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THREAD: A full-blown newspaper war is happening right now in South Carolina involving its 3 largest papers and their owners. Newspaper wars are as old as papers themselves, but over the last few decades they’ve *mostly* gone the way of the darkroom ...
This newspaper war is fascinating because its fueled by expansion at a time when most papers are shrinking and laying off great journalists as they hemorrhage ad revenue.
Its significant because one or more of these historic institutions might not survive it.
Its significant because one or more of these historic institutions might not survive it.
The Post and Courier in Charleston can trace its roots back to 1803; The Greenville News to 1874; The State in Columbia to 1891. Together that’s nearly 500 years of covering the state. But that’s ancient history. Most of what we’re seeing now started developing 20 years ago.
The irony is in the heat of battle we can’t rely on the newspapers themselves to tell this war story from a detached perspective, so I’m attempting to use my useless knowledge from 18 years as an SC journalist to provide at least an aerial view. More to come ...
When I arrived at The Greenville News in 1999, all three newspapers were in a relatively comfortable place. Each had carved out its own fiefdom geographically, and all had around 100,000 subscribers on Sundays. They were still printing money.
The World Wide Web was enjoying its dot-com heyday by then but (to the newspapers) wasn’t viewed as much of a threat. It was more of an opportunity. To the News' credit, I published my first web story there as early as 02 or 03.
The main competition between the 3 was 1) at the Statehouse (where The News and P&C both had ‘bureaus’ of one or two reporters) and 2) the annual journalism awards banquets, where reporters and editors from all over get drunk together and celebrate a hard-fought year. Good times.
At the News I was part of an influx of GenX reporters on our second jobs joining a group of seasoned veterans. Some of my cohorts had come from smaller SC papers that commonly served as feeder markets for the Big 3.
The Greenville News was owned by Gannett. The owner of USA Today was well on its way to becoming the largest newspaper chain in the country. It’s also a publicly traded company with often misguided one-size-fits-all policies.
It’s infamous for cutting staff to ensure shareholders make a profit. It’s also known for giving big bonuses to the exec who wielded the axe. So when the Dot-Com bubble burst I watched several of my coworkers leave without being replaced. The News started to shrink.
In 2004 I fled to The Post and Courier. When I arrived I met several former News employers who came to Charleston in the 90s for the beaches and, more importantly, independent ownership.
The P&C is privately owned by the Manigualt family. They're not at the mercy of public shareholders demanding larger profits. They also have other businesses which could help support the paper during lean times. The difference was night and day. I was home.
In early 2006, The State and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach were owned by Knight Ridder, the country’s second-largest newspaper chain. It owned some of the country’s top papers and its profit margin was 16.4 percent. But guess what …
Knight Ridder’s shareholders wanted more and pushed for a sale. In May of 2016, Knight Ridder sold itself to McClatchy for $4.5 billion. McClatchy was also a respected company but it was half the size of KR, and borrowed $2B to close the deal. That would soon haunt them ...
We all know what happened next: The Housing Bubble Burst. Already beset by falling ad revenue thanks to the Internet, the over-leveraged, McClatchy started cutting … and cutting. Thousands of journalists lost jobs. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/business/media/17paper.html
Both The State and The Sun News saw their newsrooms gutted. In newsrooms all across the country, it was up to the remaining journalists to do more with less. Despite the obstacles, The State broke the Sanford ‘Appalachian Trail’ story in 2009.
The next 10 years were devastating to newspapers: Advertising revenue fell from $37.8B in 2008 to $14.3B in 2018. Newsroom employment dropped from 71,000 workers to 38,000. (Pew Research Center).
The Post and Courier, thanks to independent ownership, fared better than most newspapers. It had a couple of layoffs and several buyouts of older employees, but was starting toward a more aggressive web approach. In 2012, it hired Sun News Publisher P.J. Browning as its publisher
Browning, who had to oversee the McClatchy cuts in Myrtle Beach, was now in charge of the largest paper in the state (the P&C eventually passed The State in circulation) and it wouldn't take long for P&C to focus on the rest of state. More to come ... going to dinner.
So to recap, in the early 2010s McClatchy, the owner of The State, and Gannett, the owner of The Greenville News, were bleeding badly. Gannett sold The News' building, which was eventually demolished, and McClatchy's stock was lucky to reach $2.
Both papers still had/have great reporters who do and did great work but they were outmatched by the P&C who simply had more: More time, more resources, more employees, and more content.
Without question, the smartest thing the P&C did was double-down on its projects/investigative team, growing it from 2 to 5. No other newspaper in the state could afford to do that. The investment would pay off in a big way.
