The Plain Dealer is again front-paging the tiresome Peter Lewis and his crybaby resentments.
Running for Bully of the Year, Lewis once again can’t resist slams at Cleveland institutions. Hey, buddy billionaire, you have been part of the crew.
Lewis was dissed and/or ignored by Establishment figures through the years. Now he sees the necessity to stiff-arm numerous Cleveland institutions and needs. He carries his resentments in a bag, to be pulled out anytime someone says, “Cleveland.”
Yes, Dick Pogue, of the Cleveland elite law firm, didn’t recognize him, it has been written, when they met at some social party. Big deal. Anyone – particularly someone rich as Lewis - getting upset by what Pogue knows might best see a psychiatrist to check self-esteem issues.
Plain Dealer reporter Steve Litt explained Lewis’ gripe: “Exaggerating to make his point, Lewis said Case and other institutions should ‘collaborate to develop restaurants, movie theaters, pool houses, whorehouses and bars in the University neighborhood.” But he said, ‘People don’t want to believe what I say. Nothing’s changed.”
Where was Lewis when University Circle had some of those livable conditions and our civic and political leaders “cleaned it up,” driving out the very people needed to populate such habitable space? Likely in a marijuana haze?
Instead of cultivating what could be considered just the kind of city atmosphere Lewis appears to want - ordinary people doing ordinary things that make a community, were driven out.
Lewis now wants to build new what you can’t create by throwing around money. New condominiums, fancy restaurants? Are those his idea for University Circle’s future? Does that make a city?
Nor does Lewis or the PD even make mention of the surrounding black community. Isn’t that what has kept the high muckity mucks from really doing anything for the last 30 or 40 years, fearing “the neighbors?” Isn’t that why those fortress-looking buildings were constructed in the 1960s?
What is Lewis asking for? A new antiseptic, sterile, controllable University Circle for selected people.
Can’t we just try ignoring the bore and allow him to take his yacht trips without having to think about Cleveland.
Take another New Zealand trip, Peter.
How Embarassing
Two days after Alex Machaskee’s seemingly sudden demise, the Plain Dealer announced the appointment of Robert Woodworth to search for a new publisher and president.
That means Machaskee’s “retirement” had been in the works for some time. Publishing this news two days later strongly indicates that Machaskee was dumped. The deal was well done.
Apparently, Machaskee has been paying too much attention to his personal aggrandizement via tributes and awards while the newspaper/s profits were not up enough.
That’s where Woodworth comes in.
Woodworth, formerly vice president of Knight-Ridder and the first and only non-Pulitzer family member to head the St. Louis Dispatch, has already come to town.
Newhouse knows Woodworth very well. Newhouse enjoyed a 50 percent share of the St. Louis’ newspaper profits (as much as $25 million in one year, according to the St. Louis alternative, the River Front Times). Woodworth bought out almost all of the Newhouse interest in those profits for $306 million, according to an extensive article by Malcolm Gay of the River Front paper.
Woodworth also bought a suburban chain to consolidate its monopoly power in the St. Louis area. The PD owners already own the Sun Newspapers here giving the PD a similar position.
What does this mean for the Plain Dealer and Cleveland?
Advertising rates are likely to jump considerably and the sales staff had better learn to hustle more. Woodworth also was said to play hardball with the unions.
The Times quotes a former Pulitzer executive: “Woodworth is one of the best newspaper operators in the country, if not the best. He knows what the benchmarks are and he goes after them. He’s very aggressive.”
The Pulitzer paper had to file reports with the Security & Exchange Commission so it’s easier to get information than for Newhouses’ private ownership under Advance Publications.
Two paragraphs in the River Front Times’ extensive article give some hint about Woodworth’s original hiring in St. Louis.
“Pulitzer Inc.’s recent finance history has led many outside the company to suspect the family brought in Woodworth to ready the enterprise for sale. As evidence, they point to small but significant stipulations recorded in SEC documents regarding Woodworth’s term of employment.
“According to his contract, if Woodworth leaves the company within two years of a change in ownership, he is entitled to a severance package amounting to three times his salary plus bonus. Calculated on the basis of 2003 figures, Woodworth is in line for a severance package worth at lest $4 million, plus an additional three years of medical benefits.”
Woodworth reportedly did well financially on the sale.
Woodworth will work from a small office here, said the article.
“I hope it will be a long relationship,” Woodworth is quoted as saying in the PD article and that there was no hurry. Machaskee remains here until a successor is chosen, it said.
In St. Louis a former paper executive said, “It was very smart to bring in Bob. They wanted to bring in a professional CEO. Here’s a guy who’s going to run your company and make a lot of money for you. They definitely got what they paid for.”
One wonders if Woodworth, after a try here, may like Cleveland and that this is a test period.
What PD employees are being told today may have no relationship to what will happen. Woodworth, according to the alternative when he took over in St. Louis said, “It is far from certain that any transaction will be reached or on what terms. The company is simply exploring various possible options to enhance shareholder value.” Of course, the newspaper and its ownership eventually were sold.
There has been some rumor talk that the PD might be sold. It might just as well be that the PD will try to consolidate its monopoly position by purchasing nearby city newspapers as it did the Sun Press papers.
The one thing you can believe is that Woodworth was brought here because the Newhouse Family felt its economic interests could be enhanced in Cleveland. I would say they would expect considerable economic advances from Woodworth.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole hidden-email:ebyqb@nqrycuvn.arg?
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