I didn’t appreciate the benefits.
How nothing came out of your paycheck for the (outstanding) health insurance you received. How every year you got a holiday bonus of $500 — for every year you had been there (and plenty of people had been there for decades). How there was a written “Pledge” guaranteeing employment regardless of economic conditions.
This being my first job out of college; I didn’t know any differently.
I soon came to realize I was not only working at The Star-Ledger — the best paper in New Jersey — I was working for the Newhouse family, the best owners in the business.
Donald Newhouse died yesterday at 96. He and his brother, Si, led Advance Publications. Donald handled the newspaper side. He was the reason The Star-Ledger grew from an afterthought in Newark in the 1960s to one of the most respected papers in the country — winning Pulitzers and becoming the undisputed Voice of New Jersey.
His impact on thousands of employees like me was far greater.
***
I never met Donald Newhouse.
He rarely ventured into the newsroom. He believed strongly in keeping business and editorial separate. He also believed in doing right by his employees.
I knew of an employee whose child was born premature, requiring months of hospital care. The employee was excused from work — and never saw a bill.
That meant a lot to us.
The employment pledge meant even more.
Some cynically said the Pledge was designed to keep unions out of the newsroom. I’m not sure if that’s true. But I do know this: We were treated so well that unionizing never crossed anyone’s mind.
When workers at New York papers went on strike — or threatened to — our reaction was simple: gratitude for what we had.
I saw the kindness first-hand after I made the regretful decision to leave the paper after more than a decade.
During my exit interview with HR, I mentioned I’d need to purchase a COBRA plan — we had just had our fourth child, and my new coverage in Kansas City wouldn’t kick in for 90 days.
I’ll never forget it: the head of HR tapped the keyboard for a few seconds and said, “No, you don’t. I just extended your coverage three more months.”
***
The Kansas City Star was the most decorated sports section in the country when I arrived in 2003. But it wasn’t The Ledger.
For all the great work we did, the employees had no love for the corporate owner — and the corporate owner had no love for us.
I learned this the hard way. My car was stolen out of the lot in downtown Kansas City (which isn’t as nice as you think it is). The company … did nothing.
Didn’t call the police. Didn’t call me a cab. Didn’t care how I got home — or how I’d get to work the next day. Didn’t tell others. Didn’t have a face-to-face conversation about it. They simply didn’t care.
I realized I had gone from working for the best owners in the business to the worst.
So, when The Ledger asked me to return two years after I left, I jumped at the chance. I was going home — back to the place where I was sure I would work for the rest of my life.
***
Some will say there isn’t a happy ending here. That I returned just in time to see the downturn that marked the beginning of the end of the print product.
Some will say the Newhouses broke the Pledge in 2008, when they announced they needed more than 100 members of the newsroom to take a buyout or the paper would close.
I disagree.
The paper was no longer a cash register. The Newhouses held out longer than most — and at their own financial loss.
And when they asked people to take buyouts, they offered a year’s salary and lifetime access to health benefits.
Even when the business model no longer worked, they did right by their employees.
***
It has been 17 years since I worked at The Ledger. I miss it. I miss the family.
But we keep in touch.
Two Ledger alums freelance for BINJE. I still kick around ideas with two other former colleagues. I get PR pitches from alums every month. And it’s rare for me to attend an event and not see a former Ledger photographer.
It’s always a great reunion.
Even though it’s been nearly 20 years since we worked together, we still share that Ledger bond.
For me, it isn’t about the great work we did — it’s about the atmosphere in which we did it.
For that, I thank Donald Newhouse. May he rest in peace.
