ownership of newspaper company Best answer on the web
Posted in: darrelrussell.com edit
07 Jan 2009
Thank you for your question.
According to the American Journalism Review, the paper is mostly employee owned at this time. But there is an interesting story behind it:
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=769
"...PUBLISHER JOHN GOTTSCHALK knows the territory. His first job was sweeping floors for the weekly paper his grandfather founded in Rushville, Nebraska, a few miles down U.S. Highway 20 from Wessling's house. In 1966, after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Gottschalk took a job selling ads for the weekly Sidney, Nebraska, Telegraph. Two years later, he bought the paper. In Sidney, Gottschalk acquired a taste for public service and served a term as mayor.
He joined the World-Herald as assistant to the president in 1975, after selling the Sidney paper. Five years later, he was elected vice president. He moved up to president and chief operating officer of the Omaha World-Herald Co. in 1985, and to CEO in 1989.
Gottschalk, 55, is only the fifth publisher in the 109-year history of the World-Herald. That averages out to better than 20 years a publisher. "I have the luxury of thinking not in terms of months or quarters or years, but of generations," he says...
...The World-Herald once came close to losing its independent status. In 1962 the paper was about to be sold to the Newhouse chain. Then Omaha construction contractor Peter Kiewit stepped in, as a company brochure says, "literally at the 11th hour."
Kiewit had no interest in running the World-Herald, Gottschalk says, "but he didn't want his hometown paper owned by someone else." The next year, he bought out the heirs of the founding Hitchcock family, then set about creating an ownership structure Gottschalk calls "as bulletproof as any in the industry."
Under the Kiewit formula, nonunion employees became eligible after his death to buy stock. They now own 82 percent of the company; a Kiewit foundation owns the rest. This makes the World-Herald one of only two large employee-owned papers in the country. The other is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Newspaper stock analyst and AJR columnist John Morton recalls a number of other newspapers once owned by employees, including those in Kansas City, Missouri, and Peoria, Illinois. Most of them got in trouble as employees quit and "cashed out," he says, draining their resources and forcing eventual sale to corporations.
Neither Gottschalk nor Keith Spore, his counterpart in Milwaukee, thinks that could happen to them. In Omaha, for example, employee stockholders who sell can receive only book value for their stock. Anything over that must go to charity. So neither employees nor the Kiewit foundation has any financial incentive to sell to a buyer offering a premium.
Any sale or change in the structure of the World-Herald requires approval of the employees and the foundation. Should the business someday turn so sour that both decide to get out of it, the newspaper would be sold at auction by sealed bid, no second chances.
Gottschalk says he doesn't expect to see that happen in his lifetime. With stock values rising 20 percent a year "as long as I can remember," Omaha retirees have done very well, Gottschalk says. "I like making millionaires."..."
Its a rather complete and interesting article and worth a read.
In searching for information about the "Kiewit foundation", I came across the following at the University of Nebraska Medical Foundation:
http://www.unmc.edu/durham/donors/kiewit.htm
"...Peter Kiewit was a native of Omaha and, with the exception of one year in college, lived his entire life in Omaha. He began working for his father?s construction company after school in 1914, when he was 14 years old. Under his continuing leadership, the company thrived and was one of the largest employee-owned businesses in the United States at the time of his death in 1979.
Kiewit was a philanthropist and community leader for a wide array of projects in Omaha during his lifetime. He did not believe in inherited wealth, and made plans for his personal estate to become a private charitable foundation upon his death.
In 1980, the Peter Kiewit Foundation was created entirely from his personal wealth. It is not related legally or administratively to the operating companies that still bear Kiewit?s name..."
Action Performance Companies lists Michael L. Gallagher as Chairman Trustee of the Kiewit Foundation:
http://action-performance.com/Home/Press_Releases_Detail.asp?intPressID=148
"...Action Performance Companies, Inc. (NYSE:ATN - News) appointed Anne L. Mariucci, 45, and Michael L. Gallagher, 60, to be the two newest members of the company s Board of Directors, bringing the number of independent Directors to seven and the total number of Board members to ten. Mariucci and Gallagher and will serve on the Governance and Compensation committees, respectively...
