Watch my boss ring the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange

Press owner Michael Schroeder opened today's trading session at the New York Stock Exchange by ringing the bell along with a bunch of young people and a few other guys whose faces are too blurry on my screen for me to identify. One of them, though, is Mike Suchopar of the Bristol Boys and Girls Club.
You can watch the video of it here.
If the markets soar today, we're definitely taking credit. If they go south, though, it doesn't reflect on us one iota.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Tell the new boss what you want!

The new publisher talked to the staff in Bristol today, thanking us for our loyalty and promising we would be "a happy family" as The Bristol Press moves into the second half of its long life.

There is "a big history to live up to" in Bristol, Michael Schroeder said.

He urged the staff in Bristol -- and, no doubt, in New Britain -- to listen to colleagues, customers and readers. And he told us to share the ideas we hear, or have, with him.

That's a particularly welcome change from the Journal Register Co. years, when nobody ever wanted to listen to anything, ever.

Most people at The Bristol Press still have their jobs, though not all. We may have lost some fine people in the shuffle. I'm still not sure about that yet.

What I do know is that our reporting staff -- down to just Jackie Majerus and I now since we've had two people leave in recent weeks -- is still here. And so is the editor of the Press, Bill Sarno.

That's the core that we have to build from, but all of us have a long history in Bristol. We know the town. We know what we need to do. I'm pretty confident that Schroeder's going to let us get out there and do it.

I'm anxious to do this job without wondering how the corporate types at the JRC are going to mess things up.

At the same time, the connections between the Press and The Herald in New Britain are becoming deeper.

There will be one circulation director for both papers, Brenda Kelly. There will be one production manager for both papers, Wayne DePaulo. There will be one overall editor, Marc Levy, who is also the editor of The Herald.

Schroeder said he is also "anxiously looking for an ad director."

I would feel better, truthfully, if the Press were standing more on its own. I've never liked having our fate tied to New Britain's.

But if that's how it is, well, let's hope my worries are groundles. It doesn't really change what we need to do in Bristol.

Schroeder said he intends to "respect the past and look toward the future" at the Press, to bring back some old features of the paper while taking care to be contemporary, too.

He said we'll be doing experiments not done anywhere else in the months ahead, which is the sort of thing I like to hear. We're better off on the cutting edge. Boldness is crucial.

So, Bristol, tell Schroeder what you want in your paper. He's listening carefully.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

More from our new owner

Read Rick Green's blog entry for The Hartford Courant. We're waiting to see what it all means, for the paper, for the community and for us.
I hope that as the optimism generated by the sale slips away into the daily grind, with the inevitable disappointments, we can keep our eyes on the prospects for a brighter future. I'm eager to see what awaits because we have a chance here to show the whole country what a newspaper can become, how we can stay relevant in a fast-changing world.
But most important, now that we have been given the opportunity to shuck the weight of a crushingly bad owner, we have the obligation to become once again the voice of Bristol and the glue that holds the community together. We can do it. I have no doubt.
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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

New owner has a place to live, but we don't know where yet

The Waterbury Republican-American has this story today about the imminent completion of the deal to buy The Bristol Press and four other papers.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Bristol Press sale now slated for Wednesday

The latest word is that the sale of The Bristol Press and four other Central Connecticut papers to newsman Michael Schroeder will take place on Wednesday. Let's hope so.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

