Publisher Is Thinking Big In Smaller Way -- Recent Purchase Involves 14 Local Papers, Shoppers

To some, it might appear Thomas Haley's career is going backward.

But the man who heads a group that last week announced it had bought 14 community newspapers and shoppers in King County doesn't see it that way.

Haley is president and chief executive officer of Pacific Media Group Inc., a new company formed to buy Murray Publishing Co. and Flaherty Newspapers and thus take over the biggest share of community-newspaper circulation in the Seattle area.

He would not disclose the purchase price but said he is one of six investors involved in forming Pacific Media Group.

Like any business person, his plans include turning a profit. But that doesn't mean radical changes for the publications.

``I don't think these are companies and publications that are in need of fix. . . . These are not turnaround circumstances,'' he said in an interview.

``The emphasis might be different. I want to be really reader-oriented. I want to be the best source of community information, bar none.''

Murray Publishing, sold by John Murray, publishes the Queen Anne News, Magnolia News, Masonic Tribune, The Issaquah Press, The Issaquah Valley Shopper and Argus Weekend. Flaherty Newspapers has published the Beacon Hill News since 1924, and also puts out the Capitol Hill Times, University Herald, The North Central Outlook, The Mercer Islander, Madison Park Times, South District Journal and Seattle's Police Beat.

Haley most recently was president of Founders Communications Inc., a group of three daily newspapers and 15 weeklies in Houston, until it was sold. Then he decided it was time to strike out on his own.

He said he looked at an opportunity in the San Diego area first but decided against it. He learned from an investment banker there might be a chance to acquire two community-newspaper companies in Seattle. He began exploring that possibility in January, and the sale was completed Aug. 3.

In fact, Haley said, he would not have come to Seattle if he could not have purchased both companies.

``We want to continue to grow through managed growth . . . and we also want to grow by acquisition over time. We don't want to be too aggressive, to have too much on our platter.''

It appears he has plenty to start with. Pacific Media Group's holdings make it the largest community-newspaper operation in the Puget Sound region, with circulation of about 126,000. Adding the shoppers boosts the total to more than 800,000.

It's a different situation from the one in which Haley began his newspaper career 16 years ago. He worked in management for the Detroit Free Press, one of the largest-circulation daily newspapers in the United States with more than 625,000 daily readers.

The St. Louis native has a background in industrial relations, and at the Free Press he negotiated contracts with 14 different labor unions.

His management skills took him to the smaller Dallas Times-Herald, where he branched into areas such as finance and data processing. Then he went to the the troubled Orange Coast Publishing Co., south of Los Angeles, with orders to make it profitable or sell it. ``I did make it profitable, and I did sell it.''

Haley's next stop was The Denver Post to deal with other types of management problems. He didn't elaborate on those difficulties but said he began to think that, in his case, perhaps smaller was better.

``I just decided I didn't like (being involved in) corporate America,'' he said. ``If you don't like what you're doing, you change it.''

So he went to a small daily, the Concord (N.H.) Monitor. Its circulation of 21,000 seems small by comparison with large metropolitan dailies, but in sparsely populated New Hampshire it was one of the two major newspaper voices.

Then came Houston and Founders Communications.

``I've liked all the jobs I've had in newspapering, but the most enjoyable was my Houston experience. . . . We really did make a difference in the communities we were serving.''

And, he says, that's what he has in mind for the Seattle area.

There were several factors that led him to buy the two Seattle companies. For one thing, the investment involved ``a nice mix of papers in established communities and in growth areas,'' he said.

Then there is the area's economic vitality, the importance of Pacific Rim trade and the presence of major corporations and employers such as The Boeing Co., Microsoft and Nintendo.

``That was attractive, all of it. And it's also a tourist area. . . . That makes it a more diversified economy. . . . You have to remember I'm coming out of Houston, which is recovering now but went through some very tough years'' because of the slump in oil-related businesses, he said.

But perhaps one factor was more important than any other.

``Seattle brings, in particular, the facet of neighborhood orientation that most major cities don't have any more,'' he said.

Then he rattled off names such as Ballard, Capitol Hill and Wallingford and noted that many people, when asked where they are from, give those names rather than the generic ``Seattle.''

Those delineations fit right into his plans. Haley said he intends for each of Pacific Media Group's publications to continue covering news that's unique to each neighborhood and give advertisers a specific vehicle to reach neighborhood audiences.

``That's our job, and that's a niche we can fill well,'' he said.

Murray Publishing and Flaherty Newspapers will continue as separate entities, but some functions will be consolidated to be more cost-effective. Haley doesn't envision any layoffs, though he acknowledges the staff of about 135 could be reduced over time through attrition.

Four people from the Murray company, one from Flaherty, and Haley and two of his Founders Communications colleagues will form a sort of management group, which will try to reach decisions by consensus.

Task forces will be formed to address specific areas, Haley said. He will defer to others on matters of style, he added, but in what he calls matters of impact - such as professionalism or operating efficiency - disagreements will be settled by his decision.

Haley wants continuity in the publications, but ``to say they will be the same over time will not be accurate,'' he said. ``I don't like change for the sake of change or change that disorients people.''

Specifically, he plans for each paper to have shorter, more concise articles, and more of them. The papers won't necessarily look the same, he said, because they will remain autonomous editorially - including opinions. He laughed when he recalled his Houston experience.

``We headed up a group of 18 papers that endorsed all kinds of different people in elections. Some people thought we were crazy. . . . I think the key here is the caliber of the person in the publisher's chair.''

And though he certainly will be seeking more advertising, that quest won't interfere with the news and editorial functions, he vowed. ``I cut my eye teeth at the Detroit Free Press, where there was a clear separation of church and state. . . . We intend to offend no one, but we intend to present the news of the community.''

He sees the community newspapers, by providing very specific neighborhood news, as filling a void that cannot be filled by major metropolitan newspapers or even most broadcasters.

``The metro newspapers and metro broadcasts are not geared to provide community information in an area with a strong community identity,'' he said.

``I think while things have been done well here, we're going to do it better. And there's not an ounce of criticism in what I say. It's just what's next, the next challenge.''