...Gallagher is Chairman Emeritus and founding partner of the law firm of Gallagher & Kennedy. Gallagher has a strong background in sports, from his days as a college and professional baseball player and founding director of the Maricopa County Sports Authority, to his current service as Chairman of the Sun Angel Foundation, a charitable organization that supports Arizona State University athletics. Gallagher s public company Board member experience includes serving as Presiding Director and Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. He is also a Director of the Omaha World-Herald newspaper and is Chairman Trustee of the Peter Kiewit Foundation...."
At the University of Omaha MBA Site I learned the following:
http://cba.unomaha.edu/mba/lss_lwz.html
"...Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein has been with the Peter Kiewit Foundation since 1983, serving first as Associate Director before being named Executive Director in 1986. The Peter Kiewit Foundation is the largest private foundation in Nebraska. It has distributed more than $400 million since its inception in 1980. Lyn supervises all grantmaking done by the Foundation, which averages about $20 million annually. Grants are made in a wide array of areas including education, culture, youth, community development, human services, scholarships and classroom teacher awards. The Foundation was created in 1980 from the estate of the late Peter Kiewit and conducts most of its philanthropy within the state of Nebraska. It is not affiliated legally or administratively with the operating companies which also bear Mr. Kiewit's name..."
At the US Department of Defense, we find out a little more about Lyn Ziegenbein, though a search on her name at Google reveals many connections and directorships other than noted here:
http://www.defenselink.mil/jcoc/jcoc_70/participants.html
"..Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein has been with the Peter Kiewit Foundation since 1983, serving first as Associate Director before being named Executive Director in 1986. The Peter Kiewit Foundation is the largest private foundation in Nebraska. It has distributed more than $400 million since its inception in 1980. Lyn supervises all grantmaking done by the Foundation, which averages about $20 million annually. Grants are made in a wide array of areas including education, culture, youth, community development, human services, scholarships and classroom teacher awards. The Foundation was created in 1980 from the estate of the late Peter Kiewit and conducts most of its philanthropy within the state of Nebraska. It is not affiliated legally or administratively with the operating companies which also bear Mr. Kiewit's name.
A native Omahan, Lyn is an attorney. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney for Nebraska and has practiced privately. She is admitted to the Bar both in the District of Columbia and Nebraska. Her undergraduate degree is in journalism from the University of Kansas, and she earned her law degree at Creighton University where she was on the Law Review.
Lyn currently serves on the boards of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Assurity Life Insurance Company in Lincoln, Nebraska and the Council on Foundations Board of Directors in Washington, D.C., where she has been vice-chairman. She is a member of the Council's Management Committee and the Audit Committee. Lyn serves as chair of the Greater Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau; is a board member of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center; and is on the board of the Nebraskaland Foundation. Lyn is also a Trustee of her church and is the president of her son's school parent organization. Lyn formerly served as a director of Alltel Communications, Norwest Bank Nebraska, and several national non-profit organizations. She was appointed by former Governor Nelson to serve on his Welfare Reform Task Force and was appointed by President G.H.W. Bush to a White House Commission on Educational Excellence. Lyn recently completed five years of service on the Nebraska Selection Committee for Rhodes Scholarships, the last as its chair. She was elected in 2003 to the board of the Higher Learning Commission in Chicago and is a member of the Omaha Sports Commission and its executive committee.
Lyn has been recognized by the Omaha Y.W.C.A. as a Woman of Distinction, was named the Outstanding Young Omahan in 1986, received a "Distinguished Nebraskan Award" from the University of Nebraska in 1993, and is in the Westside High School Hall of Fame..."
As an interesting aside to ownership of the Herald (and since it seems to fit with the general trend of the questions you have been asking here), Ecotalk.org notes:
http://www.ecotalk.org/Vote-By-Mailproblems.htm
"...It looks like a high-tech ambush. But Matulka isn't going down without a fight. The feisty construction worker is running for Nebraska's U.S. Senate seat against incumbent Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. Matulka's "war chest" is less than $5000. But campaign financing isn't his biggest concern. Who owns the voting machines and how easily they can be rigged or "malfunction" is what's got him all riled up. He's calling press conferences... demanding to be heard.
