Q & A;/31″/LK1st/mark2nd
By SARA FISHER
Staff Reporter
When Thomas Wafer Jr. stepped into the role of publisher for Copley Press Inc.’s L.A. papers in the midst of a severe recession in 1993, one of his first jobs was to conduct a round of voluntary layoffs to reduce the papers’ expenses.
Five years later, Wafer once again is overseeing layoffs, but on a more severe scale. In mid-March, Copley Press executives decided to shut down the company’s Santa Monica Outlook and San Pedro News-Pilot dailies and to cut about 100 positions at the Torrance-based Daily Breeze in order to make the group economically viable.
The changes at Copley are just the latest in the reconfigured local newspaper market. Over the last year, Denver media mogul Dean Singleton acquired the Daily News of Los Angeles and the Long Beach Press-Telegram. The Los Angeles Times has undergone major executive shake-ups.
Wafer, 56, has been with Copley for his entire 40-year career. He started as a district manager at the now-defunct Culver City Star-News while still in high school. Over the years, he has moved steadily up the ranks, eventually becoming general manager of the Copley Los Angeles Newspapers in 1985.
Question: What has been the community reaction to the closures of the Outlook and the News-Pilot?
Answer: We have had many vocal critics come forward because community papers become the peoples’ newspaper, and it is difficult when that identity is lost. Santa Monica, of course, was devastated. Community and civic leaders who saw the value of a community paper were sorry to see us go, as were our readers. I’m surprised that the outcry wasn’t greater than it was on some levels, but I guess that some of the government institutions were probably happy to see us go.
As for San Pedro, we were able to begin delivering the Daily Breeze to all our News-Pilot subscribers immediately and offer them a pretty good zoned edition of what was the News-Pilot. We did receive about 50 letters in a concerted campaign to keep the News-Pilot open. But for the most part, people are reserving judgment and giving us the opportunity to prove to them that we can deliver a good product in that market. We actually kept three out of the four local reporters in the area and we intend to give the folks down there a major section within the Daily Breeze that they can be proud of. So far we have maintained about 95 percent of our Pilot-News circulation.
Q: What was the reaction within the Copley L.A. offices?
A: The folks at Santa Monica and in San Pedro had heard rumors for a while about the papers’ closure, even though we had tried our best to keep that from happening, so there was some expectation before the announcement. Obviously, they were very unhappy to see the eventual closure of the papers. But by and large, because of the generous severance and retirement packages, I think the employees went away feeling that they had been treated fairly. As for the folks at the Daily Breeze, I don’t think that they were all that surprised. They had also heard the same rumors regarding the two smaller papers, so I think they were braced for some changes. They have borne up pretty well through the whole process, although there is still naturally some anxiety.
Q: How is the restructuring at the Daily Breeze progressing?
A: At this point, we’re actually oversubscribed on the volunteer layoffs, with about 113 so far applying for the severance packages. We still have several weeks to go in the federally mandated 45-day period in which employees can make decisions in this type of large-scale downsizing, so I expect even more people to volunteer. However, even though we’re oversubscribed, it doesn’t preclude the possibility of some involuntary terminations.
I think that everybody is going through a period of adjustment that really won’t shake out until we finish the 45-day period, at which time I believe the anxiety level will go down. We can then refocus our energy on what we need to do: produce an outstanding community paper.
Q: How do you plan to rebuild the Copley franchise in L.A.?
A: The bottom line is that local news is our franchise. The Los Angeles Times is a fine paper and it has a large circulation in our market. But we can better cover local news. That is our challenge, but to be competitive we are dedicated to achieving it every day.
We’re in the process of doing a readership study to see where we can improve the paper. We intend to continue to build our entertainment section, Rave. The section has grown steadily since we launched it in 1994, and now is distributed as a free stand-alone publication as well as being distributed in the paper on Fridays.
Advertising is also a key to building our franchise. We’ve always worked toward getting every advertising dollar we can, but as the entire market knows, it is getting more and more difficult to get it. In an effort to expand our reach, we partnered with the Press-Telegram under Knight-Ridder for the last 10 years, so we could offer our advertisers a larger reach. However, Singleton has opted out of that agreement as of June 30, so we’re looking at opportunities to partner with other news groups in the area.
Q: You mentioned Singleton, who dominates the local suburban newspaper market. Do you believe that Singleton intends to buy more papers in Southern California?
A: I don’t think there are any suburban groups left for him to buy down here. As you know, they tried to buy us. We weren’t interested at all in selling. We would have been happy to sell the Santa Monica Outlook by itself, and we offered, but he only wanted the three-paper group. So now we’re probably the only major suburban paper that functions in the marketplace as an individual paper.
Q: How do you foresee the local newspaper marketplace evolving?
A: Look at the suburban newspaper market in L.A. County over the last two and a half years. Every major suburban group has changed ownership except us. And there is a reason for that: It is simply tougher to do business as a newspaper since the recession. I don’t know if any of us will ever be what we once were.
The L.A. Times went through some very difficult periods, even though they seem to be coming out of it. As for Singleton’s papers, I think we’re going to see further clustering in operations and reporting in order to reach economies of scale. It makes sense, but there can be a loss of a community voice.
Q: Do you think the papers emerging to fill the Santa Monica market, such as the weekly Santa Monica Sun, will succeed?
A: I wish them well, but I don’t think these new papers will be successful. They are going to find out quickly that reality bites unless they come forward with a product that folks really want. While we were in the area, there must have been at least five or six weeklies that started up and failed. If the new weeklies want to survive, they are going to have to generate retail advertising, which is a hard nut as we discovered. It will be especially hard for a paper new to the community.
Q: How did you first get into the newspaper game?
A: I just wandered into the Culver City Star-News looking for a part-time job when I was in high school, and I ended up in the circulation department as a district manager. Forty years later, I’m still here.
Q: After so many years in the business, what do you make of all the changes that have taken place?
A: I feel sad that so many L.A. communities no longer have papers serving as their voice. I’ve spent time in Glendale and Alhambra, those cities where we used to own papers, and I see their loss. A community paper reflects who they are and furthers their identity, and when that paper closes, some of that is lost. I can only hope that the remaining community papers can strengthen themselves and continue to serve their communities and continue to be their voices. If they can’t, communities will see and feel the loss.
Thomas Wafer, Jr.
Title: Publisher of The Daily Breeze, Vice President
Company: Copley Press Inc.
Born: Chicago, 1941
Education: USAF School of Accounting and Finance; B.A. in Geography, Arizona State University; American Press Institute.
Career Turning Point: Turning down a promotion to be circulation director at the San Diego Union Tribune and staying with the Copley L.A. papers.
Most Admired Person: His daughter Julianne, who has four children.
Hobbies: Owning and racing thoroughbred horses, reading history.
Personal: Married, two children.
