Incoming Chairman p.

By: George Garneau

Donald Newhouse will take the helm of the Newspaper Association
of America during the annual convention in Boston
DONALD E. NEWHOUSE believes in delegating authority, a philosophy he and his brother learned from their dad, S.I. Newhouse Sr., before they inherited his publishing empire.
Donald Newhouse says he will carry that management style?a hallmark of Newhouse corporate culture?to the Newspaper Association of America when he takes over later this month as chairman, the first in his family to lead the newspaper industry's most powerful association.
"Each of our newspapers operates independently, with publishers who are strong, who set policy for their individual organizations and who have the authority and responsibility of carrying out the policies they set," said the Advance Publications Inc. president and man responsible for its 26 daily newspapers in 22 cities.
Though he regularly visits the papers under his direct command, "the ultimate authority and responsibility rest with the publishers. That is not only my style, but it is the style of my associates in the newspaper group," Newhouse said.
So NAA president and CEO Cathleen Black ? just a year after the American Newspaper Publishers Association, Newspaper Advertising Bureau and five smaller newspaper groups merged to form a broader-based, more activist association ? need not worry about Newhouse micromanaging.
"My job is not to manage NAA. That is Cathie's job," he declared. "My responsibility is to work with the board and give counsel to management in carrying out the board's policies."
He pledged to work with the board and committees "to enhance the operations, to be visible to membership and to help align policy with member needs."
His personal style and corporate culture notwithstanding, don't look for an aloof chairman to emerge only at conventions and in his column in NAA's monthly magazine, Presstime.
In a 40-minute telephone interview from his office at the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., Newhouse, who is rarely interviewed, repeatedly stressed his availability.
"An important function of the chairman is to be available to members to discuss any concerns and criticisms," he said, "to listen to what publishers have to say and attempt to respond to their comments."
The goal is to keep in touch to ensure that NAA programs are tailored to members' needs.
Despite his regular job?president of a $4.5 billion-a-year company with overall responsibility for 26 dailies?Newhouse said of the NAA chairmanship, "I plan to spend as much time as the job requires."
He will be accessible ? but he will not be making any more big changes at the Reston, Va.-based association, whose $32 million budget and 217 employees represent 1,413 U.S. newspapers.
Newhouse will not rock the boat as NAA begins to even its keel on a new course and gain speed after the dramatic upheavals of the past two years. They included surprise merger announcements; opposition to the all-but-forced blending of diverse groups; public criticism and resignations over NAA's alleged abandonment of small papers; controversy over Black's $700,000 annual salary and expenses; painful staff cuts; and a new management team.
A director of the association since 1983 and an Associated Press director since 1988, Newhouse foresees "no significant changes" at NAA, following the reorganization and the goals and strategies adopted under Frank Bennack Jr., the departing NAA chairman and current Hearst Corp. chairman and CEO.
"I think the changes have been made, the course has been set and now it's a matter of the management of NAA, Cathie and her team, to go forward on course," he said.
Newhouse's ascension to the chairmanship at the first convention under the NAA banner, in Boston April 25-28, by all accounts comes at a happier time than the gathering last year, when the newspaper industry was crawling gloomily along the bottom of its worst slump since World War II.
Despite continuing regional softness, business finally appears to be on the upswing following declines that began in 1988 and turned out to be longer and deeper than anybody expected.
"I think there'll be a feeling that advertising is picking up somewhat, that advertisers are in better economic condition this year, and there'll be, I think, a greater degree of optimism as to the outlook for 1993 than there was when we got together in 1992," Newhouse predicted, despite concerns about rising newsprint prices this year.
This outlook has the authority of over 40 years in the business, starting in the early 1950s, when, as a Syracuse University School of Journalism student, Newhouse worked at the Long Island Press, now defunct, as a circulation district manager. He moved on to a series of advertising and production jobs at the Long Island Star Journal, also defunct, and Jersey Journal in Jersey City, N.J., where his son Steven is editor.
His other son, Michael, is general manager of the Trenton Times.
Only his daughter, Katherine, resisted the newspaper bug. "She eluded me and is a school teacher, despite my best efforts," Newhouse joked.
Today, he and his brother, S.I. Newhouse Jr., chairman of the closely-held company, preside over what Forbes magazine rates the 18th largest privately held U.S. firm. Based on Staten Island, N.Y., Advance Publications Inc. employs 19,000 people and collects annual revenues over $4.5 billion.
S.I. is responsible for the magazines, Donald the newspapers. In a practice established by their father, Donald personally oversees the Star-Ledger and four other newspaper operations?the Syracuse, N.Y., dailies; Portland Oregonian, Cleveland Plain Dealer and New Orleans Times-Picayune?while four other family members divide similar direct oversight responsibilities among the other papers.
Saying plans were still in the works, Newhouse gave no details about NAA's previously announced "general agreement to pursue an ambitious industry-wide program to strengthen and expand newspaper marketing and readership."
Of NAA's current efforts, he said diversity?hiring and promoting minorities in all areas of newspapers?remains "a major priority" that is "especially important for the short- and long-term vitality of newspapers."
NAA efforts to win legislation barring the Bell operating companies from becoming information providers as long as they control the regulated monopoly information highways "is of major importance and will continue to be" until it is resolved.
Newspaper efforts to deal with environmental issues "must be made known to all levels of government to reassure the responsible governmental units that newspapers are doing their job," he said.
And NAA continues to press technological developments in printing quality, distribution, packaging, targeting, database marketing and doing business with suppliers and advertisers by computer, known as electronic data interchange (EDI).
Since he started in newspapers in the '50s, when Linotype machines set six lines a minute in lead type and plates weighed 40 pounds, newspapers have continually confronted change?economic, competitive, technical. While the nature of the challenges change ? television, direct mail, inflation, oil crisis ? Newhouse says that current problems are no different and newspapers' strength is their ability to adapt.
For the future, he sees "no major threats, nothing that smart management and flexibility and the ability to meet challenges and to change won't be able to overcome and keep us very viable. . . . There are no signs newspapers cannot adapt."
Convenience, low cost and ability to deliver volumes of easily accessible information ensure newspapers a strong market among readers and advertisers, he says.
As to speculation about portable computer screens someday replacing newsprint newspapers, Newhouse said, "I certainly do not see it in my lifetime."
With a twinkle of humor, the 63-year-old added, "And I hope to live at least another 40 years."