Frank Daniels Jr. says Howard Weaver “mistaken” on N&O
Maybe someone should invite Howard Weaver out for a nice game of golf. The retired McClatchy executive seems to find it hard to keep his hands off the keyboard, and it’s a rather sensitive time for employees — and former employees — of the newspapers he used to oversee.
After launching a defensive back and forth in the comments thread of Romenesko yesterday with News & Observer reporter Joe Neff, Weaver today raised the topic again on his blog, Etaoin Shrdlu, where he has continued to opine about the newspaper business and McClatchy’s role in innovating it — and, perhaps inadvertently, fed the fire of resentment rising in those who see McClatchy’s poor business decisions as the root cause of The N&O’s recent layoffs.
While today’s post demonstrated sympathy toward those who’ve lost their jobs, Weaver repeated an earlier assertion that The N&O was in bad shape long before McClatchy came along:
I don’t apologize for expressing the facts as I know them. It simply isn’t helpful to build mythologies based on anger and blame that don’t reflect reality. [...] For example, those who argue that McClatchy took over a thriving N&O and greedily ran it into the ground are misinformed, and perpetuating that myth hurts the cause of reconstruction.
Frank Daniels, Jr., whose family sold the newspaper to McClatchy in 1995, tells the Indy that Weaver is the one perpetuating a myth, at least in part.
“As far as we were concerned, we were doing extremely well. Financials had nothing to do with our decision to sell,” Daniels says. “So he’s just mistaken.”
Some background: In March, Weaver’s post blasting both sentimentality and high-minded theory elicited anger from a number of commenters, among them retired N&O metro columnist Dennis Rogers, who wrote:
Your company bought our perfectly content and profitable newspaper a decade ago. Why? Because we were damn good (we’d even managed to win the community service Pulitzer without your leadership), we made money and we were among the nation’s most innovative. And you have bled us dry ever since. [...] You have ruined us, Howard. The thin pages you have left behind are a sad commentary on what used to be a great American newspaper. The newsroom management of our paper has performed heroically to meet the challenges brought on by your mismanagement. And they have wept with us when the deep cuts you and your henchmen demanded in the name of protecting your stock portfolios sent good people out into the cold.
“I’m sorry about your anger, Dennis,” Weaver replies. But he adds:
We didn’t ruin you. (The News & Observer was a failing business when McClatchy bought it. The Daniels didn’t believe in its future and it wasn’t doing well.) And no matter who owned that paper, the loss of advertising and revenue crash would have screwed them.
“He’s partially correct,” Daniels says. “McClatchy didn’t run it into the ground until the economy started going to hell and they bought Knight Ridder and got saddled with all that debt. So it would not be fair to blame McClatchy all straight through. But when they took it over, it was a thriving and successful business.” In asserting otherwise, Daniels says, “Howard is just mistaken and, in my judgment, probably ignorant.”
At the time of the interview, Daniels had just returned from a pleasant round of nine holes.
7 Comments
Thank you, Frank, for setting the record straight. This N&O alum, and many others I suspect, appreciate it. Much of what Dennis said is plain true.
— Cathy Clabby 22 April 2009
May I add “amen” to the chorus flagging Weaver for factual errors. The year the sale to MNI was announced (1995), The N&O published the ground-breaking Boss Hogg series. The year the sale was consummated (1996), The N&O won the Pulitzer for Public Service, the top award.
At the time, the newspaper was printing money. Word was it earned a 23 percent return for years. Unfortunately this was never confirmed because it was a privately held company. But know this: The N&O was wasting more money per month in 1996 than it is now grossing per year.
Winston C. Cavin
Editor of many stripes, N&O, June 1987-April 21, 2009
— Winston Cavin 23 April 2009
Fiona, do you typically write about people without doing any reporting, calling or checking in any way?
As I said on my blog today, I’ve said all I can about these issues now and don’t plan to say more. But I wanted you to know it was disappointing to see you operate this way.
— Howard Weaver 23 April 2009
Howard, you made public statements in a public forum — two public forums, actually — and I quoted them. Then I called Frank Daniels, Jr. and asked him to respond to your public statements.
I’d be happy to talk to you for a follow up.
— Fiona Morgan 24 April 2009
Howard, do you typically not know when to shut up?
You actually wanted Fiona to waste time trying to get you on the phone so you could what, deny making those comments? Try to put them in “context” for her? How insulting.
But not remotely disappointing.
— Jeff A. Taylor 29 April 2009
Having just seen that blog post from last week, let me add my 2 cents.
The Daniels family sold the paper for the reason many family’s have done so over the past few decades. The private shares had been distributed among many family members, many of whom wanted to be bought out. The Daniels bought out a few by selling off smaller papers, but simply didn’t have the resources to keep doing that.
Also, under Frank Daniels, the N&O had started an enormously successful ISP business, but didn’t have the capital to keep building it out. At a time when AOL was still charging for access by the minute, the N&O offered an unlimited access plan for a flat rate, for only a few bucks in addition to your monthly newspaper subscriptin. Not surprisingly, they were overwhelmed with users and had to cap new sign ups because the system reached capacity.
In both cases, it seemed the Daniels thought the best thing to do was sell to what was then the highest quality chain, less a less savory one come along and gobble them up. Buying out more family members would have required taking on debt. And a publicly traded corporation might have the resources to grow the Nando.net network.
It’s worth noting that the Daniel’s left a paper that was thriving in terms of innovation, quality, and revenue. They had hired a legendary writing coach, Jon Franklin, to teach everyone in the newsroom narrative journalism. They were training all of us on computer assisted reporting. And they began much of this investment during the recession of the early 1990s, a lesson for anyone running a business, but especially newspapers.
I worked at the N&O from 1992 to 1999. So I can’t speak to what McClatchy did after that. I’m not sure why the sold off the ISP. Or shut down the leading national online news site at the time, Nando.
But it’s clear that the entire industry, not just McClatchy or the N&O, is suffering as a result of the incredibly bad decision to acquire Knight Ridder in 2006. The move saddled many other companies with more debt when they bought the papers that McClatchy spun off (philly, san jose, etc.). The first decision McClatchy made after buying KR was to cut capital expenditures to pay off the new debt. In other words, they were going to cut back investment in the business at a time of profound transformation. (Remember those plans to build a new N&O building?)
What a contrast to the Daniels’ visionary leadership of the early 90s.
Chris O’Brien
San Jose Mercury News
N&O Alum: 92-99
— Chris O'Brien 29 April 2009
I spent the happiest years of my career at the N&O under the leadership of Frank Daniels, Jr. Because he was such a visionary, he knew when to sell the paper. At the time I led the recruitment advertising division, the most profitable department in the company.
Trust me, I wasn’t aware of the financials of other divisions but I was aware of mine and we were in fine shape.
It isn’t McClatchy’s fault that the economy tanked and that a major source of revenue (Recruitment) dried up, but to say the paper wasn’t in good shape when purchased is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.
Howard, make like Dick Cheney and go away please.
— Sherry Brown 2 June 2009