This week the winners of the Small Business Owner of the Year awards, sponsored by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, all talked about taking care of their employees and their customers, persevering through hard times and putting in some long hours. Several referenced prayer as a key to their success. But none spoke of the formula being tried by the holding company that owns GateHouse Media, the financially troubled parent company of the State Journal-Register. (See Bruce Rushton’s “Bullish on GateHouse?,” p. 9.) The company plans to combat operating losses and debt by spending $300 million to acquire newspaper properties. Spend big money to make money. Why didn’t Springfield’s small business owners think of that? –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2014.
