The nation's biggest chain combines profits with a Pulitzer
To mark his birthday last year, friends roasted Allen Harold Neuharth, 56, with a bogus interview printed under the logo of the Cocoa (Fla.) Today, a newspaper he helped launch in 1966. "We're pushing for a Pulitzer this year," the fictive Neuharth remarks at one point. In what category? "Profit. Er, make that 'progress.' "
Er, make that "public service." Last week the Gannett News Service, which provides national reporting for the 82 Gannett-owned dailies, won the prestigious Pulitzer Gold Medal for its investigation of financial improprieties committed by the Pauline Fathers, a small order of monks in eastern Pennsylvania. The award was sweet vindication for Al Neuharth, Gannett's chairman and president. Best known for making the chain the largest and most consistently profitable in the U.S., Neuharth has lately been on a tireless campaign to make it one of the most respected as well. "The Gold Medal," he says, "is gratifying recognition of the pretty professional work that Gannett News Service has been doing for quite a while."
In the 74 years since the late Frank E. Gannett purchased the Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette, the chain has steered clear of big-city competition. Instead, Gannett has concentrated on small-and medium-sized towns with only one daily. The stereotypical Gannett paper has a circulation of 40,000, profit margins that dazzle Wall Street and a reputation for editorial lassitude. Defending his preference for local monopolies, Neuharth once said: "I don't dislike fighting, I just like winning."
Gannett is beginning to grow its reputation for thinking small. It became a true press giant last summer when it merged with Combined Communications Corp., a Phoenix-based firm that owned the Cincinnati Enquirer (current circ. 190,000) and Oakland (Calif.) Tribune (current circ. 165,000), seven television stations, twelve radio stations and extensive outdoor-advertising interests. Among chains, Gannett is the longtime leader in number of papers, and last year passed the 55-paper Knight-Ridder chain in weekday circulation. Gannett's total is now 3,580,000 (vs. Knight-Ridder's 3,492,000), more than double that of a decade ago.
Neuharth is perhaps the highest-paid newspaper executive in the country ($1,160,000 in salary, benefits and stock options last year) and is currently finishing his second one-year term as president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. He has used his ANPA position to exhort fellow journalists to defend the beleaguered First Amendment and to hire more women and minorities. These are heartfelt concerns, but Neuharth's passionate pursuit of them is constantly put to use in his crusade to recast Gannett's image. The company trumpets its commitment to journalistic freedom and excellence in expensive and seemingly ubiquitous corporate advertisements, and a skillful p.r. staff lets no Gannett achievement go unheralded. The chain has even adopted a new motto: "A World of Different Newspapers" has become "A World of Different Voices Where Freedom Speaks."