That might be difficult. Omaha's largest newspaper is part of the only company in Nebraska certified to count votes on election day. And Chuck Hagel has been an intrinsic part of that company for a long time.
According to his press office, in 1995 Chuck Hagel resigned as CEO of American Information Systems (AIS), the voting machine company that counted the votes in his first Senatorial election in 1996. In January 1996 Hagel resigned as president of McCarthy & Company, part of the McCarthy Group that are one of the current owners of Election Systems and Software (ES&S), which itself resulted from the merger of AIS and Business Records Corporation. According to publicist/writer Bev Harris, Hagel is still an investor in the McCarthy Group. ES&S is now the largest voting machine company in America. One of its largest owners is the ultra-conservative Omaha World-Herald Company...
...ES&S, the largest voting machine company in America, claims to have counted 56% of the vote in the last four presidential elections. Again, it's owned by the ultra-conservative Omaha World-Herald Company, the McCarthy Group, and former owners of Business Records Corporation. ES&S was created from a merger between American Information Systems (AIS) and Business Records Corporation. Bob and Todd Urosevich founded AIS in the 1980's. Bob is now president of Diebold-Global, while brother Todd is a vice president at ES&S. Business Records Corp. was partially owned by Cronus, a company that seems to have a lot of connections to the notorious Hunt brothers from Texas, as well as other individuals and entities, including Rothschild, Inc.. Right wing Republicans Howard Ahmanson (who financed AIS) and Nelson Bunker Hunt have both heavily contributed to The Chalcedon Institute, an organization that mandates Christian "dominion" over the world..."
But, back to the Herald ownership a bit more.
Yahoo Finance has a brief summary of the company, but since it does not appear the stock is publicly traded, there is no breakdown of insider shares held:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/124/124685.html
Hoover's Subscribers might find out a little more by ordering reports. Subscriptions start at $59.95:
http://www.hoovers.com/omaha-world-herald/--ID__124685--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
Now, a site with Ming the Mechanic lists a few interesting items:
http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-000525.htm
"...Omaha World-Herald Company:
Employees own approximately 80%. Of the 280 employees, only 28 currently own more than one-half of one percent. World-Herald employee stockholder maximum is 15%, so under the ownership rules, it is possible for just a few shareholders to hold significant sway in voting.
- Two of the 28 main shareholders (John Gottschalk and A. William Kernen) are on the Board of Directors for the Omaha World-Herald and ES&S. In 1995, both went public with an effort to reorganize the company so that they could concentrate less on the newspaper and more on other World Company investments. The reorganization was blocked in a lawsuit, which later settled.
- The Omaha World-Herald also owns: World Investments Inc., World Marketing Inc., World Events Inc., World Diversified Inc., World Newspapers Inc., MBS (a New York database marketing company), ACE Mailing Services (Atlanta, Georgia), Art & Technology (Omaha), Lee Marketing Services (Dallas, TX), World Technologies Inc. (Omaha), World Marketing Integrated Solutions, Total Fulfillment (Tempe AZ), The Rylander Company (Chicago IL), Redstone Communications (Omaha)..."
In checking on A. William Kernen, I located the following:
Concordia University:
http://www.cune.edu/2005a.asp?durki=185
A. William Kernen
Regent
Senior Vice President & CFO, Omaha World-Herald, Omaha, Neb.
United Way of the Midlands
http://www.uwmidlands.org/foundation/structure.htm
A.William Kernen, Chair of UWM Foundation
President
Kernen Partners, LLC
He is also involved in the Lutheran Church and Symphony orchestras, but little of substance appears in searches on him on the web.
In searching "Kernen Partners, LLC", I found absolutely no other mentions.
So, as you can see there is a bit of privacy surrounding the ownership of the Herald and not surprisingly as a privately held company. I trust the information above has been helpful and informative for you.
Search Strategy:
"Omaha World-Herald" +ownership OR owners OR shareholders
"Kiewit foundation"
"Kiewit foundation" +directors
"Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein"
"owners of" OR "shareholder of" OR "director of" +"Omaha World-Herald"
"A. William Kernen"
Regards,
-=clouseau=-