Walk-out in North Carolina

[SCEditor]

For those following Heartland Publications' takeover of southern newspapers, this was on the SNPA bulletin today. Heartlands fired numerous people from the paper a week or two ago, including the editor, and the publisher walked Monday. Nine other people walked with him.

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Ten Staff Members Leave Mount Airy News Following Sale
The Mount Airy (N.C.) News reports that 10 employees, including Publisher Mike Milligan, resigned their positions Monday evening.

The paper reports, "The resignations came one week after several employees were not rehired when the newspaper and affiliated publications were purchased by Heartland Publications LLC."

The article says: "According to Heartland, which acquired the News with the purchase of Mid-South Management Inc. on June 11, Milligan submitted his resignation effective at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

"Milligan's resignation was followed by a planned walkout of nine additional employees around 7 p.m. The employees included members of the news, advertising and composing departments."
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[Mystery_Meat]

That's going to hit Aunt Bee hard.

10 employees is probably a huge chunk, if not a majority, of employees there.

 

[SCEditor]

Especially considering they're probably understaffed after all the layoffs.

 

[PalmettoStatesport]

SCEditor,
You know who this is. The same thing happened in Pickens. I used to work for Mid-South, as you know, and I heard that news of the sale did not go over well with some of their former employees. This is going to be interesting.

 

[ColbertNation]

Must be nice to be able to afford to act on your principles.

 

[sgaleadfoot]

When I first saw this thread and the words 'heartland' and 'North Carolina' I automatically started to wonder if it was the stop I worked at not too long ago -- but it was a different place.

All that said, Heartland seemed like a good company to work for when I was with one of its papers, but that may have been just me.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Must be nice to be able to afford to act on your principles.

Must be nice not to work with you. That took guts, and you're trying to **** all over it. Sheesh ...

Good for the people in Mount Airy. When the publisher walks out with them, that's symbolism at its best.

Heartland may be able to replace everyone physically in time - obviously, no one's bigger than a publication - but a place Mount Airy's size, and Surry County as a whole, will figure it out and go with another publication.

Congratulations, Heartland ... you sure showed them. ::)

 

[SCEditor]

The scary thing: A co-worker of mine, who received the ax from Heartland at another publication, tells me that if Mt. Airy can produce a paper with the staff they've got left, he'd bet they don't fill any of the vacant positions.

In a related note, I just looked up Heartland's Web site. The guy that runs the company is a former VP of Operations for JRC. Why doesn't that surprise me?

 

[DanOregon]

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. - Kris Kristofferson

 

[Sam Mills 51]

The scary thing: A co-worker of mine, who received the ax from Heartland at another publication, tells me that if Mt. Airy can produce a paper with the staff they've got left, he'd bet they don't fill any of the vacant positions.

In a related note, I just looked up Heartland's Web site. The guy that runs the company is a former VP of Operations for JRC. Why doesn't that surprise me?

Knowing what we know of Heartland, the company is probably arrogant enough to try to do just that. Want to bet none of the employees left will be offered raises?

Gee, from JRC to Heartland. Nah ... unpossible ...

 

[chazp]

I wish I had the guts of those 10. I salute them.

 

[ColbertNation]

Must be nice to be able to afford to act on your principles.

Must be nice not to work with you. That took guts, and you're trying to **** all over it. Sheesh ...

Good for the people in Mount Airy. When the publisher walks out with them, that's symbolism at its best.

Heartland may be able to replace everyone physically in time - obviously, no one's bigger than a publication - but a place Mount Airy's size, and Surry County as a whole, will figure it out and go with another publication.

Congratulations, Heartland ... you sure showed them. ::)

I never said it didn't take guts. Good for them, and I hope they land on their feet. I was only implying that for a lot of people, that wouldn't have been an option.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

To me, ColbertNation, that goes without saying. As heavily principled as this profession is, as a whole, it's nice to see some people stand behind their beliefs at almost any cost.

It may not be something many of them can necessarily afford. But Mount Airy is the type of place where a lot of those people probably know one another, aren't using the place to build clips and move, and - as corny as it sounds - are in it together.

I worked at one of those type of papers. It wasn't journalism at its finest - far from it - but there were some of the most quality people there one could ever hope to meet.

As much as many on this board blast publishers - most of them justifiably so - it's refreshing as all get out to see a publisher stand with his other brave employees on the outside looking in. Maybe that makes me gullible in the eyes of many, but that single gesture spoke volumes.

 

[SCEditor]

As much as many on this board blast publishers - most of them justifiably so - it's refreshing as all get out to see a publisher stand with his other brave employees on the outside looking in. Maybe that makes me gullible in the eyes of many, but that single gesture spoke volumes.

