Prize Property

By: Joe Strupp Gretchen Putnam was preparing for a Christmas party on the afternoon of Dec. 14, when the phone rang in her New England home and she learned that seven boys had fallen through the ice of a local river, sparking the area's biggest news story in years. For the metro editor of The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass., that meant her party was off and breaking-news coverage was on.

After speaking with the reporter on the scene, Putnam stuck a sign on her door telling would-be guests -- including many Eagle-Tribune staffers -- that the gathering had been canceled and why. Then she rushed to the office where, in short order, no fewer than eight reporters arrived, with another two dozen calling in to offer their services on the kind of day, a Saturday, that usually has one reporter keeping watch.

"We were literally turning people away," Putnam recalls about the paper's coverage of the tragedy that resulted in four youngsters' deaths. "I told some people to come in the next day because we would need them. We've got a very eager and aggressive staff."

That dedication and emphasis on local coverage resulted in the 52,843-daily-circulation paper winning a Pulitzer Prize in April for its reporting on the drownings -- coverage that many praised as both complete and sensitive to a community coping with problems such as economic difficulties and growing ethnic divisions.

But winning the big prize was nothing new for the paper. It also won a Pulitzer in 1988 and was a finalist on two other occasions since then.

Editors at the afternoon paper, now in its fourth generation of family ownership, credit much of its news-gathering success to a focus on making a major story its own and putting a local imprint on it. "We get the big story that everyone is talking about. We don't worry about the little stuff," boasts Alan White, senior managing editor and a 30-year employee who started at the paper as a reporter. "A lot of places will do a first-day story, then drop it. But the community expects a lot from us."

Eagle-Tribune executives -- from the newsroom to the boardroom -- say those expectations are both a blueprint for success and a heavy burden of responsibility, which includes not only news coverage but attention to advertisers, longtime subscribers, and influential organizations. At a time when small dailies are being gobbled up by large media companies -- as expenses and competition peak -- tending to the community has been this paper's way of staying independent, relevant, and profitable.

"Some of the things we do as a family newspaper are unique," says Irving E. "Chip" Rogers III, publisher and great-grandson of Alexander H. Rogers, who bought the paper more than 100 years ago. "We continue to engage people where they live." Those community connections include a charitable foundation that contributes about $1 million annually to local causes, a standing policy of free obituaries, and the quadrennial practice of allowing a panel of local citizens to question each presidential candidate who passes through during primary season.

Rogers, whose Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. owns nine other publications -- including three nearby dailies purchased just last summer -- also keeps his home phone number in neighboring Andover listed so readers can find him at all hours. He says calls, such as the recent Sunday-morning complaint from a woman who objected to an obit that did not include surviving grandchildrens' names, are part of being in touch. "I remember my father getting a call one Sunday from someone who did not get their TV book," Rogers, 42, says of the now-deceased Irving E. Rogers Jr., who preceded him in the top spot. "So he picked one up and drove it over."

Days of 'Bread and Roses'

The Eagle-Tribune traces its roots to July 20, 1868, when the Lawrence Daily Eagle published its first issue. About 30 years later, the Rogers family took control when Alexander Rogers -- a Scottish immigrant who moved to Andover at age 3 and later worked as a reporter at the paper -- bought the daily and the Evening Tribune in 1898. The two merged in 1959.

In the early days, Lawrence was a booming textile town, with its daunting mills overshadowing the Merrimack River and its plentiful jobs drawing workers from around the country. At one time, more than a dozen major mills with about 35,000 workers operated along the cold, rushing waterway in the 1920s, sparking the local economy, creating numerous small businesses, and keeping the local newspaper in the black.

Lawrence is still best known to many people as the scene of one of the most fabled episodes in U.S. labor history -- the violence-plagued but victorious 1912 "Bread and Roses" textile-workers strike.

As the textile-business owners sought to cut costs by moving to cheaper locations in the nonunion South and overseas following World War II, Lawrence became known more for crime, poverty, and growing ethnic diversity. Today, 70% of the city's population is Hispanic, about 60% Dominican and about 40% Puerto Rican.

The massive brick buildings that once housed the mills still stand along the riverfront as a constant reminder of the city's better days, although most are empty and awaiting new purpose. During a walk by the river, White points out the differences between the former manufacturing mills and the former warehouses. "The mills have larger windows that helped bring in sunlight to cut energy costs," he notes.

The surrounding suburbs, however, remain relatively affluent. Andover's Phillips Academy is among the nation's most exclusive preparatory schools, boasting such alumni as both President Bushs, John F. Kennedy Jr., and former Los Angeles Times Publisher Otis Chandler.

