Earlier this year Florida billionaire David Hoffmann took over Lee Enterprises, the Tulsa World’s parent company.
While finding out that a local business has fallen into the possession of a Florida billionaire is typically cause for concern, this wasn’t a surprise to the nerds1 who pay attention to this kind of stuff. Over a year ago, St. Louis Magazine clocked that Hoffmann, dissatisfied with Lee’s management, had bought up enough of the company’s stock to become its second largest shareholder.
Lee owns media properties in 25 states, enough to make it one of America’s largest newspaper companies. But a poor quarterly earnings report coincided with a buying rampage from Hoffmann big enough to attract the attention of the New York Times. His ambition appears to be boundless. Hoffmann told the Seattle Times last year that the plan is to eventually surpass Gannett and become the country’s largest newspaper publisher.
While it may seem a little crazy to buy up newspapers in the 2020s, Hoffmann’s move doesn’t cut against existing media industry trends. Newspapers and TV stations have been steadily consolidating across the country for decades now, often getting swapped by private equity or stripped for parts by hedge funds. And when you read up on Hoffmann and the strategy for his media businesses, you see that he’s not exactly reinventing the wheel.
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The word “Netflixification” comes up early and often when he and his people talk about news business models, meaning that they understand that big tech killed the advertising industry and a renewing subscription to a digital product is the most reliable source of revenue for publishers these days. This is common knowledge by now, not just in media but in basically every industry that makes a product for your smartphone that you use more than a few times a month.
But what about the World? It’s been trapped in corporate hell ever since the Lorton family sold it to Berkshire Hathaway in 2013, and is now stumbling along as a crumbling local institution saddled with out-of-town ownership. Like most legacy newspapers, its transition from print to digital hasn’t gone so hot. Revenues are sagging industry-wide and fewer U.S. adults are following the news closely, but it’s clear that the World didn’t invest enough in its own digital products—like a fast-loading website or a smooth app experience—and now lacks the funds to do so.2
A newspaper business consists of two parts: the talent working for it, and the technology delivering their work to the audience. On both fronts, the World’s been on the decline for some time. Their newsroom’s been hit by steady layoffs and departures for years now. Veteran education reporter Andrea Eger joined Oklahoma Watch in March after 23 years with the World, and former executive editor Jason Collington back in the fall left rather than continue making cuts to the newsroom. And on the tech side, the World’s website interface is basically hostile architecture,3 with an entry-level digital subscription that still costs more than Netflix.
Meanwhile the local media landscape got considerably more crowded this fall, when the nonprofit Tulsa Flyer entered the chat. Backed by the American Journalism Project and $14 million, the Flyer hired veteran World journalist Ginnie Graham and has been steadily producing a healthy stream of daily digital news for free, with aggressive attention to the education beat. And other nonprofits like Oklahoma Watch and Oklahoma Voice are getting larger by covering beats where the World was previously more competitive, like the state legislature