New Press owner offers 'a breath of fresh air,' mayor says

Calling the newspaper’s prospective new owner “a breath of fresh air,” Mayor Art Ward said that newsman Michael Schroeder “has done us the great act of saving our Bristol Press.”
Ward said that Schroeder promise to bring the daily’s traditional focus on the community to the forefront again show he’s aiming to take the paper in the right direction.
During a brief address to the City Council Tuesday, Schroeder said he is “looking forward to growing with the city” in the years ahead.
He told councilors and the mayor that he hopes “to work together for what they call the greater good.”
Though a few details remain to iron out, Schroeder’s Central Connecticut Communications is expected to take ownership of the Press, the New Britain Herald and three weeklies within days.
The current owner, the Pennsylvania-based Journal Register Co., is crippled with debt and struggling to stay afloat. Its stock is selling for less than a penny a share.
Ward and several other city leaders said that having a new owner who will live in the area and get involved in the community offers the chance to restore the luster of a paper that suffered from stingy and distant management since the JRC bought it in 1994.
Ward said that Schroeder is busy “letting everybody know there’s a new paper in town” through radio interviews, news stories and personal meetings.
The mayor said the Greater Bristol Chamber of Commerce is holding a welcoming breakfast at 9 a.m. Friday at its Main Street headquarters to give members and city leaders the chance “to mix with Michael.”
City Councilor Mike Rimcoski said that he’s grateful that Schroeder stepped in to prevent the Press from closing this week, as the JRC had threatened.
“May wife haunted me every day” to keep the paper coming, Rimcoski said.
“For peace in the family, thank you,” he told the incoming publisher.
City Councilor Frank Nicastro, who is also a state representative from the 79th District, said the effort to save the paper has made for “one heckuva three or four weeks” for him, particularly after news stories were misinterpreted by a legion of bloggers to insinuate that Nicastro was leading an effort for the state to bail out the JRC to help the papers.
Nicastro said he’s received at least 43 hateful emails from around the country “calling me a communist pig and everything else.”
Nicastro said he turned some that appeared threatening over to the Capitol Police.
“I gave the military 30 years of my life and I don’t like being called a communist pig,” Nicastro said.
Both Nicastro and Ward said there is no bailout in the works for Schroeder or the papers.
Instead, they said, the new owner will have the same access to government programs and tax breaks that every other business gets.
“We’re willing to see what we can do to help,” Nicastro said, encouraging Schroeder to talk with the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Ward said there may be city programs that the paper’s new owner might qualify for.
But, he said, the benefits would be “the same that would be accorded to any other business.”

Click here to give your thoughts on how Schroeder could make the Press a better paper.
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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Rick Green weighs in on Mike Schroeder

Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green has a nice piece today about our soon-to-be publisher, Mike Schroeder, and his plans to pump some life back into The Bristol Press.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Radio show features Press editor, new owner

Listen here to WNPR's "Where We Live" radio show on the future of newspapers, which featured among its guests Bristol Press Editor Bill Sarno and the new owner, Mike Schroeder.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Watch the new Press owner's entire press conference

The Connecticut Network, which is on cable channel 98 in Bristol, is showing the press conference with our new owner, Mike Schroeder.

It's scheduled to air at 6:58 p.m. today, at five minutes after midnight tonight and on Friday morning at 8:25.

I suppose it will be online, too, somewhere on this site.

I should throw in a plug for this wonderful television service, which is helping to fill the gap created by a shrinking press corps. It's airing all sorts of stuff from the legislature and beyond, like a C-Span for Connecticut. I'll try to do better about pointing out when it's got stuff that's particularly relevant for Bristol.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

New publisher is a newspaper guy

Story by reporter Jackie Majerus:

Sitting down to breakfast with a friend last month, Mike Schroeder had never set foot in Bristol or New Britain.

Little did he know how fast – and how much – his world was about to change.

The 50-year-old Long Island resident, doing consulting work after nearly three decades in the news business, had given a lot of thought over the years about running his own community newspaper.

Now here was his friend, handing him a copy of the December 15 edition of The New York Times, which carried a story by columnist Dan Barry about the role that the 137-year-old Bristol Press has played in its community.

The story also carried the grim news that the paper's owner, the Journal Register Co., would close it and a dozen sister papers if they weren't sold by mid-January.

Schroeder's friend asked him if he ever thought about buying a newspaper, suggesting they might consider it together.

After thinking it over, Schroeder called his friend back and asked whether he was serious. He was, and they were on their way.

"I always wanted to retire as a gentleman publisher," said Schroeder.

Not long after that, Schroeder was scouting around Bristol and New Britain, meeting the mayors and getting a feel for the towns.