Today's Eagle-Tribune is based in an expansive, suburban building along busy Turnpike Street in North Andover, where it could be mistaken from the outside for an insurance- or medical-office building. It is a far cry from the newspaper's previous brick-building home along Essex Street in downtown Lawrence. In the parking lot at the new digs, an old-fashioned sign with a drawing of a newsboy hawker, which graced the paper's original home, is one of the few links to the past.

The region's odd mix of readers and local issues gives the newspaper an invigorating variety of stories to report. The Eagle-Tribune's circulation area spans 26 communities along the Massachusetts/New Hampshire state line, including 13 in New Hampshire that are home to 25% of the paper's readership. Long ago, the paper chose to focus on local news, with an emphasis on big projects, to make the most of the vast opportunity. "It is a juggling act," says William B. Ketter, vice president for news and editor in chief, who joined the paper a year ago after 20 years at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., and 16 years at United Press International. "There's a lot of very local news, and we consider ourselves watchdogs."

With five zoned editions, including two for New Hampshire, the paper divides its 65-member editorial staff carefully between the many communities and the two states. A separate, seven-person New Hampshire staff covers the southern portion of that state from the North Andover newsroom, with a Statehouse reporter in Concord. Two New Hampshire weeklies owned by The Eagle-Tribune supplement coverage. In Boston, a three-person Statehouse bureau feeds state news for readers in Massachusetts.

"I believe in aggressive coverage of state news as it relates to our market," says Ketter, leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head, in his small office off The Eagle-Tribune's newsroom. "Things that happen there have an effect on our reader -- transportation, development, and environment and education issues."

Massachusetts' prison-furlough program was the subject of a prominent Eagle-Tribune investigation in 1987 that not only garnered the paper its first Pulitzer but also sparked what would become a key election issue during the 1988 presidential campaign between former Gov. Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush. As many recall, Bush seized on the issue by focusing on Willie Horton, a furloughed inmate -- and former Lawrence resident -- who terrorized a couple in Maryland while on work-release, painting the program as a Dukakis failure.

Later, the paper was a Pulitzer finalist for its 1991 expose of the questionable business practices of the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) and for its 1995 coverage of the fire that destroyed Malden Mills, one of Lawrence's last major textile manufacturers. Two other projects -- "Unrealized Assets," a 10-part series in 2000 on Lawrence's potential for revitalization, and "Building Bridges," a multipart report in 2001 on the relationship between the area's Hispanic and Anglo communities -- received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. The Eagle-Tribune also has won numerous regional newspaper-of-the-year honors.

"They understand why something happened and who was involved, not just what happened," says Joe Bevilacqua, CEO and president of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The "Building Bridges" series, which the paper also published in Spanish, sparked some anger from residents who claimed it wrongly portrayed elements of the ethnic community. In addition to angry phone calls and letters, about 150 readers canceled their subscriptions, says Rogers. "It was enough to capture our attention. But we knew there might be some issues to deal with, and we handled it."

The paper is about to run an in-depth expose on the growing abuse of sick time by public-school teachers. "People know we are here -- they know we care and expect it," White says, crediting management with spending the money to keep talented people on the job and provide resources for big projects. "I don't think there are a lot of papers our size that would let you print a series in Spanish."

He added that at least one-third of the paper's editorial staff has been at The Eagle-Tribune for more than 10 years, giving the publication more experience than most small dailies, while at least half a dozen of the reporters are bilingual.

Associate Editor Russ Conway, a 35-year staffer who wrote the NHLPA stories and still covers hockey regularly, says he could leave for large papers but stays because of the commitment to quality -- and people. "There is an embedded caring," says Conway, 54, who sports a pinstripe suit reminiscent of Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls during a newsroom interview. He recalls the time in 1993 when former Publisher Irving Rogers Jr. helped Conway with his ailing father by giving him a chairlift. "That is one of a lot of things like that the [Rogers] family has done," he observes. Along this line, the paper donated its recent $7,500 Pulitzer cash award to the families of the boys who drowned in December.

Mr. Rogers' neighborhood

But keeping employees happy and news coverage extensive is only part of the paper's success. Eagle-Tribune business-side executives say the company's finances have remained strong because of an emphasis on growth and looking ahead. "The company has a very strong foundation -- we have never had to play catch-up," notes Richard Franks, chief operating officer. "We have been willing to take risks and try new ideas."

Among the paper's biggest moves was its 1968 relocation from its Lawrence home to North Andover. That change came along with the installation of the first color offset presses in New England. The newspaper also made history as one of the original printers of USA Today when it signed on to publish Gannett Co. Inc.'s national paper in 1982.

Industry admirers include William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group Inc. and immediate past chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). He called Rogers' approach unique. "He has kept his newspapers independent while virtually doubling the size," Singleton tells E&P. "You don't see many family-owned companies expand in such a quality way."

