Outside Indy, Schurz Takes on Gannett

By: Jim Rosenberg In an Indiana town where the 114-year-old newspaper switched from daily to twice-weekly distribution one year ago, the 99-year-old weekly will convert to a daily with its June 2 edition.

Schurz Communications of South Bend expects to close on its purchase of The Noblesville Times by the end of May in a deal proposed by Noblesville native and South Bend Tribune Vice President and General Manager Tim Timmons. Taking the Times daily puts it in competition with the local twice-weekly and the nearby metro daily -- both owned by Gannett Co. Inc., the country's biggest newspaper company.

Like Timmons (until last July the publisher of The Tribune in Seymour, Ind.), Times Publisher Terry Coomer (until last month circulation director at the Daily Reporter in nearby Greenfield), Advertising Director Jeff Stutesman, and Sports Editor Don Jellison are from Noblesville. Editor George Piper joined the Times from The Reporter, in neighboring Boone County. Timmons said his decision to move to Schurz after 21 years with Freedom Communications Inc. preceded the idea of acquiring the Times.

Last April, Gannett's afternoon Noblesville Daily Ledger (10,000-plus circulation) converted to twice-weekly morning distribution, with all-local coverage and more color printing. Its general manager says its readership a year after conversion stands 50% higher than it was a year before the change. The 868-circulation Times, said Coomer (who ran circulation at the then-six-day Ledger before moving to Seymour in 1998), puts Schurz into what its research shows is "the eighth most affluent community in the United States" -- where the Times, added Timmons, also has "a significant share of the legal [advertising] market."

The Ledger was the only daily in the Topics Newspapers group, which Central Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Indianapolis Star, bought 10 years ago. Gannett bought Central Newspapers in 2000. Timmons had praise for Gannett and the Ledger, but believes a daily Times will do well in Hamilton County if operated by a local staff.

Welcoming the competition in his column last Friday, Ledger Editor and General Manager Tom Jekel told readers they already have a daily, citing the Star's presence in 28,000 Hamilton County households (41,000 on Sunday), the 80% of the county's adults who read the Star "in a typical week," and the 4,000-plus Hamilton County stories it published in the last 12 month.

As a community daily, Jekel wrote, the Ledger was "terrific ... in every respect except the bottom line" (although a year ago he reported that the Topics group was profitable. The editor and general manager attributed the difficulty to market changes, specifically the county's rapid development and the arrival of new residents from Indianapolis. "Indianapolis edges closer to Noblesville every day," he wrote last week.

At the same time, "economic trends do not bode well for start-up businesses," Jekel concluded, adding that two Hamilton County business magazines had closed since the year began.

How many more staffers the Times must hire to support daily publishing has not been determined. For news and advertising, said Charles Pittman, Schurz senior vice president of newspapers, the company will do "whatever it takes to meet the needs of the community we're serving."

Schurz is buying the Times from Ted and Mary Sue Rowland, who, with their family, have published the paper since 1999. The Rowlands were able to produce several hundred copies per week on their print shop's sheetfed press, but Schurz must find capacity for several thousand copies per day. Because the Times is northeast of Indianapolis and Schurz's other suburban dailies are southwest of the city, "we're currently taking bids on different print possibilities," said Timmons, adding that other area newspapers are under consideration as possible print sites.

Times business, newsroom, and page-makeup functions will continue in Noblesville from newly leased and furnished quarters, according to Coomer, who said that although new computers have been installed, the paper is still shopping for a publishing system. When a printer is selected, he added, prepress files will be sent from the Times offices via the Internet.

That day is more than two months away. But on the first day of taking over and without advertising the pending conversion to daily publication, said Coomer, "we actually had 17 people walk in ... and subscribe."