The good news is that someone wants to buy a newspaper. No, not an edition of the paper. The whole business.
Last month, Max and Craig Fuller bought the Chattanooga Times Free Press from WEHCO Media Inc., which is based in Arkansas.
Walter Hussman, a long-time newspaper publisher and chair of WEHCO, said the company sold the Times Free Press because it was losing a lot of money.
“We’ve remained in the newspaper industry while most other family newspaper companies have sold their papers,” Hussman told the Times Free Press staff. “We could not continue to shoulder the losses we were incurring here in Chattanooga.”
The Fullers – father and son – have deep Chattanooga ties. The family founded multiple successful trucking companies and the new owners believe they can make the newspaper profitable in time.
Their purchase signals optimism and a commitment to their hometown, but it also illustrates the challenges ahead for any local buyers riding to the rescue.
The good
- Thanks to WEHCO, the newspaper was not sold to a private equity firm that would bleed its assets dry. Hussman said he took less money to secure local ownership.
- The Fullers are determined to build on the newspaper’s legacy to ensure it’s around to serve the community for the long run.
- Having longtime local residents run the paper will help provide perspective that outside owners can’t always develop.
- They’ve said the right things about newsroom independence.
- They’ve also said they will maintain the dual conservative-liberal editorial pages and accountability journalism, two strengths of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The not-so-good
- A money-losing newspaper has to make cuts and that has already meant a loss of jobs in the newsroom.
- To be fair, any new owner would have to trim personnel, but the Times Free Press may have been the best newspaper in the state when it was sold. The Fullers immediately dismissed the top newsroom leadership, a real blow to continuity and possibly quality.
- The new owners have also called for a focus on local rather than national news. That’s a good goal, but local news is far more expensive to gather. The cuts in the newsroom can’t go too deep.
That said, a recent Pew Research Center study found that only 15 percent of Americans had paid for local news in the preceding 12 months. If we’re not willing to pay for local newspapers, we will get what we pay for: fabrications and memes that drive Americans apart. Trustworthy local news is not free.
If the Fullers can develop a new approach for the Times Free Press that drives revenue, increases subscriptions and reports fully on the community, their efforts will encourage other newspaper owners to sell to local buyers rather than firms that will dismantle what they’re worked so hard to build.
Everything about the newspaper business – in print and digital – is an uphill battle these days. But the consequences of losing a trusted local news outlet are enormous. In towns that have lost newspapers, there’s no one watching where tax dollars go and where community needs aren’t being met. Public officials can thumb their noses at the public because there’s no real awareness of what they’re doing. Most of all, there’s no sense of community.
Here’s hoping the new Chattanooga Times Free Press is successful. A solvent service-oriented local newsroom can foster pride in place, encourage community engagement and drive discussions about how tomorrow can be better than today. That’s something America needs right now.
Ken Paulson is director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
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