But the publishing company has had its share of failures with new ideas. A magazine aimed at the high-tech community along nearby Interstate 93 shut down about a year ago after a 12-month run, while a Spanish-language weekly that seemed a natural for the growing Latino population also sank after a little less than a year. "The problem was that the Hispanic community is not just one community," Ketter says. "They also have two strong weeklies. But it was worth trying."

At the same time, The Eagle-Tribune has done very little with The Eagle-Tribune Online (http://www.eagletribune.com), which offers visitors neither breaking news during the day nor Web-only stories.

Still, the big moves keep coming, including a $10-million expansion of the paper's on-site production facility in 2001 that allowed expanded printing of The Eagle-Tribune's inserts.

The production expansion was just one of several aggressive changes the current publisher has made since taking control of The Eagle-Tribune after his father's death in May 1998. When Irving Rogers Jr. succumbed to cancer at age 68, Irving Rogers III saw it as a turning point, not only for the newspaper's leadership but also for its future. Although the company was financially strong and had a solid hold on the market, the younger Rogers believed it had to move forward.

"I knew we were going to have to sell the newspaper or have a strategy to grow the newspaper," Rogers recalls during an interview inside an elaborately decorated conference room that once served as his grandfather's office. "I inherited a newspaper that was extremely strong, and it was up to me to figure out a way to make it stronger. Every generation had made its mark, and I knew that I could not just be a caretaker."

A month after his father's death, Rogers made his first move -- buying the competing daily Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette and turning it into a weekly. In 2000, he made plans for expanding production, then bought another competitor, the weekly Carriage Towne News in Kingston, N.H. He took his biggest leap forward last summer when The Eagle-Tribune acquired three neighboring dailies from the Ottaway Newspapers Inc. unit of Dow Jones & Co. Inc., paying $72 million for The Salem Evening News, The Daily News in Newburyport, and the Gloucester Daily Times.

Rogers also shook up his upper management. Along with the hiring of Chief Operating Officer Franks in 2001 and Editor in Chief Ketter last year, the publisher named a new vice president of circulation in 2000 and a new director of marketing and a new vice president of advertising last year. But he did not discount the paper's veterans, keeping Chief Financial Officer Ron Pollina, a 33-year Eagle-Tribune veteran. "I knew I had to build my own team," says Rogers, whose own newspaper experience included more than 15 years on the paper's business side prior to his becoming publisher. "We put a plan in place that we believe is going to enable us to strengthen the newspaper."

Dealing, from strength

With his top management stabilized and the addition of new, lucrative publications, Rogers set about realigning and centralizing nearly all of the company's operations, which include a commercial-printing business. From advertising representatives calling on local auto dealers to reporters covering high-school football, the paper's day-to-day practices have undergone a major organizational change aimed at cutting costs and eliminating duplication of effort.

"It is the incremental things you do that add up," says Franks, whose background includes 18 years at The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. After acquiring the new dailies, the company laid off about 65 employees at those publications, according to Franks, who says most were duplicating work that could be accomplished by existing Eagle-Tribune staff. He says another dozen or so jobs have been cut company-wide in the past year through attrition and layoffs, although newsroom positions actually have increased at all four daily newspapers. All printing operations, meanwhile, were relocated to the North Andover plant, further cutting costs.

Advertising operations experienced one of the biggest overhauls last year with the centralizing of all retail and classified efforts, which put advertising for the company's dailies and six weeklies under one, streamlined system. The sales force, meanwhile, reconfigured its approach so that one representative from the company serves each territory and sells for every publication. "It used to be that we had a car dealer getting calls from five Eagle-Tribune representatives," says Rogers. "It was a real waste of resources."

The company also went from 10 rate cards to one, which provides ad space in all the publications for one price. Retailers can still place ads in individual publications, says Dennis Wade, vice president of advertising, but few choose to do so. He also instituted a 13-run minimum for each ad, replacing the previous six-run minimum, while eliminating several annual special sections. "They did not work, but we kept running them, anyway," says Wade. "They cause you to take your eye off of the fundamental value of the [main] product."

Wade also shifted his department's focus away from getting new ads and toward seeking more advertising from existing clients. Armed with NAA stats that show newspaper advertising is a better value on the local front than billboards, cable TV, or direct mail, Eagle-Tribune reps have made a concerted effort to increase the existing base.

The paper will not sell ad space unless the client buys the minimum ad run and is willing to use a strategy the paper believes will work. "We will walk away from the table without a deal," Wade says, adding that eight of the paper's top 10 auto advertisers have expanded their advertising since the new approach took effect. The newspaper would not provide ad-revenue statistics, but Rogers declares they are "very good and increasing."

