OPINION
Follow the Money How The Oregonian's millions help subsidize a cash-starved magazine empire. The Oregonian plopped down on the front stoop Sunday with the heft of an oversized telephone book, another reminder that during this time of year monopoly newspaper owners make the most of their franchises. We estimate that each Sunday between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Portland's daily grosses at least $3 million. What, you may wonder, happens to all that money? The answer can be found in a new biography of Si Newhouse, Citizen Newhouse: Portrait of a Media Merchant (Seven Stories Press, $29.95), by Carol Felsenthal. As many Portlanders know, The Oregonian is owned by New York's Newhouse family, whose large and hugely profitable media empire includes, among other holdings, dozens of newspapers and a large stable of magazines: Vanity Fair, Vogue, Glamour, Allure, Self, Mademoiselle, GQ, Details and so forth, as well as The New Yorker and Wired. This privately held empire is controlled and run by the two sons of its founder, S.I. Newhouse. Donald Newhouse, the younger son, supervises the newspapers, while his older brother, Si, looks after the magazines. While the magazines offer far more glitz and glamour, it's clear where the family gets its money--from newspapers like The Oregonian. "Donald makes the money and Si spends it," is a remark author Felsenthal says she heard often. That is, cash raked in by Portland's daily serves to support the magazines and their astonishing appetites. Felsenthal's book makes it abundantly clear that the magazines have been a dreadful financial drain. For example, in May of 1985 Si paid way too much when he forked over $168 million--in cash--to acquire The New Yorker. He then proceeded to turn it into a big money loser. (During the '90s, which have generally been great for the publishing industry, most of Si's other magazines have lost millions, too.) If Felsenthal is right, what else do The Oregonian's profits probably support? Fabulous magazine-sponsored parties, like Vanity Fair's $250,000 pre-Oscar bash at the Hotel Bel Air. Interest-free loans, like the $2 million Felsenthal says Si lavished on New Yorker editor Tina Brown and her husband "to use as a down payment on a $3.7 million triplex co-op on East Fifty-seventh Street." And incredible perks, like $100,000-a-year clothing allowances for top editors. Knowing this, how do the people who work at The Oregonian feel about what's being done with the fruits of their labor? And how should the rest of us feel every day when we pump another 35 cents into the Newhouses' money machine? Think what a community asset we might have if that money--even a fraction of it--were reinvested in serious journalism here. Or think what some of those hundreds of millions could have accomplished if they had been used for civic or charitable purposes in Portland.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
