseded by a host of on-demand, streaming competitors such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Meanwhile, local daily and weekly newspapers have become a vast wasteland.

According to a 2020 report by the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media, over 15 years the U.S. lost 2,100 daily and weekly newspapers — more than 25% — leaving 1,800 communities with no local news in print or online. From 2018 to 2020, 300 newspapers closed, 6,000 journalism jobs disappeared and local newspaper circulation declined by 5 million.

Anecdotally, we hear the loss of local business news has been even greater, as large media companies consolidate ownership of daily papers and cut coverage.

Alden Global Capital,* Lee Enterprises Inc. and McLean-based Gannett Co. Inc. collectively own more than one in six local newspapers in the U.S., with the lion’s share owned by Gannett.

This consolidation trend of media voices and ownership isn’t just happening in newspapers, though.

Nexstar Media Group Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. each operate about 20% of the nation’s roughly 1,000 local television stations. Nexstar operates 199 stations in 116 U.S. markets, while Sinclair operates 185 television stations in 86 markets.

And none of these statistics include today’s largest purveyors of information, the so-called “technology companies” Meta Platforms Inc. (Facebook/Instagram), Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc. (Google/YouTube). Meta alone has nearly 4 billion users per month via Facebook and Instagram and brought in almost $86 billion in 2020 revenue.

In the U.S., these companies have remained virtually unfettered by regulation.

Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act grants these companies immunity for any third-party content published on their platforms, no matter how egregious.

Meanwhile, social media’s impact on civil discourse and democracy remains increasingly questionable.

Perhaps it’s by dumb luck, but at Virginia Business we’ve managed to remain fiscally and editorially healthy, both in print and online, despite — or perhaps because of — our lack of group ownership.

In any event, we are delighted to be here to serve your business information needs and grow with you in 2022.

Welcome to the new year and thank you for your support. 

Lee Enterprises rejects Alden’s $144M purchase offer

Lee Enterprises Inc.’s board unanimously rejected Alden Global Capital’s $144 million buyout offer made last month, saying it “grossly undervalues” the company and its newspapers, which include 31 publications in Virginia.

“The Alden proposal grossly undervalues Lee and fails to recognize the strength of our business today, as the fastest-growing digital subscription platform in local media, and our compelling future prospects,” Lee Chairman Mary Junck said in a statement released Thursday. “We remain confident in our ability to create significant value as an independent company.”

Alden, the hedge fund that owns The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press in Virginia, as well as other former Tribune Publishing Co. newspapers, proposed purchasing Iowa-based Lee at $24 a share. If successful, the purchase would have placed 12 of Virginia’s daily legacy newspapers with approximately 330,000 circulation under one company — a firm that is known for eliminating newsroom positions at its assets, including the Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, New York Daily News, Boston Herald and the Baltimore Sun, as well as closing newsrooms, including the Pilot and Daily Press’ offices.

Lee newspapers’ newsroom unions decried the prospect of Alden ownership, urging the board to reject the offer.

“Alden has cut their staffs at twice the rate of competitors, resulting in the loss of countless jobs,” the unions’ open letter reads. “They’ve fostered unhealthy and untenable workplaces that make it impossible to retain talent. They’ve shuttered physical newsrooms to leave journalists working from their cars, and at properties they lease, Alden stiffs local landlords for the rent. Their investment history is littered with bankruptcies and federal probes, and they use secretive money to fund their shady dealings.”

Among the signatories were the Richmond Newspapers Professional Association, representing newsroom employees at the Richmond Times-Dispatch; Blue Ridge NewsGuild, representing The Daily Progress in Charlottesville; and Timesland News Guild, The Roanoke Times’ newsroom union; as well as unionized newsrooms in Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Montana, New York, Washington and the national United Media Guild.

Lee’s board previously took action to prevent a hostile takeover by Alden, which owns more than 6% of Lee’s stock. Lee’s board adopted a “poison pill” plan that would allow other shareholders to buy shares at a 50% discount or possibly get free shares if Alden gains control of more than 10% of Lee’s stock.

Lee owns 31 newspapers in Virginia, purchased in January 2020 from a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett’s firm. Among the Virginia newspapers under Lee’s ownership are the Times-Dispatch; Bristol Herald Courier; The News & Advance in Lynchburg; The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg; Martinsville Bulletin; Danville Register & Bee; The News Virginian in Waynesboro; The Roanoke Times; and The Daily Progress.

Lee reported strong fourth quarter fiscal 2021 results with 37% growth in digital revenue and 65% growth in digital-only subscriptions, the company reported Thursday.

Newsroom unions urge Lee to reject Alden’s offer

A dozen Lee Enterprises newsroom unions, including three in Virginia, wrote an open letter to company management Monday, urging Lee to reject Alden Global Capital’s purchase offer of approximately $144 million.

“Alden has cut their staffs at twice the rate of competitors, resulting in the loss of countless jobs,” the letter reads. “They’ve fostered unhealthy and untenable workplaces that make it impossible to retain talent. They’ve shuttered physical newsrooms to leave journalists working from their cars, and at properties they lease, Alden stiffs local landlords for the rent. Their investment history is littered with bankruptcies and federal probes, and they use secretive money to fund their shady dealings.”

