Chapter 11
In Pennsylvania, family joins with public media rather than face private equity takeover
Steinman Communications gifted their LNP Media Group, including a daily newspaper and its digital version plus two weeklies, to public broadcasting station WITF. The move was a way to preserve LNP as a vibrant local news source in a time when many newspapers are being reduced.
Sarah Vaughan
In central Pennsylvania, a newspaper group has joined with local public media in a unique arrangement that seeks depth and breadth of local news coverage for area residents.
Steinman Communications gifted their LNP Media Group, including a daily newspaper and its digital version plus two weeklies, to public broadcasting station WITF. LNP became a subsidiary of WITF on July 1, 2023.
The move was a way to preserve LNP as a vibrant local news source in a time when many newspapers are being reduced.
The Steinman family owned the local newspaper for 157 years, according to Robert Krasne, Chair and CEO of Steinman Communications. He described the family as "adamant" about providing Lancaster County, Pa., "with robust news and information," especially in the last 10 years. But after more than a century and a half, it became clear the newspaper would have to change hands.
"The family did not have anyone in the next generation with the aptitude and interest to run the newspaper," Krasne said in an email.
“We think there’s an intersection where we can generate some meaningful revenue and community connection at the same time.”
It took the Steinman Communications board two years of careful consideration to arrive at the decision to gift LNP to the local public media, Krasne said. Central to the decision was ensuring Lancaster County residents could still have a strong, vibrant news source in LNP.
"A sale to Alden or Gannett would not have provided that," Krasne said when asked whether the board had considered any offers from a private equity backed organization. Even a proposal from a publicly traded news organization didn't get far.
"The board specifically excluded public companies with track records of reducing newsroom size or reducing days of publishing a newspaper from consideration," Krasne wrote.
"The LNP-WITF combination was consummated specifically to ensure the long-term viability of robust journalism for Lancaster County, so yes, it was to avoid selling to an organization whose behavior exhibited a flagrant disregard for robust local journalism, including private equity backed media organizations,” he said.
On the radio side, WITF President and CEO Ron Hetrick said his organization, which covers 19 counties, has long recognized the need to nurture and support local journalism in central Pennsylvania area.
“So we have a private equity firm paper, we’ve got other smaller family owned newspapers, but the vibrance and the type of conversation that was once available 10-15 years ago certainly does not exist,” he said about local news coverage in the 19 counties.
The station is located in Harrisburg and covers those counties with only about 10 journalists. Hetrick said adding LNP’s 70-person newsroom means they can “leverage collective resources” to serve the area “a mile deep” rather than “a mile long and a couple of inches deep.”
Hetrick recognizes the organizations’ work ahead is rooted in community engagement, and that includes both educating and listening. For WITF, that has meant creating programs around media literacy and civic education and holding “deliberative forums” that allow community members to potentially develop strategies for tackling community issues. It’s engagement WITF has been doing for a while — that Hetrick believes is, in fact, necessary for media to grow and thrive — and he anticipates extending the practice into LNP in a more “hyper focused way in Lancaster County.”
As for the organization’s long-term financial viability, Hetrick said fortunately LNP still draws robust advertising support that allows it to publish seven days a week. On the public media side, they are making the most of memberships along with individual and institutional philanthropy. But he sees a lot of potential in hosting community events, though he doesn’t give specifics.
“We think there’s an intersection where we can generate some meaningful revenue and community connection at the same time,” he said.
The Steinman Communications gift also came with seed money to establish The Steinman Institute for Civic Engagement. They’re still building it out, but the institute’s work will include professional development for journalists, innovation in community journalism, as well as community-facing education and civic engagement.
Hetrick adds his appreciation that the Steinman family had “the foresight and the interest in finding a partner in public media.”
“There’s no more important time for a robust fourth estate to exist,” Hetrick said. “Constitutionally protected and providing the accountability and information to the public to help them make informed decisions.”
Chapter 12: Conclusion: Private equity owners accelerated a market problem, putting communities at risk »
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Officials at Gannett would not talk to WFIU/WTIU for these stories. They sent a statement attributed to Jill Bond, news director of The Herald-Times.
Paper Cuts The reporting is supported by a grant from the Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Omidyar Network.
