Times Mirror leaves Newspapers First

Abstract

Times Mirror Co. has announced that it will withdraw from Newspapers First and serve national advertisers by coordinating its own company-wide efforts. Collectively, the Times Mirror properties are said to account for approximately 20% of Newspapers First revenue, and while some members said the move was unexpected, most seemed to take the news in stride.

TIMES MIRROR CO. announced that it will withdraw from Newspapers First and serve national advertisers "by coordinating its own company-wide efforts," according to Richard Schlosberg III, executive vice president of Times Mirror and publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times.

Kingsley Anthony, Newspapers First president and CEO, said that the decision came as a surprise, but Times Mirror executives said that the move had been discussed internally for some time.

The Times Mirror decision comes on the heels of Anthony's recent announcement that he would leave Newspapers First on June 1 after a long affiliation with the organization.

Times Mirror publishes the Times as well as Newsday and New York Newsday; the Baltimore Sun; Hartford Courant; Allentown, Pa., Morning Call; Stamford, Conn., Advocate and Greenwich (Conn.) Time.

Collectively, the Times Mirror properties are said to account for approximately 20% of Newspapers First revenue, and while some Newspapers First members said the move was unexpected, most seemed to take the news in stride.

"Life will go on," said Jerome Tilis, vice president of marketing at Knight-Ridder and newly named chairman of the Newspapers First board of directors. "Maybe others will join us who are not now Newspapers First members

Tilis said, "It's really a very amicable parting. It's fine; they seem happy .... I think they will be successful

Benjamin Taylor, executive vice president of the Boston Globe, said, "I don't see how it affects us a whole lot one way or the other.

"It's too bad they're pulling out, but maybe it's also the opportunity for the organization as a whole to take a look at Newspapers First and see where we go from here

The decision was said to be unrelated to Anthony's resignation, and Newspapers First board member and Seattle Times executive vice president of marketing Jack Williams said that, in fact, "it may have been the other way around."

He said, "I think the Times Mirror people had been talking about this internally and when the search began for a new CEO, they made their decision."

Even before the announcement, it was expected that the Times, the largest Times Mirror property, would leave Newspapers First because its size and market saturation allows it to attract most national advertising on its own.

"The Los Angeles Times has not really been a full member of Newspapers First from the beginning," Tilis said. "They've only used what I call la carte services, certain offices where they didn't have their own presence and so on."

Tilis added that Newspapers First members will meet "probably within the month" in order to "to take stock and decide what it is we want to do moving forward."

Topics on the agenda almost assuredly will include the fate of the Newspapers First Big 6 Easy network and whether remaining members will be forced to contribute higher fees to compensate for Times Mirror's absence, as well as a possible downsizing of the organization.

Tilis said the Big 6 Easy network will "press on as strongly as it was:' adding that a discussion of the organization's fee structure is premature.

"Before you decide how much people pay individually or how much the organization needs collectively, you need to take stock and decide what it is you want to do for the membership, and what is the new mission for Newspapers First?"