Those journalism banquets, a time for celebration, became more depressing each year. The News went from filling 2-3 tables of winners to sending 2-3 people. The Sun-News, the rowdiest of all (one year they got in trouble for shooting silly string everywhere) grew quieter.
The Post and Courier could smell the blood in the water. Around 2013 the paper attempted to bolster its Statehouse coverage with more reporters in Columbia, but it struggled to get a foothold. For some reason the young, talented reporters they hired didn't stay long.
Meanwhile, its investment in its projects team paid off. The P&C won a Pulitzer Prize in 2015 for its series, Till Death Do Us Part. The reporting was incredible and the web design by @jaspar was breath-taking. http://www.postandcourier.com/app/till-death/partone.html
And remember I told you about some of those former Greenville News reporters who arrived in Charleston before me in the 90s? Some are still there - on the projects team winning these awards, including @JenBerryHawes and @tbartelme
Also shout out to @glennsmith5. He doesn't fit in my narrative - he's from Connecticut - but he's the editor of the team and also an amazing journalist.
Anyway, on the same day The Post and Courier was champaigning and campaigning over its Pulitzer Prize, the staff at The State were told about a new buyout package. You could buy McClatchy's stock for about a buck.
Over the next year, P&C was still struggling to gain a foothold in Columbia. One of its Statehouse reporters even defected to The State - something *I* had not previously seen - but P&C wasn't done. Nope ...
In 2016, The Post and Courier bought the Free Times, the alt-weekly in Columbia, located just a few blocks from the Statehouse. It also hired one of The State's editors to lead it. The Post and Courier was now in Columbia.
Oops, meant to link to this story from former Free Times reporter @CoreyHutchins: https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/post_and_courier_free_times_south_carolina.php
The P&C's entry into Columbia makes a lot of sense. The Statehouse impacts Charleston and there's seemingly corruption around every corner. Plus, to no fault of The State's reporters, you could make an argument the area was under-served as McClatchy floundered.
But rumors quickly emerged that the P&C was also eyeing Myrtle Beach, Browning's old stomping grounds, and Greenville, located 3 hours away. I'll tell you right now, most people in Charleston don't give a damn about daily news in Dirty Myrtle or Yeah, that Greenville ...
But with both Gannett and McClatchy in trouble you could again make the argument the communities were under-served. And, perhaps, you could convince people there that you have a superior product than the ones that have been upping prices and shrinking news holes for years ...
In 2019 The Post and Courier made an announcement that was surprising as it was pleasing to anyone familiar with the current state of journalism: The P&C was going to *add* 14 journalists to its newsroom in the next 6 months. @Poynter ate it up: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/in-charleston-local-ownership-means-fewer-layoffs/
My question, which I never got an answer to, was is that 14 a net gain? You see, the paper has had a number of older employees quietly leave, either because of buyout or retirement. Was the paper dividing those higher salaries into smaller salaries for younger, cheaper talent?
Aside from the projects team and some other leadership positions, the paper was trending younger. And 1 advantage of being one of the few well-regarded papers in the country hiring, is you can pay less. Here's a comment from former P&C writer @Paul_Bowers: https://twitter.com/Paul_Bowers/status/1292290879739363328?s=20
And yet, the P&C wasn't done hiring veteran talent. Earlier this year they hired away The State's senior Statehouse reporter, just like they did four years prior. It was also a sign of things to come as the paper moved toward Myrtle Beach and Greenville.
But before we get into that, let's look at Gannett and McClatchy. In 2019, Gannett merged with rival Gatehouse to create a super-company of mediocrity. Plus, because the two companies had overlap, cuts were a certainty. The News laid off 3 employees https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelposner/2019/08/08/why-the-gannett-gatehouse-merger-will-speed-the-demise-of-local-news/#231d40cf67f0
And then this year, to no one's surprise, McClatchy finally filed for bankruptcy. And to be fair, no one in any newsroom wants to see another newspaper disappear, as evidenced in this story by @JordanLawrence. (We journalists *want* competition). https://www.postandcourier.com/free-times/opinion/from-the-editor-columbia-needs-the-state-free-times-does-too/article_60419944-4e87-11ea-851f-73431dd92444.html
So with both Gannett and McClatchy reeling, that brings us to events from the last few weeks, which inspired this whole thread. Many know some parts of it, but I'm going to attempt to tie it all together now.