He got a warm welcome.

"Immediately the mayors came on board," said Schroeder, willing to drop their schedules to meet with him and talk about the newspapers and their communities. They put together the meeting that "sealed the deal," said Schroeder.

"Both of them have just been stellar," said Schroeder.

Schroeder said the sale of the two dailies and three weeklies to his newly-formed company, Central Connecticut Communications, should close within two weeks.

He said a handshake on New Year's Eve officially put the deal in motion.

His New York Times-reading friend, who Schroeder said prefers to be an anonymous, silent partner, is the primary investor and Schroeder's sole partner in the business, he said. 

"I'm totally the operating piece of this thing, and I better make it work, or I'm going to lose a friend," said Schroeder.

Schroeder, who said he came from a small town of just 2,700 people, said his first experience in journalism was typing out his own neighborhood newspaper – using carbon paper! – and selling copies for two cents each.

"I'd take a nickel if they gave it to me," he said.

He worked every possible job at his local paper, he said, and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and economics at the University of Southern California, where he was elected editor of the campus paper, the Daily Trojan.

He later earned a master of business administration from Long Island University.

After college, he worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and later, the Orange County Register. He also taught in the journalism school at USC.

Schroeder put in many years at Newsday, leaving in 2005 as general manager of Island Publications, the company's niche publications division. Before that, he was the publisher's chief of staff and earlier, director of editorial technology and information services.

An earlier stint at Newsday ran from 1983 to 1992, when Schroeder started work as a news editor and left as manager of editorial technology.

About a year ago, he "went out on a limb," he said, and started up Boston NOW, a free daily commuter paper, which was backed by investors from Iceland. That venture ended in April.

"When their economy collapsed, so did we," he said.

He went into consulting for a time, but now, Schroeder said, he can't wait to get started in his newest adventure.

His resume boasts a "proven track record" in a variety of challenges, "including startups, turnarounds, reorganizations and staff development."

With help from a friend, Schroeder intends to build a business that supports itself, serves the community "and lets me fulfill my dream."

He can help two communities save their newspapers, each with more than 130 years of publishing history "and have a great time" doing it, he said.

He said his wife, Janet Schroeder, who is a business manager for a charter school in New York, may work at the Connecticut papers, too. 

The couple, who worked together at Boston NOW, plan to move from Long Island to Central Connecticut, he said.

Thanks to CT NewsJunkie, here's some video of Schroeder at today's press conference:

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

New owner vows to give communities time to save their newspapers

These stories were written by reporter Jackie Majerus:

Incoming Press owner says papers can regain former role

HARTFORD – Promising to restore The Bristol Press and The Herald of New Britain to "the iconic position" they once held in their communities, incoming owner and Publisher Mike Schroeder said he can't wait to get started.

Schroeder, meeting reporters at the Capitol Wednesday, outlined his plans for the two daily papers and three weeklies that he and a fellow investor intend to buy for an undisclosed price in the coming weeks.

The two dailies, each with a circulation of about 9,000, will remain separate publications, said Schroeder, but continue to put out a combined Sunday paper. 

The papers will continue printing on their current schedules, said Schroeder, who said there will be no interruption in publication.

"We're going to keep the staffs close to what they are now," said Schroeder, who said there will be a place for employees who want to work hard and do a good job.

"We're going to make the papers as good as they can possibly be," said Schroeder, who has a long history in the news business.

Initially, the Press will continue to be printed in Torrington, and the Herald in New Haven, said Schroeder, but he said he expects that to change.

He said he's not yet sure where the newspaper offices will be, but said he is not purchasing the Bristol Press building on Main Street. The Herald building in New Britain is already under contract for sale.

Schroeder said he does not expect to change from the morning delivery format and promised "first-class customer service."

There will be continued improvements in the newspapers, Schroeder said, vowing to deliver value for advertisers and "a paper that people want to turn to if they want to know what's going on."

But Schroeder, who along with a private investor recently formed Central Connecticut Communications, made it clear that the newspapers will go far beyond the printed word.

