Chestnut Hill Yokels ...

Phantom of the Local
by John Lombardi

Back in February, rumors began bumping shoulders again: 'They're gonna off Pete at last, even though they haven't been able to vote him out.' 'They're bringing in a new publisher, to assume the business worries of the Local . This guy is a killer, might of been in Iraq, family heavy in the news biz.' ' Then: 'He's an advertising director!, no war chops, that was another guy Rob Remus loved!' 'Maybe he's got a brother in news . . .?' Then: 'He can help revivify the Germantown Ave. business district , because he'll help shunt all the Bad News Boys -- Feldman, Foster, Recko , etc. -- off into the info reservation, isolate them completely like the Cavalry did the Sioux!' 'Yeah, put 'em in the Germantown Newspapers group that Jim Foster started, (taking even Scott Alloway out of the Local mix), restricting 'em to Northwest Notebook, minimizing their visibility . . .' News was on the run, the way Gen. Phil Sheridan and Gen. George Custer got after Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull . . .

Through the spring election, though control squeezed tighter & gloomier, nobody was actually canned. Pete slunk around like the Ghost of Editing Past, bequeathing a News Editor job to Joel ('Self-Referential') Hoffman , the apple of the Temple Journalism Dept's eye, because the Exec Committee objected to some goofy story Len Lear snuck into LocaLife, and Pete hates confrontation . . . so he figured he'd let a Deputy handle things next time . . . A regular Pat Garrett.

Meanwhile, no reportage about the new dude was allowed in the Local, and curiously, none appeared in the Germantown Newspapers or the Northwest Notebook, either. The publisher or associate publisher -- even his title was folded close to Dina Hitchcock's thorny breast -- was a forbidden topic. (Like what really happened between Jimmy Pack and Uncle Remus that chilly day in November?) But finally some facts oozed out between Hitch's bloody claws: The Delaware County Daily Times had been the new guy's home for 2 1/4 years! A little daily down near the Delaware line. As working class as Gloucester, New Jersey. The man -- Larry Hochberger, it turned out -- had been Classified Advertising Director -- not Display Ads, where you occasionally come in contact with other living, breathing beings, like, say, Sonia Leounes does . . . Classified, which is computer-based and as hypo-allergenic as a web-site, was Hochberger's stage, where he reportedly sold ads on an e-mail plan as effective as Pizza Hut's . . . It was bloodless but profitable -- or at least the CHCA Exec Committee who hired him thought so:

'Won't it be swell to get such smarts going on the Hill?'

I did my best to engage Mr. Hochberger. Called him up last week at the Times and got this bitten-off exchange: "Who'd ja say you were with?"

"Northwest Notebook, Mr. Hochberger."

"Well, can't talk now. I'm still working for my old company!"

"Right, but could we arrange a few minutes after work or on the weekend?"

"Try not to work weekends. Try me Monday at the Local."

"Any time that might be best?

"No, no. Can't say. Gotta go!"

"Well, thank y--"

Click!!

Sources from the Local itself have all but dried up on these matters. (Everyone knows who you were anyway, but let that pass). Word was down -- like it had come down from the Exec Committee after Rob Remus's tag team match with Jimmy that NO mention of their "disagreement" should be exposed to reporters, lest they invent crappy spin. But through heavy scrounging, two days before the Official Story comes out in the Local, I was able to learn from people in or formerly in CHCA, who would know, and from Hochberger's old employers -- who would only speak on deep background -- that "Hochy," as the troops called him, is average-height, rumpled like a news-guy, in his 50s and as determined as a staple gun: He wanted, for example, $75,000. CHCA offered $54,000, and came up steadily to $74,000 through the dead of the winter. They'd already formed plans last fall through a "fact-finding" trio -- Dina, Mark Keintz, Rob Remus -- to do some salary-cutting, and started with the grotesque ousting of Jimmy Pack (which he played right into, and made easy for them.) That saved a fast $32,000 a year. Next the spotlight is on bookkeeping operations, where, it is rumored , the ill Lois Thompson, Claudia Bordo and/ or Joan Forjohn may be up for the knife (two out of three, it's said in salary ranges from the high 20s to the low 30s). Those would technically cover Hochy's new bite, but in an economy like this, other possible cuts include Pete's $54,000, and Community Manager Philip LeCalsey's salary, said to be $53,000.

According to one Byzantine theory, which seems of a piece with the great recurring Richard Snowden Legend, the real-estate-and-coal-mine-meany, backer of the current ruling clique in CHCA/CHBA, plans to pressure Hochy to gradually assume the editorial direction of the Local as well as its business-side publishing work. Pete's salary would then be downsized by half, and he would be reduced to a kind of Managing Editor at, say, $27,000 to $30,000 a year. Since even someone with his demonstrated pliability ( he didn't insist on being in on the "fact-finding" trio's formative plans; permitted them to halve the ad director's commissions without a squeak; let them push his old pal Pack out the door; allowed Ron Recko's Oversight Committee to go down without a fight; gradually forbade reformer Jim Foster and radical critic Ed Feldman space in the Local's pages (while denying it ), & himself mercilessly rationalized the Local 's dumbing-down ) -- couldn't be expected to put up with such mendacity forever. The current forecast is that Pete will be gone sometime in dusty August, while his social and financial betters are cooling off in Bar Harbor, or over on Lake Geneva.