Among the signatories are the Richmond Newspapers Professional Association, representing newsroom employees at the Richmond Times-Dispatch; Blue Ridge NewsGuild, representing The Daily Progress in Charlottesville; and Timesland News Guild, The Roanoke Times’ newsroom union; as well as unionized newsrooms in Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Montana, New York, Washington and the national United Media Guild.

Iowa-based Lee Enterprises owns 31 newspapers in Virginia, purchased in January 2020 from a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett’s firm. Among the Virginia newspapers under Lee’s ownership are the Times-Dispatch; Bristol Herald Courier; The News & Advance in Lynchburg; The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg; Martinsville Bulletin; Danville Register & Bee; The News Virginian in Waynesboro; The Roanoke Times; and The Daily Progress.

On Nov. 22, Alden — which owns The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press, among other dailies previously owned by Tribune Publishing Co. — proposed purchasing Lee Enterprises at $24 per share. If accepted by Lee, the acquisition would consolidate 12 of Virginia’s daily newspapers under one owner.

The unions have had earlier conflicts with Iowa-based Lee, which has laid off newsroom employees at most of its papers and moved copy editing and design duties to hubs in Wisconsin and Indiana, eliminating local copy desks at smaller newspapers. However, Alden is considered by many critics to be a killer of newspapers through buyouts and layoffs, as well as closing newsrooms and shutting down publications, a position shared by the Lee newsroom unions in their letter: “They are not good stewards of their investments. They do not even try to run a sustainable news company. They will not turn profits by growing the business and increasing revenue. They will do so by gutting newsrooms. They will take this proud company, built over decades of hard work, and leave it in ashes. Thousands of us will lose our jobs, and the communities we serve will never recover. Cities with weakened or shuttered newspapers have lower voter turnout, higher taxes, more corruption and increased polarization. Our democracy suffers, and Alden reaps the rewards.”

Alden currently owns more than 6% of Lee’s stock, and after its offer last week, Lee’s board adopted a “poison pill” plan that would allow other shareholders to buy shares at a 50% discount or possibly get free shares if Alden gains control of more than 10% of Lee’s stock, effectively killing the possibility of a hostile takeover while the board considers Alden’s offer.

Alden Global Capital seeks to buy Lee Enterprises for $144M

Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that owns The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press in Virginia, has proposed purchasing Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based owner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and most other major Virginia newspapers, for approximately $144 million, Alden announced Monday.

If accepted, the $24 per share purchase price would consolidate 12 of Virginia’s daily legacy newspapers with approximately 330,000 circulation under one company — a firm that is known for eliminating newsroom positions at its assets, including former Tribune Publishing Co. newspapers Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, New York Daily News, Boston Herald and the Baltimore Sun, as well as closing newsrooms, including the Pilot and Daily Press’ offices.

With 6 million outstanding shares, the approximate purchase cost of Lee would be $144 million on a market value of just below $111 million.

Alden owns 6% of the issued and outstanding common stock of Lee, which was valued at $18.49 per share on Friday’s stock market closing, according to Alden’s announcement. The hedge fund has offered an all-cash proposal with no financing conditions. As of 12:30 p.m., Lee stock rose 24.6% to $23 per share.

Among the Virginia newspapers under Lee’s ownership are the Richmond Times-Dispatch; Bristol Herald Courier; The News & Advance in Lynchburg; The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg; Martinsville Bulletin; Danville Register & Bee; The News Virginian in Waynesboro; The Roanoke Times; and The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Lee purchased those papers among 31 it acquired for $140 million in January 2020 from Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Only seven daily newspapers with presences in Virginia (including The Washington Post and The Washington Times) are not owned by Lee or Alden currently.

Lee has consolidated copy desks for smaller daily newspapers at hubs in Indiana and Wisconsin, eliminating local newsroom jobs. Other Lee newsrooms have seen editorial layoffs since their purchase in 2020.

Lee Enterprises did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

According to the company’s third quarter financial report, total operating revenue was $600.7 million from January to September, compared to $426.2 million through the same period of 2020, up 8%.

Newsroom unions decried the proposed Alden-Lee deal. The Timesland News Guild, which represents Lee-owned Roanoke Times, tweeted, “Staffing at one of [Virginia’s] largest papers, [The Virginian-Pilot], was slashed to the bone after Alden bought it earlier this year.” Robert Zullo, the editor of independent news site Virginia Mercury and a former Times-Dispatch staff writer, called Alden “the grim reaper of the newspaper business.”

The Times-Dispatch union released a statement via tweet: “We urge Lee to reject this proposal, which would be destructive to already-depleted newsrooms across Virginia. … Ownership by Alden would be destructive for them all and for the public’s right to be informed by independent news reporters.”

Last Thursday, union members at former Tribune newspapers now owned by Alden — including the Daily Press and Pilot — announced they would work only eight hours that day and no more, to demonstrate how much unpaid overtime they typically spend working on daily news stories.