The old newsboys' network

In circulation and marketing, other changes are also afoot. With the acquisition of the neighboring dailies last year, Marketing Director D.J. Griffin immediately sought to keep and expand those readers with a series of in-house ads that focus on local residents and a soon-to-be-launched New Homeowner Package that will give new residents a free two-week subscription, a box of gifts -- including an American flag -- and brochures about the community.

The paper has cut down the number of contests it conducts and pulled back noticeably on telemarketing as a means to reach new readers. Griffin says about 29% of new Eagle-Tribune subscribers come from telemarketing, compared to the national average of 57%. The main reason for the cutback is the growing number of people on Massachusetts' "Do Not Call" list, which has reached 850,000 since Jan. 1. "It is the most annoying thing in the world," he says of telemarketing calls. "And the laws are making it so that it is very difficult."

Instead, The Eagle-Tribune is using more direct-mail options, as well as heavily promoting its auto-pay plan, which allows subscribers to have their monthly payments deducted from their checking accounts. "The goal is to expand it beyond the 2% of customers who use it now because it is a great retention tool," says Steve Milone, vice president of circulation, who started at the paper as a truck driver 20 years ago. Incentives to sign up with auto-pay include a month's free subscription.

Milone cites other efforts to connect with the community, including recently expanded customer-service weekend hours that allow readers to call with complaints until 1 p.m., and the paper's ongoing practice of using young carriers, which most papers have abandoned. He says about 400 youngsters still deliver the paper, serving 25% of the circulation area. "You have more of a personal contact with little Johnny from the neighborhood," he explains. "Some subscribers are less apt to stop if the neighbor is the one collecting from you."

With circulation dips in the last two Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX reports, Milone admits the paper can use all the customer-service enhancements it can get. In the most recent report, providing statistics for the six months ending March 31, The Eagle-Tribune saw a 1% decline in daily circulation, to 52,843 from 53,430, over the last year. Sunday circulation dropped 3.4%, to 56,806 from 58,813. Still, he points to other positives, such as the paper's 38% subscription churn rate, below the industry average of 50%, according to NAA.

Getting more corporate?

As with any organization that changes its leadership so extensively and expands so rapidly, there have been growing pains. While most staffers praise the paper's family roots and emphasis on quality, some contend that the overhauls have left them feeling less secure and that the company has more of a corporate culture.

"They are placing more emphasis on circulation," says one reporter. "They are putting more pressure on it to offset this big deal they just took on." One editor describes the recent expansion and changes as "a bit daunting."

For others, the expansion has taken the paper's focus off Lawrence, to a degree. "Coverage has suffered," according to one reporter. Others say morale suffered during hiring and wage freezes that took hold last year, but they ended several months ago with the arrival of more than a dozen new employees, including five reporters. Some editors say the paper is cracking down more on time cards and overtime, as well. "You used to just fill it out, and they did not worry about the exact time," says one staffer. "Now they look at it more closely."

At least one employee, Corinne Ray, former executive news editor, took her beefs outside the building last year, filing sex-discrimination complaints against the paper with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to The Boston Globe. The complaint accused management of firing Ray in April of last year after she complained about a senior editor's treatment of women. Rogers declines to comment on the complaint, which is still pending.

Franks, who declines to reveal the company's profit margin, other than to say it is above 20%, also has reorganized management's annual strategic planning. With its new acquisitions, the company now has 700 employees and a much greater debt load. He began a new plan in 2000 that requires department heads to provide a more specific breakdown of their needs and spending than in the past.

"The overriding principle is driving revenue through circulation and advertising, while including editorial excellence," Franks says. "We don't get into huge, long-range, eight-year plans that I have found to be quite silly. We plan for each year, and we revisit the plan each quarter, ready to make changes."

Keeping the reins

Rogers, for sure, is one hands-on publisher. He makes a point of reviewing all editorials before they appear in The Eagle-Tribune or any of the company's nine other publications. "I don't dictate what they say, but I have input," he says, claiming that 90% of the editorials are published with no changes. "Yesterday, I changed one word in one." But Rogers says he will hold an editorial or make edits if he deems it necessary.

Meanwhile, he has dramatically changed the composition of his board of directors, recently expanding it to nine people from seven, and contracting the number of Rogers family members on the board to three from five. "We needed to have more depth," he says of the group, which also doubled the annual number of meetings to four last year. "I needed people around the table to give me more sound decisions."

Rogers says more expansion is unlikely any time soon, and he does not see the paper making a move to morning publication as many afternoon dailies have done.

When asked how estate taxes might hurt the family's future, he declines to offer specifics, but say his father and grandfather "spent an inordinate amount of time planning for that" with the creation of family trusts. He also downplays any speculation that the company could be put up for sale in the future. "I don't have a crystal ball," he says. "But I am going to try to run it as long as I can. I have high hopes for what the company can still become."