*
I tried Hochy again on Monday the 15th, his first day of work at the Local. Same electric pencil-sharpener replies:

" I've indicated to you that I don't want to answer your questions," he said. "This is for some kind of story, right?"

"Well it's for my column, but you told me to call you back today, when we spoke Friday."

"Don't remember that. Very busy . . ."

"You were Classified Ad Director of the Delaware County Daily Times, weren't you? "

"Yes, but . . ."

"How does that prepare you for a position as publisher of an old weekly that's clearly dying?"

Hochberger laughed dismissively: "Not dying! Good brand name!"

"How are you going to beef up your 6300 circulation? After 50 years? Think positive business stories are all people want to read?"

"I'm busy. I need to get back to work."

"A few minutes for a couple of questions?"

"Sorry."

Click!
*
What we know about Mr. Hochberger is that he's rude, unimaginative, has a family that he thinks the world of, and tends to see life as a business problem. Therefore if Pete and Sonia "perform" up to the standards he's promised Tolis Vardakis, Hitchcock, Keintz , and presumably Walter Sullivan he will enforce, those two have a chance of surviving. The true weirdos left in the office, who are few indeed at this point, are in for a rougher row to hoe.

Newspapers, when they were great, were outposts for free spirits who traded financial security for the chance of getting off some true insights a few dozen times a year, that made their lives, and those of their readers, worth living. The idea of speaking truth to power once in a while, even if they couldn't make it stick, is what Charles A. Dana, Stephen Crane, Upton Sinclair, Frank Harris, James Agee, Ernie Pyle and so many lesser-knowns, did for this country.

The Chestnut Hill Local was a good newspaper at several points in its medium-length life. It hasn't been for several years now, & I'm sorry to see it end like this.

Goodbye and Hello. An Update.

Good night, Times Express. So long, Courier.

Hello, Mt. Airy Examiner and Germantown Chronicle.

Jim Foster, speaking on behalf of a group dedicated to bringing print media back to the two communities in Northwest Philadelphia, confirmed that there will be two new papers in Philadelphia in the very near future. Foster said he has advertising staff, an editor and other pieces of the project in place. He emphasized the importance of a strong web component and promised it would be a vital part of the papers' presence.

Details on the new papers and the goals will be released soon.

Update 1 - 02.07.09: A group discussing a new Chestnut Hill paper held a meeting Friday. Details are being closely held but we were told by one participant that the Winters venture for a three-community newspaper is on hold. The CH consortium is moving cautiously, the source said.

Update 2 - 02.10.09: This week's Chestnut Hill Local (March 12, 2009) has the story on page 3 (author retained FNASR). An abbreviated and edited version follows this paragraph. Also, Ed Feldman makes reference in a letter to a CHCA board meeting video posted on this site. That link is posted below.

Mt. Airy business owner and community activist James Foster announced plans last weekend to publish two new newspapers, the Germantown Chronicle and the Mt. Airy Examiner, with a web edition to go online by the week of March 17 and "papers on the street by the first of April." They will operate under the corporate name of Germantown Newspapers Inc., with a web site at germantownnewspapers.com. Foster is a Chestnut Hill Community Association board member, a frequent contributor to the Local as well as the Courier and Times Express, and a classic car restoration specialist.

“As a lifetime community resident and a longtime contributor to the Mt. Airy Times Express and Germantown Courier, I was disheartened to find that attempts to sell the papers to other local interested parties did not materialize," Foster said. "Feedback from both communities (Mt. Airy and Germantown) was consistent and intense in that the loss of their traditional print newspapers represented a significant lifestyle change" for area residents.

"Local advertisers have made it clear that the loss of this medium would seriously impact their ability to communicate with the markets they most depended upon," Foster said in support of his decision. "With those people in mind, we intend to publish the Germantown Chronicle and the Mt. Airy Examiner and distribute it without charge to the same general areas previously served by the Courier and Times Express and beyond."

Foster said the company's offices would be "prominently located in the Germantown/Mt. Airy area" and has recruited experienced newspaper staff familiar with this area. Karl Biemuller, formerly of the Courier and Times Express, will be the editor of the two papers, Foster announced. Staff will include many editorial and sales personnel that formerly staffed the now-defunct Journal Register newspapers. “Continuity is a primary concern of the employees and staff of the Chronicle and Examiner."

“Contrary to some accepted predictions, local newspapers are not necessarily anachronisms, and these communities are living proof," Foster said. "With that in mind, I decided to structure (the publications) on sound financial footing with community needs in mind, essentially resurrecting similar publications with the intent to improve on what came before in the weeks and months ahead."

