It’s Stressful Times as Press-Telegram Awaits Sale
These days they are again calling Long Beach’s only daily newspaper the Stress-Telegram.
Staffers tagged the Press-Telegram with that label during a painful downsizing two years ago, when it lost 10% of its employees. Now, with the paper up for sale and its staff on edge, the name has caught on again.
There have been nonstop rumors, staff defections and prospective buyers moving through the landmark Press-Telegram building at 6th Street and Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach since the Knight-Ridder chain announced in June that it was putting the newspaper and four others up for sale.
“It’s hell not knowing what is going to happen,” said Ernie Freeman, the newspaper’s security director and unofficial greeter who sits at the public desk in the lobby of the building. “We are anxious to get it all over with.”
Knight-Ridder closed bids several weeks ago and is said to be close to an announcement, but the name of the buyer has not been revealed.
Meanwhile, executives at the newspaper say it will continue to publish as it always has and that they expect relatively little change in coverage once the sale is made.
“We have been here 100 years and slightly less than half that has been under Knight-Ridder ownership,” said general manager Ray MacLean.
“It is not like we are sitting here chewing our knuckles,” said Managing Editor Rich Archbold. “We are still putting out a fine newspaper.” Conceding a certain level of anxiety, he said: “A lot of people are optimistic too. I am one of them.”
The Miami, Fla.-based chain said it is selling the newspapers to help reduce the debt incurred when it bought papers in Kansas City and Fort Worth, Texas, from the Walt Disney Co. But executives also said that, although profitable, the Press-Telegram’s profit margins were not high enough to meet corporate goals.
Uncertainty about the newspaper’s future has created almost as much anxiety among the city’s civic and business leaders as it has among the newspaper’s staff.
Without a regular outlet for local news on radio or television, residents of Long Beach have long depended on the paper to keep them informed. Its letters to the editor’s page is one of its most popular features, known for vitriolic broadsides against city politicians and prominent citizens.
Among the concerns expressed by community leaders is fear that the new owner may be less involved in Long Beach civic affairs.
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Although the political influence the paper once wielded has waned in recent years, former Editor-Publisher Daniel H. Ridder and his wife, Frani, remained deeply involved in charitable affairs even after he stepped down in 1988. The two succeeding publishers, his nephew Peter Ridder, and later, Richard J. “Rick” Sadowski, remained active with nonprofit agencies and community groups.
Peter Ridder was the founding sponsor of Leadership Long Beach, a prominent local institution designed to foster volunteerism. The Knight Foundation also contributes significantly to local charities and has already said that it will continue to support local groups after the sale.
“Obviously, we are concerned about the future owners,” said Randy Gordon, president of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. “We hope it will be someone who understands what community involvement means.”
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Daphne A. Ching, spokeswoman for Leadership Long Beach, said, “If an owner comes in and doesn’t see the value and importance in being involved, then that would create a tremendous vacuum for the community.”
Press-Telegram executives said they expect their community involvement to continue.
“The strength of the Press-Telegram has been our localness and our involvement and our connectedness with the community,” said Archbold. “There is no way that is going to stop or be diluted.”
Like other community leaders, Mayor Beverly O’Neill describes the paper as being “like part of the family.”
“The Press-Telegram has been part of the city of Long Beach as long as I can remember,” O’Neill said.
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To some, the June announcement that Knight-Ridder was selling the paper came as yet another blow to Long Beach’s civic pride. It was bad news for a city that had seen parts of its historic identity shredded by the pullout of the Navy and the dramatic downsizing of the McDonnell-Douglas aircraft manufacturing plant and its subsequent takeover by the Boeing Co.
“What we’ve had in the last 10 years is Long Beach kind of turned on its head institutionally,” said Charles Greenberg, a prominent local attorney. “Just about every aspect of our institutions have changed. The Press-Telegram is an important element in that.”
Within the paper, many reporters and editors, fearing the worst, have been looking for other jobs.
“We seem to be playing this game: ‘Who’s going next?’ ” said one reporter, who asked not to be identified.
Since July, reporters say, there have been too many farewell parties in the Press-Telegram’s newsroom.
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Among those who have left or have given notice since the sale announcement are feature writer-assistant city editor Robin Hinch, sports editor Lane Smith, education writer Sophie Yarborough, City Hall reporter Luis Monteagudo Jr., higher education writer Laura Flores and general assignment reporters Lola Smallwood and Elizabeth Chey. Some who have decided to leave said they probably would have done so even without the threatened sale, but indicated that the uncertainties played a role.
“People are very worried about their futures,” said Hinch, who took a writing job at the Orange County Register in July after 30 years at the Press-Telegram. She said she had been waffling on whether to jump papers, and the announcement of the sale helped make up her mind.
There had been rumors for years that Knight-Ridder was thinking about selling the paper. Daniel Ridder, who had maintained an office at the Press-Telegram, sold his home in Long Beach in April and moved to South Florida, a move some saw as ominous.
Still, Hinch said, she was devastated.
“The announcement of that sale was one of the most dismal moments of my life,” she said. “Newspaper sales are scary things. People just have no idea how it is going to play itself out.”
* L.A. DAILY NEWS FOR SALE
Jack Kent Cooke’s estate has put the Daily News up for sale. D2
