I was on a video call with a friend recently when she shared a statement from a fellow leader, sending a chill down my spine.
She was talking with a coworker about the newspaper business. “They said to me our best days are behind us,” she said.
I hope my face on the screen didn’t reveal my stomach tightening against the words. Like a fighter taking a powerful shot to the midsection, I took a breath and paused.
“Well, for what it is worth, I believe our best days are ahead of us,” I said.
And if you're reading this column, you know I mean that down to my Fred Flintstone-shaped feet and toes.
Success is not a generic, one-size-fits-all outcome. Nor is it as narrow as a team winning the Super Bowl. Success is about deciding where your purpose lies and marching toward a positive outcome.
Life is everchanging, and the goalposts are always moving. And that’s true now more than ever.
I'm old enough to remember when newspapers' primary plan to grow revenue was to increase advertising and circulation rates and run front-page stories announcing the change. Or when they could start a new product simply by calling around and getting an advertiser to boost their quantity of preprints. I once managed a newspaper with an active drive-thru window.
And making money? Well, that seemed to happen like the sunrise each day — despite any boneheaded decisions we might make. And oddly enough, publishers all seemed to carry low golf handicaps.
Well, guess what? The world has changed — and those once-familiar goalposts are in our rearview mirror.
What to do? Get over it.
The newspaper business is now a full-on, hand-to-hand battle like nearly every other industry on the planet. With the right mindset, this is a golden opportunity to grow, evolve and find a greater purpose.
The world is filled with people who wake up each morning jazzed to go out and find ways to win. They are in no way complacent, nor are they wilting in the face of the changing winds. They play to win. These are the people with whom we must surround ourselves.
The best leaders in today's newspaper environment know successful newspaper leadership requires a behavior and mindset radically different from years gone by. Fighting with a willingness to leave it all out on the field of competition is what fuels successful people. The possibility of not winning is always lurking in the shadows. But by constantly taking action, successful leaders keep the boogeyman sidelined from clouding their thoughts.
Technology and changing consumer consumption behavior must drive our decisions more than ever. We must listen, observe and act with courage — not retreat.
Imagine if today you tried to launch a business that immediately enjoyed the massive brand awareness of your newspaper and immediately earned the general public's trust as your newspaper does. Imagine if you had an operating model you could scale on day one. Imagine your business would be based on a critical purpose in society — one that democracy and communities depend on.
That's a powerful starter kit, folks. And your newspaper has those qualities already. You aren’t trying to get off the starting line.
So are the newspaper's best days behind them? Well, that depends on where your mind sits. While the tools and business practices that drove newspapers' success years ago change, so does the mindset of the people we need to have leading our organizations. We cannot afford to be insular, risk-averse or take the knocks in life personally. We must be doggedly committed to fighting with everything we have — and then more — to find a way to create purpose, value and meaningful profits.
The future is ours to write. And everything that matters starts between your ears and with your actions. The todays and tomorrows of you and your newspapers rest in your hands.
Join me and others as we charge the field, committed to achieving success by working smart, sweating hard and doggedly refusing to lose. And golf handicaps be damned.
Golf is just a game, after all. This fight is for real.
Leonard Woolsey is president of Southern Newspapers, Inc., and president and publisher of The Daily News in Galveston, Texas. He also serves as president of America's Newspapers.