I couldn't agree more. I'm blessed to have a fantastic publisher now (family-owned paper and as she says, 'I'll be damned if I ever sell the paper), and I've only had one other publisher before who I respected. Too many of them either A.) Came up on the business side and don't have any respect for a quality print product. B.) Forgot where they came from and don't give a damn about a quality print product.

It's nice to see this publisher stand up for his people. One day, many years from now, I'd love to be a publisher. And if a company like Heartland came in and fired a good chunk of my staff, I couldn't walk in the next day and look those people who were left in the eyes. I'm glad to see the publisher in Mount Airy had the courage of his convictions.

Now what I'd really like to see: Those same people who walked start a newspaper in the same town as a competitor and bury Heartland's publication in the ground. Nothing against the folks left in Mount Airy. But when CNHI was buying newspapers like crazy, more than a few smaller paper staffs walked out, rented out buildings nearby and started new publications. I hope Mount Airy becomes a two-paper town.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

As much as many on this board blast publishers - most of them justifiably so - it's refreshing as all get out to see a publisher stand with his other brave employees on the outside looking in. Maybe that makes me gullible in the eyes of many, but that single gesture spoke volumes.

I couldn't agree more. I'm blessed to have a fantastic publisher now (family-owned paper and as she says, 'I'll be damned if I ever sell the paper), and I've only had one other publisher before who I respected. Too many of them either A.) Came up on the business side and don't have any respect for a quality print product. B.) Forgot where they came from and don't give a damn about a quality print product.

It's nice to see this publisher stand up for his people. One day, many years from now, I'd love to be a publisher. And if a company like Heartland came in and fired a good chunk of my staff, I couldn't walk in the next day and look those people who were left in the eyes. I'm glad to see the publisher in Mount Airy had the courage of his convictions.

Now what I'd really like to see: Those same people who walked start a newspaper in the same town as a competitor and bury Heartland's publication in the ground. Nothing against the folks left in Mount Airy. But when CNHI was buying newspapers like crazy, more than a few smaller paper staffs walked out, rented out buildings nearby and started new publications. I hope Mount Airy becomes a two-paper town.

Possibly as a weekly, but I can't imagine Mount Airy having the circulation potential or advertising base to support two dailies. I was actually surprised to find out Mount Airy had the one paper when I moved close to the area a few years ago.

 

[SCEditor]

Sure, it would start as a weekly. But you get enough of the folks from the paper that people in town respect, and they'll quickly boost advertising. Give it away for a year for free, write a column or front-page story about why the paper has started, and I guarantee a community like Mount Airy would rally around the product. Outsiders (Yankees, to boot!) come in and start firing people at a small-town newspaper? Who do you think Joe Reader is going to side with?

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Sure, it would start as a weekly. But you get enough of the folks from the paper that people in town respect, and they'll quickly boost advertising. Give it away for a year for free, write a column or front-page story about why the paper has started, and I guarantee a community like Mount Airy would rally around the product. Outsiders (Yankees, to boot!) come in and start firing people at a small-town newspaper? Who do you think Joe Reader is going to side with?

I guess it depends on what people are going to be interested in, the people or the name. A free weekly could work, but that would require a complete implosion on the part of the existing paper. Now from our perspective, that's happened (or it could very soon). But from the reader's perspective, so long as they still have the horoscopes or the obits or the Billy Graham column or whatever they want out of it, they'll stick with the paper they've gotten for years. Until that changes, their numbers won't take too bad a beating.

The bigger question is advertising. Can they support it? There's been an attempt at a weekly paper in the last 10-15 years, from my research, but it didn't last. I wouldn't be surprised (not knowning from **** about the area) if they consolidated the Mount Airy and Elkin papers.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I remember talking to one of the folks at the Elkin paper a few years back. I would think this is their golden opportunity to capsize Mt. Airy, kinda like I think the News & Observer will probably sink the Herald-Sun in Durham after Paxton botched that takeover.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I remember talking to one of the folks at the Elkin paper a few years back. I would think this is their golden opportunity to capsize Mt. Airy, kinda like I think the News & Observer will probably sink the Herald-Sun in Durham after Paxton botched that takeover.

Aren't Elkin and Mt. Airy owned by the same folks? I don't know the lay of Surry County, other than that it's in the mountains, so maybe it's hard for one daily to cover the whole county, but it sounds like they could do this whenever they wanted, and a sudden reduction in work force at Mt. Airy would be a hell of a catalyst.

 

[TyWebb]

Any word on how Heartland responded? Anyone hear about anything like this anywhere else? In my experience, this is the first I've heard of a walk-out, but I'm not the oldest gent here.