I know the feeling.
What feeling, you ask?
That sickening ache in your belly
when you hear the news: Rupert Murdoch has bought your newspaper.
Been there, felt that, choked down
the sadness and, as dozens of others did at that time, moved on to a new job.
It all happened about 23 years ago
when the Field brothers, Marshall and Ted, sold the Chicago Sun-Times to
Murdoch. This marked the first step in the decline of what was an excellent newspaper, even
though many wonderful journalists stayed on and a number are still there. (A
sidebar: Later in its history, the Sun-Times was owned by Conrad Black. Murdoch
and Black — now that’s an exacta with 1,000 to one odds on the journalism values
tote board).
I am sure many in the newsrooms at The Wall Street Journal and Barrons and the Ottaway papers are feeling the same
pain that so many of us felt back then. Chicago
was an incredible place to practice journalism. It was as competitive, if not more
so, than any market in the country. A truly great news town. And
the Sun-Times, a serious tabloid, was crawling closer and closer to the the Chicago Tribune
in circulation. But it hasn’t been like that since.
I remember the first visit Murdoch
made to the Sun-Times newsroom after the announcement. A few of us met with him
for a little Q and A. I asked: How are we going to attract the high-end advertisers,
as we have started doing, if you go low-end with the paper? He answered that
was not a concern, that when the circulation figures rose, the cash register
would ring. I thought then, he doesn’t understand Chicago readers.
Then later I met with him at his
office in the New York Post. I was managing editor of the Sun-Times, and
he wanted to talk with me about staying on as executive editor. It was a long
meeting, but we exchanged very few words. He spent most of the time on the
phone with one of his investment people, buying stock in some company he had
targeted.
No thanks, was my reply to the
offer. I agreed to stay for three weeks to help in the transition. But to be
honest, I spent most of the time helping people to find other
jobs. Then one Saturday when I was in my office and Murdoch and his new
publisher, Robert Page, were in the office next door, my phone rang and
it was Page. “We think it best if you left now. You can come back tomorrow
morning and pick up your personal stuff,” he told me. I must say, I really couldn’t blame
them.
And as it turns out, I ended up with
the best owner I ever worked for: C.K. McClatchy in Sacramento. Maybe I owe Murdoch thanks.
So what happens now? How many
Journal staffers will leave? My former Sun-Times colleague Alan Mutter wrote in
his blog, Newsosaur, that 60 of us left the Sun-Times. I thought it was 70 or
more. I do know that everyone who chose to leave got a job at another
newspaper. Several, including the biggest catch of all, Mike Royko, walked across
the street to the previously hated Tribune.
Mutter, my Poynter colleague Rick
Edmonds and others predict that Murdoch will behave himself and won’t wreak
havoc at the Journal, suggesting that he can’t afford to trash it and that we
can expect more investment and more innovation.
I hope they are right. The Journal — with the exception of the editorial pages — ranks with the best newspapers
anywhere. It would be a sin if it didn’t maintain that excellence.
The Bancroft family obviously
struggled internally before enough of them decided to sell. I don’t know how
much the Field brothers struggled when they sold the Sun-Times to Murdoch. Not
much, I suspect. But I do know that Ted took his money and stayed in Hollywood to produce
movies, which he still does.
His first hit after the sale was “Revenge of the Nerds.”
Not even Murdoch could have written
a better headline than that one.
Let’s pray the journalists win this
time.
