The Times Leader
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Times Leader | |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
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| Owner | Richard L. Connor; HM Capital Partners, Frank Henry and Charles Parente, and other local investors |
| Publisher | Richard L. Connor |
| Founded | 1879 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 15 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711 United States |
| ISSN | 0199-0519 |
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| Website: timesleader.com | |
The Times Leader is a privately owned newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1879, it was locally owned until being purchased by Capital Cities in 1978. The TL, a morning broadsheet, is currently in a circulation battle with another Wilkes-Barre daily newspaper, the Citizens' Voice.
The TL, in the heart of coal country, was subject to a very bitter strike that began Oct. 6, 1978. Over 200 union employees walked off the job in defiance of what they viewed as union-busting tactics by the TLs new corporate owner Capital Cities. The four striking newspaper unions began to publish the Citizens' Voice as a strike paper.
Eventually the four unions were decertified. The Voice continued publication. This in turn prompted competition and created the unusual environment where Wilkes-Barre, with its population of a little more than 43,000, now has two competing dailies.
Capital Cities and the Times Leader were purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 1996. Disney in turn sold the TL to Knight Ridder in 1997.
The newspaper at first propsered under Knight Ridder ownership. It started publishing a half-dozen zoned weekly sections for different parts of metro Wilkes-Barre, affectionately called the "Baby Leaders." It also actively battled the Hazleton Standard-Speaker in southern Luzerne County with a heavily-staffed bureau and daily zoned metro section.
The good times came to an end with the dot-com crash in late 2000. A round of layoffs came in January 2001; some reporters had only been at the newspaper a few months when they were fired. The "Baby Leaders" were shuttered, and staffers who weren't fired were absorbed into the main newsroom.
Another round of layoffs came in the summer of 2002, with a dozen reporters, photographers and editors shown the door -- many the day the layoffs were announced. The Hazleton bureau, which to many represented the newspaper's combativeness, was closed and the building sold. The Hazleton staff, which once numbered nine, was whittled down to one man working out of his home.
By the time combative editor Allison Walzer was fired on Jan. 12, 2005, the newsroom was less than two-thirds what it was in 2000. The dismissal of Walzer by Publisher Pat McHugh surprised many; Walzer, with her brash style, had outlasted many publishers and ownership changes. Walzer sued McHugh and Knight Ridder in Arpil 2006, claiming she was fired because she is a Jewish woman. Perhaps the most notable revelation in the lawsuit was the fact that Walzer made $234,600 in 2003.
The McClatchy Company acquired 32 Knight Ridder newspapers, including the Times Leader, in March 2006. However, McClatchy quickly announced that it would resell a number of papers, including the Times Leader, that it considered underperformers.
On June 26, 2006, McClatchy announced its sale of the Times Leader to Richard L. Connor, representing HM Capital, a Texas equity fund that seeks "investment opportunities in middle-market, cash generative businesses that have strong competitive positions with significant value creation opportunities." Connor was the Times Leader's publisher, sent to Wilkes-Barre in 1978 two days after the strike began, by the company who owned them at the time. A hndful of local businessmen also acquired ownership stakes, businessmen that Connor has stedfastly refused to identify. Frank Henry and Charles Parente were outed as two of his investors in FCC paperwork filed in 2006.
The newsroom has gone through much upheval during 2006, with many editors and reporters -- including Kurt Knapek, Brian Malina and Todd Meyers -- resigning. Dave Iseman, the managing editor who for many personified the newspaper's scrappy attitude, quit or was fired in January 2007.
Both Iseman and Walzer are reportedly unemployed. Walzer added Connor to her discrimination lawsuit in February 2007, alleging that he has discriminated against her by refusing to hire her the two times she has applied for a job there in recent months. The newsroom staff is about 50, half of the high point of 95 in December 2000.
The latest TL circulation numbers as of September 2006 are 39,332 daily and 52,458 on Sunday.
