The Adventure Continues...

For more than a year, I have pondered my next career move.

I have called upon friends and relatives and former co-workers and mentors and picked their minds for their wisdom. I thank you all for your input.

Thanks to a spirited campaign which began in earnest last fall, I have talked to many prospective employers, large and small. I literally traveled from shore to shore. I burned up more cell phone minutes than I care to think about. From California to Texas to Pennsylvania to Massachusetts to Iowa to Florida: Calls and emails came in and I entertained a lot of ideas. I was interviewed in person and in the store and in the car and in my living room and even in Las Vegas. One day I did a phone interview from a hotel in Oakland during a lunch break from a day-long series of on-site interviews.

From the beginning, Mary and I decided that we'd prefer either staying in Illinois or heading down to sunny Florida - but we were open to any exciting challenge (especially in a warm climate). First, though, I had to decide what exactly I wanted to do.

I was a top editor of a 15,000 newspaper for four years and a 30,000-plus newspaper for 10 years. In both cases, I was lucky to be hired by great publishers (Neil Hopp and Bob Shaw) and surrounded by a terrific team that exemplified newspaper excellence and set standards that proved difficult to sustain in ensuing years after those teams moved on. I enjoyed that work and I will never forget the sheer joy of setting our own course for our own readers and generating industry acclaim as we took established newspapers and made them truly special. They were both great jobs. But, this is something I've already done.

I was also general manager and then publisher of a 15,000-circulation newspaper for three years. While this was heady work and forced me to utilize my brain in different ways, I am not sure I enjoyed that job as much as the editor gigs, frankly. Certainly, I was turned off by the polarizing effects of some of the politics incumbent on the role and it didn't help that we started off in a hole in terms of market success. But I loved that opportunity (and remain grateful to Tom Shaw) and loved that newspaper and its staff. I saw amazing work happen by sheer will as everyone's attention became focused on the the power of the market. It was a great job and we attained circulation and industry success previously thought elusive. In the end, though, the company chose a different direction.

Leaving me to weigh my choices.

So what to do? In the exploration of my future, I've interviewed as GM, as editor, as editor/publisher, as marketing director. I've met some terrific people and have had some great conversations about the future of the newspaper industry. I am bullish on print, but I am naturally suspicious of organizations that have either mandated outmoded quick fixes or taken to the smoke-and-mirrors game of less-is-more. I am not impressed with the overnight-success "content experts" who have sprung forth out of such well-intentioned concepts as the Readership Institute. I remain convinced - and my book will make testament to this notion - that any newspaper company that mandates its staff must listen intently to its specific market and respond accordingly will be guided toward continued success. There are, however, no shortcuts to that methodology (though, sadly, no shortage of train wrecks as a result of those seeking shortcuts). Listening and responding are time consuming and expensive. But they are as fundamental to a newspaper's life as oxygen is to a human's.

I remain amused at the notion that the newspaper industry is capable of saving itself; that the answers to profit decline and circulation meltdown lie in slavishly following so-called "industry trends." Newspapers will definitely go the way of the giganotosaurus unless executives take a cue from other models and adapt to a increasingly media-savvy audience. Print media can and must create an intuitive environment and mentality. I have said for years that just as the train industry was trumped by alternatives such as trucking because it failed to comprehend it was in the "transportation industry" and not a "railroad industry," newspaper executives have to wake up and realize they are members of the "media industry." Individually, newspapers are vital and thriving, but any notion of a "newspaper industry" is most assuredly dead. My book will serve as its eulogy.

So often, my career choice has been about a leap in faith. I'm taking yet another one. I'm heading back into the front lines.

A couple of months ago, I read about a fledgling newspaper group in central Florida called Hometown News after my Dad sent me a copy of the inaugural effort in Ormond Beach. Various former Scripps employees have put together a chain of free-distribution weekly newspapers that is - get ready to be stunned - growing! Yes, a growing newspaper group. Not just growing, but EXPLODING. The content is locally focused, like a good newspaper ought to be. It feels like "Neighbors" on steroids. They are filling a niche of voracious readers and advertisers long shunned by local-market-bereft daily newspapers. It is as if someone woke up one day and said, "You know what? Every publication in central Florida either caters to some big-metro mentality or tourists! We oughtta do something for the READERS!" And they have quickly grown in a few short years from a handful of newspapers to 19. With more on the way.

I will start there in June editing several newspapers in the Melbourne area. I am excited that I get to work with the likes of Tammy Raits, the news vice president, and Steve Erlanger, the publisher. Both have gone well out of their way to coax me out of my Illinois comfort zone and back into the trenches where I belong. I am proud to be affiliated with such good and talented people. I have talked to a lot of people in the past year and I can honestly say no one impressed me more with their passion for their work than Tammy and Steve.

A young organization will allow me the opportunity to learn from truly successful people who have built a brilliant model and still allow me to bring along some of my own notions (while finishing the book!).

The house goes on the market soon (after the fence/siding projects) and I will head out to Florida around Memorial Day while Mary stays back to deal with the rigors of real estate. I will likely take the hairy beast 'Tude with me while Mary and Louie market the house. 'Tude and I, meanwhile, will be shopping for a new home in the Melbourne area.

Thanks to all who have cared or inquired or both. Your ideas and suggestions and counsel was always appreciated, even if I didn't seem like the best audience. We are ready for that next adventure. As always, you're invited to stay tuned at www.marksweetwood.blogspot.com - and visit beautiful Florida!

More later,

Mark