Abstract
News media junkies, particularly those who grew up in the newspaper business, will relish the storytelling in Dan Kennedy’s The Return of the Moguls. These are perilous times for newspapers in the digital age, and he sets the stage with an introduction that summarizes key industry trends such as declining readership, paid circulation and ad revenues, employee layoffs, and the quest for sustainable business models. The introduction could have benefited from more discussion about the impact of technology—particularly the rise of mobile, video, and social media—on 21st century journalism. Be patient. Those issues are woven into subsequent chapters. He summarizes some of the news content changes when he writes, “Video, more photography, interactive infographics, and the like have all contributed to a richer experience” (p. 81).
Overall, the author’s point of view is clear as he writes “NEWSPAPERS MATTER” (p. 3), and that is not limited to print. Kennedy argues newspapers are crucial to democracy, and he writes that “Original journalism, a broad mandate, and a mass audience are crucial to the soul of a newspaper” (p. 4). Over the course of the nine chapters in the book, he provides compelling insights about the challenges and changes faced by three major metro newspaper companies—The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and the Orange County Register—that were bought by wealthy men with no previous experience in journalism or the newspaper business. Although their strategies and markets differ, they all are risktakers, value experimentation and their results vary.
The author provides behind-the-curtain looks at how “media moguls” operate in the 21st century. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, purchased The Washington Post for about $250 million in 2013, and it is now a privately held company. John Henry, the billionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox who made much of his wealth in finance, bought The Boston Globe and other businesses from The New York Times for about $70 million in 2013. Aaron Kushner, an entrepreneur and former greeting card executive, became the public face for the group that bought the Orange County Register in 2012 and expanded too quickly. He resigned in 2015. With some interviews from high-ranking insiders such as John Henry of The Boston Globe and Marty Baron at The Washington Post, the book offers rich details about each leader’s style, their organizations, and changes that are reshaping newspapers in the digital age.
Bezos is described as a methodical, data-driven leader. Yet, it was humorous to see the author share that Bezos’ early comments to employees “seemed more in keeping with those of a digital troglodyte than with someone who had built one of the world’s most successful technology companies” (p. 103). Kennedy describes Bezos’ Washington Post strategy as threefold: to invest in journalism and technology, target a mass and elite audience, and pursue excellence. Just as Kindle changed how many people read books, it appears Bezos strategy is to become the “Amazon” of news with digital distribution by “embracing the bundle that Timothy Lee disparaged as well as social media” (p. 105).
The author describes Henry as “an evangelist on the subject of free news” (p. 127) in that The Boston Globe’s model is not free, but “a dollar a day for digital subscriptions” (p. 127). The Boston Globe also has been a leader in diversifying revenue streams with native advertising initiatives under Henry’s ownership. Henry has a reputation for great negotiation skills. For example, Kennedy writes that Henry’s $70 million cash purchase included the Globe, its real estate, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and some websites from The New York Times. Kennedy writes that “John Henry does not appear to have an overarching vision” (p. 126), but describes the launch of Stat, “a standalone, mobile-first website covering health, medicine and life science” in 2015 as Henry’s “boldest move” (p. 149). Unfortunately, economic realities have not prevented additional layoffs at the parent company.
One of the biggest experiments and saddest chapters in the book is labeled “Orange Crush: From California Dreaming to an Epic Nightmare.” The author documents the dramatic paid circulation drop from “372,000 on weekdays and 430,000 on Sundays in 1991” to “160,000 weekdays and 294,000 on Sundays” (pp. 165-66). The newsroom staff was cut from about 380 in the 1990s to about 180 in 2012. When Kushner and his team added about 150 newsroom jobs, they were perceived as saviors. Kennedy asserts that Kushner’s “one big idea” was to “dramatically improve and expand the paper and customers would flock to it.” Kushner’s group even expanded with the Long Beach Register and bought the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Unfortunately, that experiment imploded and plenty of folks lost jobs. (Although the book ends in 2016, this reader hopes there will be a revised edition or sequel. Digital First Media acquired the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise after a bankruptcy auction in 2016.)
In chapter eight, Kennedy covers why wealthy ownership doesn’t guarantee success and includes Sam Zell as an example. Nonetheless, Kennedy argues that newspapers will continue. “But if they are to survive and thrive, they will ultimately have to do so through some combination of print, digital, and perhaps other sources yet to be discovered,” he adds (p. 225). If a renaissance in newspapers is in the future, then developing sustainable business models are needed pronto.