Steven Allen Adams
Nov 6 · 6 min read

UPDATE (11–06–19): A lot has happened since last I wrote this piece. First of all, Ogden Newspapers did not buy the Charleston Gazette-Mail. They were outbid by a group of investors led by Huntington businessman and former lawmaker Doug Reynolds. The Gazette-Mail was folded into H-D Media, which owns the Huntington Herald Dispatch and many other southern West Virginia newspapers.

Instead of buying the Gazette-Mail, Ogden Newspapers ended up hiring me to be their first state government reporter. I cover the legislature, governor, other statewide elected officials, and the state Supreme Court. I also cover politics, elections, as well as conduct investigative journalism and write data journalism pieces. I do this all from Charleston for five daily newspapers located in the northern half of the state.

As of this update, H-D Media has had to make numerous cost-savings changes over the last year, including a handful of layoffs. Several if its reporters are funded, in part, by journalism grants versus being directly paid by the newspaper. Reporters are just as likely to tweet a request to subscribe than a news story, and the newspapers do frequent events where they pull down their paywall for a couple of days to entice potential subscribers.

Ultimately though, my theorem remains intact — Instead of having two healthy newspapers, Charleston has one newspaper that is struggling. All this because 15–20 years ago the Charleston Gazette tried to shutter its rival.

As the wise men say, hindsight is 20/20. If one looks back at the nearly 15-year saga involving Charleston’s two newspapers, it’s easy to see where things went wrong.

Put simply: if the Charleston Gazette had not stopped the sale of the Charleston Daily Mail back in 2004, it’s likely both newspapers would still be here today.

Some might scoff at that theorem. Some might lay the woes of the current Charleston Gazette-Mail at the feet of the crumbling national newspaper market. It’s an easy boogeyman and scapegoat, as newspapers all over this country are struggling in this age of digital. With many two-paper cities becoming one, and sometimes none, Charleston was an outlier with its two papers.

The Pew Research Center published a report in 2017 showing that despite a spike in digital subscriptions, newspapers nationwide still saw drops in circulation and revenue. “The overall decline includes a 10% decrease in weekday print circulation (9% for Sundays) and a 1% decline in weekday digital circulation (1% rise for Sundays). Total weekday circulation for U.S. daily newspapers fell to 35 million, while total Sunday circulation declined to 38 million — the lowest levels since 1945.”

Yet, West Virginia has been, and will continue to be, insulated from many of the larger trends facing print journalism. Our state has an older population who still prefer a newspaper in hand. Combine that with our state’s broadband woes and you’ll see a state that still relies on a morning paper on their doorstep.

It’s not to say some of these issues aren’t effecting Charleston Newspapers and the storied Chilton family, but the issues that brought Pulitzer-winning paper to its knees this week are easy to see when you take a step back. In an effort to destroy a competing newspaper, the Charleston Gazette put the gears in motion for its own demise.

For decades, both newspapers were in a joint operating agreement. They shared printing, distribution, and advertising and subscription sales. This agreement lasted until 2004, when MediaNews (owners of the Daily Mail) decided to sell. The buyer (then believed to be Ogden Newspapers), offered $55 million, but the Charleston Gazette had first right of refusal and used it to gain control of both newspapers.

From the start, the Gazette used the opportunity not to offer two newspapers with different slants in stories and editorials to the state, but to sabotage the Daily Mail to invent an excuse to shut down that newspaper. This garnered the attention of the Justice Department, who stepped in under antitrust laws and placed restrictions on what Gazette could do in regards to the Daily Mail. A 2010 settlement basically reinstated the joint operating agreement with a five year time table.

Five years later, the Gazette wasted no time absorbing the Daily Mail. They had little choice, seeing as they were drowning in debt. According to a Gazette article today, the Gazette owes more than $15 million to United Bank for a 2006 loan and $12 million to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for unfunded pension liabilities.

They absorbed the Daily Mail under the guise of making two newspapers one great newspaper. “This is not one paper gobbling up the other. It is a combination of the two newsroom staffs working in cooperation to produce the most comprehensive news product in West Virginia. We are committed to producing the best example of journalism delivered to your home, in the paper boxes, on your mobile devices and on your computer every morning.”

Now, go to the Gazette-Mail’s website and count how many Daily Mail staffers are still there. Five years to the day of the DOJ final judgement, the Gazette accomplished what it set out to do in 2004. They kept part of the name and an editorial page, but otherwise there is nothing left of the Daily Mail. Not even the url, which was sold to the British Daily Mail.

The Gazette kept the conservative editorial page of the Daily Mail as a token, but failed to grasp what made the Charleston Daily Mail work. Being family-owned and managed, the Gazette had the benefit of tilting left, not only on their editorial page, but also in the stories they chose to pursue. The Gazette, which billed itself as the state’s newspaper, really only catered to certain constituencies in Charleston and the state and was often hostile towards those in the “hinterlands.”

If the Gazette was the paper of the state intelligentsia, the Charleston Daily Mail was the community paper. It had hard reporting, but it also reflected the values of everyday West Virginians. It didn’t seek to be an advocate or an activist. It put more faith in its readers that if you simply gave them the information, that they would make the right decisions.

The Gazette thought it was in the clear when it erased the Daily Mail from existence, but they forgot about provisions in the DOJ final judgement and they forgot to tell MediaNews, who still owned the intellectual property of the Daily Mail. After an arbitration and an appeal, the Gazette owners have to pay $3.8 million to MediaNews. That was the final nail.

Now 14 years later, it looks like the Ogden newspaper chain will still buy a Charleston newspaper and pay $44 million less than they would have in 2004. Ogden is also a family-owned business, but instead of constantly taking, they have invested in West Virginia. They own several daily and weekly papers around the state (I interned at the Parkersburg News and Sentinel and worked for a time at the Tyler Star News). Much like the Daily Mail, Ogden papers focus on their communities.

If Ogden’s bid for the Charleston Gazette-Mail holds, this will not be a funeral but a celebration. In this day and age, we could have very well seen Charleston without any newspaper. We’re also seeing the Charleston Town Center teeter on the edge of closing (again, not due to market forces but simple bad management decisions). While parts of this state are slowly turning around, Charleston has faced some serious challenged the last few years.

This investment by Ogden will maintain the rich legacy of the Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail. It’s a sign that despite Charleston’s economic woes, that someone still sees hope in us. It’s a sign that someone still sees the need for journalism focused on the people.

Steven Allen Adams

Written by

State Government Reporter for newspaper chain. Award-winning journalist in West Virginia. Former government communications guy. Lover of ska and punk rock.

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