My publisher got fired on Monday

I was a CNHI publisher back in the late 1990s when they bought 28 newspapers from the group I was with. Apparently CNHI felt like it was hosed in the sale and I know for a fact that no CNHI representative toured my plant before the sale went through. I'm guessing that would be the case at quite a few of the properties in that sale. Shortly after the deal was finalized and we met Kevin Kampman for the first time, I knew I needed to start looking. Once they realized a lot of those properties were barely making money (and losing in some cases) and in poor shape physically, it made our lives a living hell. Fortunately I landed back on my feet with my old company.

But I was there for a year and it was total chaos with bills going unpaid, etc. I'd go to a weekly Kiwanis meeting and the city manager would tell me our water was about to be cut off, or the electric company would call about a cutoff. Several times the post office would not send out our weekly TMC product because the postage bill was months behind. Yeah, lots of fun and certainly made our newspaper look great in the community.

Fortunately we kept our press when they started pulling the others to create the new printing clusters. I had a publisher friend who made 8-10 grand a month printing outside jobs at his plant. They yanked his press. When he asked them how in the hell he was supposed to make up the 8-10 grand per month in revenue loss, Kampman and the CNHI uppers told him that wasn't their problem, it was his. He lasted about 2 more months.

I'd work at McDonald's, be a greeter at Walmart or substitute teach sixth graders every day before I went back to work for CNHI. I know the JRC is also about as bad, but personal experience with CNHI even though it was only for a year was all I needed to know that I'd never work for that outfit again.