Sale of the Salt Lake Tribune - Read Deseret News archive stories and see related links about the sale of the Tribune.
Salt Lake City's two daily newspapers reach only 40 percent of the local population right now, but Joseph H. Zerbey IV doesn't see that figure as a negative in his new position as president of Newspaper Agency Corp.
He views it as an opportunity of a lifetime for a man whose "diapers were made out of newsprint."
Zerbey, who flew into Salt Lake City Thursday to take the helm at NAC, said he's heard about Salt Lake City's strong television market and all the other supposed reasons for why sales of the Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune are relatively low in an area that prides itself on civic awareness and high levels of education.
He doesn't believe any of those excuses, and he vows to make changes that will put more local newspapers in more Utah households.
"There has to be a huuuuuuge opportunity for both newspapers to grow here," said Zerbey, 58, who has replaced Tribune publisher Dominic Welch as the head of the NAC, the entity that handles advertising, printing and circulation of both papers under a joint operating agreement or JOA.
"I believe that if properly written, edited, marketed and distributed, we (the two newspapers) will kick (other media's) butt."
Zerbey's track record indicates he knows what he's talking about. Six years ago, he took over the JOA in York, Pa., between the York Daily Record (a morning paper) and the York Dispatch/Sunday News (afternoon publication. At that time, the market penetration of the two papers was 40 percent and annual revenues were $15 million. When he left his office in York Wednesday to head for Utah, joint market penetration was at 80 percent and last year's revenues were $40 million.
Can he work the same kind of magic here? He has no doubts. Will he be given the chance? That remains to be seen, given legal action currently being taken by the Tribune's management team to try and stop Zerbey from running NAC and restore Welch as president.
Zerbey understands that his job here depends on what happens in court, but he's here on the assumption that it will be his "for as long as I want it." And he's been assured by new NAC chairman and Tribune owner W. Dean Singleton, president of MediaNews Group, that will be the case.
Singleton and his company earlier this month bought the Tribune for $200 million from its owner, AT&T Broadband. A new board of directors was created for NAC with two members each from the Deseret News and Tribune and Singleton as chairman.
One of the new board's first acts was to hire Zerbey away from the York Newspaper Co. where he has headed that JOA for MediaNews for the past six years. Zerbey agreed to take the Utah job and, on-going court battles notwithstanding, he is ready to "remake" Newspaper Agency Corp. in the image of York Newspaper Co.
"The whole legal scenario here is a little confusing to me, but my philosophy is that I'm here to run NAC, and that's what I'm going to do," said Zerbey. "I know there are some stipulations in court that say I will be shadowed by Welch and others, and I welcome that. It will be helpful in the transition."
Zerbey met with NAC's ad managers last week, prior to resigning from the York position, and told them how he operates and the changes he intends to make. And yes, he met Welch, who Zerbey said greeted him cordially, saying "I'd like to introduce myself to my successor."
Zerbey said his job is to promote NAC internally, make the employees feel good about who they work for and what they do.
"And I see a ton of ways to improve the environment in which they work (and) boost compensation packages through base pay and incentives in the sales department. I am truly excited for NAC."
Will there be firings or layoffs at NAC under Zerbey? No, he said, but there will be turnover.
"I don't think about firing people. Those things just happen in a natural way. People either buy on to our way of doing things or they don't. At York, there were people who said they couldn't take the pressure or the long hours, and they left. I don't have to fire people. I have to sell them on how we are going to change things and make it better for everyone — NAC, the Deseret News and the Tribune."
For months, the local populace has been reading and hearing about the so-called "war" between the Deseret News and the Tribune, mainly over the Deseret News' attempts to go to morning delivery and what its managers say have been the Tribune's attempts to stop that from happening. The sale of the Tribune to MediaNews and the revamping of the JOA agreement allow that to happen if certain conditions are met.
Zerbey says he is in agreement with Deseret News' management about the need for the paper to go to morning circulation, saying he has no doubt that both papers will eventually be published mornings (Deseret News Chairman L. Glen Snarr has said he would like to be publishing mornings seven days a week by September.)
"Ultimately, I think NAC will be more successful marketing approximately 200,000 (News and Tribune) papers in the morning. That makes the most sense to me."
"With Dean's (Singleton) philosophy and my experience in York with the same kind of company, we're going to go full-steam ahead, promoting, selling and improving both papers."
Zerbey's jest that his diapers were made of newsprint was only slightly tongue-in-cheek. His great-grandfather, Joseph H. Zerbey I, founded the Pottsville (Pa.) Republican in 1884, which was later run by Zerbey's grandfather and father (Joe Zerbey II and Joe Zerbey III) and where he, Joe Zerbey IV, began working as a boy, selling ads during summer vacation. (Pottsville is a small coal town in Schuylkill County whose most famous native son was novelist John O'Hara.)
After graduating from Syracuse University (majoring in American Studies and minoring in journalism) Zerbey decided he didn't want to work for his family anymore, and instead of returning to Pottsville, he went into the Army from which he emerged in 1969 as a captain, having served with a NATO nuclear weapons unit.
From there he got a job with The Bristol Press in Bristol, Conn. as a $125-per-week ad salesman. His "mentor" Bart Barnes, 94, (still living and still vigorous, said Zerbey) hired him and Zerbey remained there until Singleton offered him the job at York Newspapers, which he describes as "a lot smaller (JOA) than NAC (circulation of the two York papers is about 82,000) but operates under the same basic premise.
Zerbey has never lived in the West and he admits that moving here will be something of a culture shock, but he assured that both he and his wife, Barbara, are looking forward to becoming Utahns. Their two grown children (including son Joseph Zerbey V and grandson Joseph Zerbey VI) live in New York and Los Angeles.
For now, the Zerbey's are renting an apartment in the downtown Salt Lake area but will eventually look for a home — "something with two or three acres, lots of trees and room for animals."
E-MAIL: max@desnews.com