When should an owner put his personal wealth into a newspaper

The publisher/owner of the weekly newspaper I write for is worth millions of dollars. I have heard his wealth estimated as high as $200 million.

However, the pay is very low and he recently said he couldn't increase a reporter's pay (not mine) because he had to buy something for the office.

My question -- when should he put some of his personal fortune into the newspaper?

 

Never.

 

You are probably right.

I'm just angry at him because he's basically just a rich bastard. I've hated him long before the Occupy movement began. Like Warren Buffett, he pays a lower percentage of his income in federal taxes than his assistant. He is in his late 30s and has increased his family wealth substantially in the past decade. I think his goal is to be the richest man in the cemetery.

 

The paper is making money, just less. After making $1 million in 2011 after annually making $2 million, he considered that a $1 million loss.

 

That must be a huge weekly. The weekly owners I know are happy to pull triple digits.

 

Guessing he got into the business in the first place because the high profit margins, which are caused by the low price of labor.

Also guessing he knows that if any of his staffers quit, he'd find replacements by tomorrow at probably lower wages.

 

Profits are high because of affluence of area. The paper is one of the best ways to reach people with extremely high incomes.

It would be tough to find replacements at probably lower wages because the wages are so low. Lasting a year is considered long tenure because publisher is so hard to deal with. Very few people who have worked there have made it to daily papers.

He is a Democrat who got into the business for political reasons. His best friend used to be William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States. Can now get President Barack Obama on the telephone on a same-day basis most days.

 

Give it a go. If he opens the jobs up tomorrow, I bet he gets 25 applicants, and four or five of them are going to be willing to take the job.

 

When there is little difference between the minimum wage and the pay for the job, it is hard for the pay to get lower. My recollection is that the pay for the news reporting position is an hourly wage, times 32 hours a week.

I get paid a set fee for the sports roundup.

 

Did Mr. X's exit strategy not work out?

 

I'm still there, but still hope to leave soon.

 

Ask Eli Broad, who the other day in a round of interviews for his new book, all but begged the bankruptcy judge to allow him to buy the LA Times, for the good of the city.