"We're going to be a multi-media company," said Schroeder. "We want to educate, inform and entertain these communities."

The papers will deliver the news and information in whatever form best works for the subscriber, Schroeder said.

He said there will be improvements to the printed edition, to the web page and predicted there will be more technological advances. Some people, he said, may wind up reading their local news on their cell phones in the future.

"I don't think the print version will ever entirely go away," said Schroeder, but he said he doesn't know what form it will take, even five years from now.

"We're going to serve the community in any form we need to," Schroeder said.

Though local leaders hailed Schroeder for rescuing the newspapers from closure, he said, "I'm here to give enough time so the community can save the papers."

The papers are going to need subscribers, advertisers and community support to make it work, Schroeder said.

"We're going to have a viable, profitable company as well as a community resource," said Schroeder.

One of the things that will set the newspapers apart, according to Schroeder, is local control. Too many publications are owned and controlled from outside the area and suffer from "management by phone." 

"I don't think that works," said Schroeder, who lives on Long Island but plans to move to the area be involved in the communities, listening to residents and supplying what they need.

"This is not going to be operated from Long Island," said Schroeder.

Schroeder joked that he's being torn in two directions because leaders of both Bristol and New Britain want him to settle in their town.

State Rep. Betty Boukus, a Plainville Democrat who also represents people in Bristol and New Britain, offered a diplomatic solution.

"Plainville is right in the middle," she said. "I'd be happy to show you around." 

Schroeder said he is in the process of doing due diligence before the closing. Though unlikely, it is still possible that the deal could fall apart, he said, adding, "but neither of us want it to."

Politicians hail prospective owner of Press, Herald

HARTFORD – City and state officials representing Bristol and New Britain gathered Wednesday to herald Mike Schroeder, the incoming owner and publisher of five newspapers that had been threatened with closure by their current owner, the Journal Register Co.

"It is great news," said Rep. Tim O'Brien, a New Britain Democrat who said he and fellow lawmakers from Bristol and New Britain got involved after learning that their hometown newspapers would close if they weren't sold by the middle of this month. He said they were concerned about the impact the loss of the papers would have on their communities.

Lawmakers said many people helped spread the news about the plight of the papers, from politicians to state economic development officials to members of the press.

"The word got out," said O'Brien, "and Mr. Schroeder read about it in The New York Times."

Bristol Mayor Art Ward showed off a copy of Wednesday's Bristol Press, where the lead story announced Schroeder's plan to purchase the paper.

"It's a great headline to see in the morning," said Ward, who said Schroeder and his investment partner is the "economic stimulus for the newspaper industry" in Connecticut.

"It's good news for a new year," said New Britain Mayor Timothy Stewart. 

Stewart and Ward, who met privately with Schroeder in the last days of December, said their impression of him was good from the start.

"From minute one, his focus has been community," said Ward.

Both mayors pledged to do what they could to help Schroeder's new venture.

"It is our job to make sure you're successful," said Stewart. "Your success goes alongside ours."

Schroeder, who along with a private investor recently formed Central Connecticut Communications, intends to close soon on the purchase of two daily papers, The Bristol Press and The Herald of New Britain and three weeklies, the Newington Town Crier, the Wethersfield Post and the Rocky Hill Post.

All together, the papers have 95 employees, said Schroeder.

O'Brien said the new publisher will have access to the same programs through the state Department of Economic and Community Development that any other business does.

Schroeder said there is no state money in the deal now, but he said, "I'll take every nickel I can get."

Bristol has a series of economic development programs aimed at job retention and growth, and Ward said the newspaper would be eligible for those.

"We don't expect to get handouts," said Schroeder. "We don't expect to get something for nothing."

Stewart said there may be money available for retraining workers for new technology.

"The paper is no different than any other business," said Stewart, who said his goal is saving local jobs.

Rep. Frank Nicastro, a Bristol Democrat, said the legislators tried to drum up support and interest in the papers, but weren't involved in the negotiations.

Perseverance paid off, said Nicastro. "This is a positive ending."

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com