The Post and Courier finally announced it's opening newsrooms in Myrtle Beach and Greenville to launch local digital sites. But *who* it hired was especially shrewd, especially in Greenville ... https://twitter.com/postandcourier/status/1291020456850587648?s=20
The P&C hired away @cericconnor and @AnnaBard2U, two ultra-talented reporters who have worked at The News since I was there. All the best to them, I know it wasn't an easy decision. Also no denying it's a big blow to The News who, just laid off 3 people from a dwindling staff.
The P&C also nabbed two reporters from The Sun-News for its Myrtle Beach newsroom. So now both papers are competing against teams including their former reporters. Like I said, shrewd. Advantage Post and Courier. But wait, there's a twist ...
But before I get to that twist ... the esteemed @JoeLHughesII just corrected me ... says P&C actually hired 3 former Sun-News employees. I'm admittedly less familiar about the Sun-News side of things. My apologies.
Remember McClatchy, who just a month ago declared bankruptcy? The same McClatchy, who was just sold for $312 million to a hedge fund? (By the way, other than 'you're fired', I can't off-think of any two words scarier to a journalist than "hedge fund.") https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/business/media/mcclatchy-newspapers-bankrutpcy-chatham.html
Well, that McClatchy followed through on its promise in May to add 12 reporters to The State and The Sun-News. I don't pretend to know how that all works with the sale and bankruptcy, but it's big news. Here's editor @tolleybri announcing the hires https://twitter.com/tolleybri/status/1291828830756376578?s=20
I don't know a lot of those hires but I do know two:
1. @MaryCaitlinByrd, hired from .... The Post and Courier. She will remain in Charleston as part of their "new statewide team." Seems The State also has eyes on the state. Which brings me to No. 2 ...
1. @MaryCaitlinByrd, hired from .... The Post and Courier. She will remain in Charleston as part of their "new statewide team." Seems The State also has eyes on the state. Which brings me to No. 2 ...
2. @LynRiddle1. Lyn was my city editor at The Greenville News. She is sensational. She later went across the street to the Greenville Business Journal and built up a great staff before leaving to Cali for a while. Guess where she'll be covering ... Greenville.
So now, not only is The Greenville News competing against two of its former reporters at the P&C, it's also up against one of its former editors at The State. Needless to say, it will be interesting to watch.
And now The State, once seemingly on the brink of collapse, is also stationing one of The Post and Courier's former reporters in Charleston. I don't know if the State has had a Charleston reporter before. I'm sure someone can answer that ...
Which brings us back to Charleston, where all may not be as it seems. On the very same day it announced the moves to Greenville and Myrtle Beach, two sizable investments, they laid off at least two employees ... including Pulitzer Prize winner @jaspar.
The P&C's been mum on that but its fueled all sorts of speculation. One plausible scenario is COVID-19, which is wrecking ad budgets everywhere, forced the paper to cut because it was in too deep with the 'expansion.' Anyway, how you can donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-laidoff-pampc-journalists
Speaking of donations, the P&C also announced this week it's creating a Public Service and Investigative Fund ... https://twitter.com/postandcourier/status/1291373466772557824?s=20
I've been asked if it's a sign the paper is in desperate need of money, but I would say it's part of a larger trend to identify new revenue, because the old model (advertising and Wall Street) is broken. Sites like @propublica have proven people will pay for in-depth journalism.
Until a better model exists, I also encourage you to subscribe to your local newspaper, be it the P&C, The State or The Greenville News. I may have left print, but newspapers are still dear to me and crucial to our democracy.
So that's the thread. Thanks to everyone who plodded through it and commented. I nearly gave up because it was so long and honestly I didn't think many people would read it, but I'm glad to see the interest in local journalism. Shout out to all SC journalists. Keep it up.
Just counted: A 57-tweet thread. I feel like @ezraklein.
Good morning, one correction/clarification: The P&C actually hired *3* from The Greenville News and a fourth from the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, also a Gannett paper. Sorry for the omission.
A little more reporting ... One veteran SC reporter I talked to calls it a ‘straight kneecap job’ to Gannett. ‘It was designed to cripple, but if I’m any of the Gannettoids, I hop on that lifeboat.’
But not everyone has a dim view ... from Gannett Upstate journalist @HJDustin_Wyatt
https://twitter.com/hjdustin_wyatt/status/1292441661252001794?s=21 https://twitter.com/hjdustin_wyatt/status/1292441661252001794
https://twitter.com/hjdustin_wyatt/status/1292441661252001794?s=21 https://twitter.com/hjdustin_wyatt/status/1292441661252001794
Also a correction to replace a correction I deleted: The Post and Courier actually hired four former News reporters in Greenville. I apologize for the confusion.
