Family Feud Leads to Newspaper's Sale p.

By: Mark Fitzgerald

Father-daughter rift forces sale of Effingham (Ill.) Daily News sp.

The bitter dispute between the publisher of the Effingham (Ill.) Daily News and his daughter ? whom he fired as assistant publisher ? has led to the sale of the 12,849-circulation evening paper.
Ithaca, N.Y.-based Park Communications bought the Daily News and its Weekly Advertiser shopper in a Dec. 29 transaction with publisher Joseph E. McNaughton, who owned 43% of the paper, McNaughton's daughter Jo Ann McNaughton-Kade, who owned 20.5%, and other McNaughton family members.
The paper had been in the McNaughton family for three generations.
No terms will be released, said Robert J. Rossi, vice president/newspapers for Park.
The sale was an unsurprising coda to a tangled dispute that arose as much from two very different journalism philosophies as from family emotions.
Beginning last year, there were increasing complaints about Daily News coverage voiced by some business people in the small ? population 11,651 ? but regionally important town of Effingham, which is about 100 miles east of St. Louis.
A group of downtown business people formed an organization called the Community Support Group, which complained that the Daily News had grown "sensationalistic" under the leadership of Jo Ann McNaughton-Kade, her husband, executive editor Chris Kade, and Peter Kotz, a 32-year-old who previously had worked only on alternative papers.
These business leaders were particularly upset by the paper's reporting about the circumstances of the death of a man who had checked himself into the emergency room of the locally respected St. Anthony Hospital with an apparently minor self-inflicted wound.
In a series of stories and editorials, the paper contended the hospital had violated state-required procedures that might have saved the man's life.
Critics, however, said the stories had crossed the line between objective journalism and irresponsible advocacy.
Their complaints were largely disregarded by the Kades and Kotz, who contended the business leaders wanted the Daily News to return to a snoozy, boosterish paper.
However, when the paper published a graphic account of a sexual assault, the complaints found a sympathetic ear in Joseph McNaughton.
The 73-year-old publisher, who also owns several radio stations, had left day-to-day control of the paper to the younger generation since 1985.
Then, last Aug. 29, he went to the home of the Kades and fired them and managing editor Kotz.
However, the dismissals created a family furor and a public embarassment.
The Chicago Tribune ? in a story headlined "Honey, I Fired the Kids" ? reported that McNaughton's wife had thrown him out of the house upon hearing of the firings and that the publisher was forced to live above the garage of a relative for several days.
In addition, the Kades found allies in stock-holding cousins who opposed the firings.
Within a few days, Jo Ann McNaughton-Kade and Chris Kade were reinstated, although Peter Kotz was gone for good.
Under protest, McNaughton-Kade said, the staff was forced to soften its news coverage.
That brought no reconciliation, however, and in October McNaughton fired his daughter and son-in-law again ? reportedly angered by a front-page article noting that the Illinois Press Association had given the Daily News its community service award for stories the elder McNaughton had disdained.
Talks on selling the paper followed soon after.
Park Communication's Rossi said the family dispute had not presented any problems in the purchase of the Daily News.
"I've known Joe McNaughton for a long time," he said. "We consider him certainly a fine newspaperman, a fine communications man. While I know they had some family problems, it really didn't present any problems for us at all."
Rossi said that he had not seen any evidence that Daily News coverage had been softened because of complaints by business people.
"I don't know why she said that. It might have been an emotional outburst," he said.
"All we want is to play the news straight and cover everything we can," Rossi added. "We don't buckle under pressure; that's not our style."
Rossi said that Park was attracted by the "excellent market" and geographical position of Effingham.
Joseph McNaughton, who was not quoted in the small front-page article announcing the sale, did not return phone messages for comment.
Jo Ann McNaughton-Kade and Chris Kade could not be reached, but Chicago Tribune Tempo editor James Warren, in his Sunday Watch column, reported that the pair, along with fired managing editor Peter Kotz, are buying Columbus (Ohio) Alive, an alternative paper now in bankruptcy.