Foster declined to identify other investors in the project. He said additional information about the Chronicle and Examiner will be available online in the near future.

Scott Alloway

Spin 101 with Brian Tierney

The continuing story of the Inquirer/Daily News bankruptcy: Brian Teirney writes to the employees.

To: All PN Employees

Today we took an important strategic step toward restructuring our debt obligations. To do so we have voluntarily filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The most important fact that you need to know about how the Chapter 11 filing affects you is that business will continue as usual. PNL will continue to operate under its current name and logo, and all operations as you know them will remain the same. We have asked the court to permit all salary and benefits, including pensions and 401(k) plans, to continue as usual. The filing has in no way changed your employment terms.

It is important that each of you is not distracted by our Chapter 11 filing. In fact the process exists to assist companies in resolving debt issues. For more than a century, since the U.S. Congress first established the Bankruptcy Code, it has been helping companies, including many of America's largest, to reorganize and thrive. The impetus for filing for reorganization is not due to problems with PNL's operations, but a need to repair our debt structure. The loss of revenue that has occurred as a result of the current recession is squeezing our operating profit which is now insufficient to service our debt load.

As a company, we have been hit with a perfect storm, including a dramatic decline in total revenue, the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression and a debt structure which is out of line with current economic reality. Despite these difficult circumstances, we have been working towards an operational structure that can flourish once we get the debt restructured.

Now more than ever, we need to continue the hard work that has already begun. I am grateful for, and proud of, your dedication and loyalty to our company and to our readers. In the last two and a half years, we have accomplished a tremendous amount. Our journalism is better than ever under the guidance of Bill Marimow and Michael Days. Our union relationships have moved from contentious to a relationship built on respect and trust. Our online web traffic at philly.com has swelled by 300%. Our new, nationally recognized programs, like MediaLab and ResearchLab, are connecting our marketing muscle - and the industry's most innovative approach - directly with advertisers' businesses. We've introduced new products like "I" Magazine and improved My Community Trend. We've been ranked as among the most efficient newspaper operators in the country. And, despite an overall decline in ad revenue, we have climbed from the bottom to the top of the pack in advertising revenue among the Top 25 markets.

It is important that you provide reassurance to the advertisers, readers and business contacts with whom you interact that PNL continues to do business as usual, remains a viable company and is only using Chapter 11 reorganization to restructure its debt. Your commitment is crucial to our ability to move forward seamlessly.

You should contact the Human Resources Department if you have any questions. We encourage you to give us the feedback that you are getting from your advertisers and readers and other business contacts so that we can assist you in providing this reassurance. To assist in such communications, as well as to answer any questions that you may have, we will distribute a "Frequently Asked Questions" memorandum for all employees shortly. In addition, we will provide regular updates on the timing and status of the Chapter 11 reorganization.

Thank you in advance for your continued hard work and dedication to our readers and advertisers.

Way to Go, Tierney

Well, ladies and gents, Philadelphia Media Holdings is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Inquirer and the Daily News will continue to be published, but who knows how long or in what form.

Below you will find the DN and Inky Guild president's letter to guild members in its entirety.

Dear Guild Member,

As you all should be aware, Philadelphia Media Holdings, (“PMH”), the owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News, has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

As hard as it may sound, please stay calm. The company is still in business, the papers are still publishing and you should still report for work.

Here is what this means to our members and how the filing affects our contract:

The Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process is intended to permit a company to continue in operation by restructuring its contractual and financial obligations. Because Guild members provide essential services, your wages and benefits under our collective bargaining agreement for services rendered, after the petition was filed, will continue to be honored.

Before PMH can take any action to modify any of its obligations under our contract, it must negotiate in good faith with the Guild and prove that the contract changes it seeks are necessary to permit the reorganization and prevent the liquidation of the enterprise.

The Guild Executive Board has already taken steps to assure that we obtain all of the bankruptcy filings. We will monitor the proceedings and take appropriate action to enforce our collective bargaining agreement and protect your rights.

Even though a bankruptcy petition has been filed:

* Our contract remains in full force;
* Your wages and benefits will continue to be paid;
* We retain the right to grieve and arbitrate contract disputes; and
* No unilateral changes to our contract can be implemented without prior negotiations.

If the Employer requests that we meet to negotiate contract modifications, we will, of course, immediately notify you of any such negotiations. As in all collective bargaining situations, we will bring any tentative agreements involving modifications/changes to our contract to the members for ratification. In addition, we will keep you advised of all developments during the bankruptcy, especially any events that involve the Guild contact, your rights, and the Employer’s obligations pursuant to it.

The Guild’s Executive Committee will convene in an emergency board meeting at 10 a.m. Monday and will issue further news as we have it. In the meantime, members may contact the Guild office at 215-928-0118 or Administrative Officer Bill Ross at 267-240-8540 or e-mail bross@local-10.com.

In solidarity,
Dan Gross
President
TNG/CWA 38010