Familiar with the difficulties faced in the newspaper business, residents in Watkinsville, Georgia have a further change to come to terms with, following the acquisition of the Oconee Enterprise by Times Journal Media.
Only around last Christmas, Michael Prochaska was telling readers to expect a less refined look to the paper, as they were having to dispense with the services of their full-time graphic designer.
“We started a new podcast, launched a newsletter, hosted a cookie contest that was featured in our holiday magazine and dedicated an entire magazine to the history of the county and its municipalities,” he says. “But no matter how good your product is or how satisfied your customers are, you still have to make the numbers work.”
Prochaska says printing and postage costs have continued to escalate “in an environment where all newspapers have a tough time generating more revenue to offset the expenses.” G oing digital was not an option, but readers “deserve a printed newspaper.
“You also deserve the same quantity and quality of journalism as you’ve been receiving, so eliminating a reporting position was out of the question.”
The outcome of all this year-end heart searching has been a change of ownership; two in fact. Mid-April, the paper was reporting that long-time community journalist Patrick Graham, the owner of newspapers in nearby Walton and Newton counties, had acquired the Oconee Enterprise in an asset purchase agreement finalised with previous owner Mark Martin.
The Times Journal acquisition was announced this month: The Brumby family owned business is acquiring the Oconee Enterprise, the Walton Tribune in Monroe and the Covington News in Newton County.
Graham – who says new owner Otis Brumby III is “a good person, a great friend and an even better newspaper guy” – will continue to be publisher of the three weekly or bi-weekly mastheads, while retaining ownership of three in northeast Alabama. He also operates a commercial newspaper printing company in Rome, Georgia, and is a member of the boards of directors of the Georgia and Alabama Press Associations.
With a “storied history and legacy” in the industry in Georgia, he says the Brumby family has “a tremendous vision for the future of community journalism” in the state.
The acquisition brings to 21 the number of newspapers and corresponding news websites published by Times Journal Media Group, now stretching from northwest Georgia, throughout metro Atlanta and east to Madison and Watkinsville.
The Brumby family has been in the local newspaper business in Georgia for more than a century. The Marietta Daily Journal, Times-Journal’s flagship newspaper, was first printed in 1866 by Robert McAlpin Goodman on a hand press left behind by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s army during his march to the sea.
“It is a privilege for my sister Lee Garrett and I to be the third generation of managers of a family-owned newspaper business,” Brumby said. “Growing up, our father taught us the value of hard work, faith, family and integrity. We take our new responsibility to these additional Georgia communities seriously and look forward to getting to know, working with and serving the people in those communities.”
Pictured: Promoting The Oconee Enterprise under co-publishers Michael and Amanda Prochaska (top), and during Patrick Graham’s term (below)