David Black
Black Press owner David Black may expand his chain of newspapers now that Hollinger Int'l is selling some of its broadsheets and tabloids, but he prefers to be deliberately vague about business possibilities
By Jill Schmelke

Mission: Continue growing the family-owned business he bought in 1975

Assets: A business degree married to real-world business smarts and strong family roots in newspapers

Yield: More than 80 newspapers in B.C., Alberta and Washington and gross revenues of $170 million

David Black, the 54-year-old owner of Black Press, keeps a low profile. He is polite, courteous and promptly returns calls. He discusses his family openly and warmly, talks deliberately and ponders his actions carefully.

But question him extensively on sensitive topics, such as his plans for his sprawling chain of newspapers in Western Canada and Washington State, and he will chuckle.
"I prefer not to discuss that."

Now that Hollinger Int'l Inc. has placed a For Sale sign on its newspapers, many are interested in whether Black wants to expand his empire by buying some of the media giant's broadsheets and tabloids.

But Black remains firmly vague about adding to Black Press, which boasts revenues of $170 million and enjoyed 30-per-cent annual growth for the past 25 years. Black, who took two months off last summer to sail his new boat home from France, said his vision is to "take opportunities, run a successful business and lead a happy, balanced life."
Not surprisingly, Stephen Ward, professor of journalism at the University of B.C.'s Sing Tao School of Journalism, said people don't know who David Black "really is."
"He doesn't seek attention. He lets his papers talk for him," said Ward.

Black began building his media empire in 1975. Armed with a degree in engineering and business, he went to work for the Toronto Star as an analyst. During that time, his father called him and said he wanted to sell the paper he owned, the Williams Lake Tribune. Black asked him if he would be interested in selling it to him.
"Why do you think I called to tell you?" his father replied.

Black, his wife Annabeth and four children moved to Williams Lake and stayed for 11 years. Over the years, Black amassed and created more newspapers in B.C., including the Kamloops This Week tri-weekly and a free Vernon tri-weekly. It ran the competition, the paid circulation Vernon Daily News, out of business. In 1997, he doubled the size of his business with a $58-million purchase of a chain of 33 Western Canadian publications from the British-owned Trinity Int'l Holdings Group. Today, he owns more than 80 community newspapers in B.C., Alberta and Washington, including one daily, the Red Deer Advocate.

"My colleagues and I never predicted that Black would have built his media empire to what it is today," said Gerald Porter, an instructor with the Langara College journalism program who distinguishes between David and Conrad Black as "Black Minor" and "Black Major."

Like Conrad, David's growing media ownership has led to charges that his dominant position stifles newspaper debate. Porter -- who teaches Black's son, 27-year-old Fraser, at Langara -- called Black's concentrated media holdings problematic.
"Single ownership is not in the public interest. It reduces the scope of reportage. There is no competition and no encouragement to seek out information that's not in the interests of the corporate owners," said Porter, who is the executive secretary of the B.C. Press Council.

Two years ago, Black was criticized for his directive to his stable of newspapers not to run editorials in favour of the Nisga'a Treaty. Black felt the B.C. government was pushing the Nisga'a Treaty in his papers by running full-page ads. The ads, Black said, glossed over issues that needed to be debated in public.

"It was a little out of character [for me] to ask editors to run commentary, but we were forced into it," said Black, who added he intervened because of what he believes are "racial overtones" in the treaty.

A flurry of negative publicity, led partly by the provincial government, followed the newspaper owner's actions. That publicity helped persuade Black to change his edict -- slightly. He allowed supporters of the treaty to pen columns and letters, which were featured alongside treaty opponents.

"In the end, the papers are my responsibility," said Black, when asked if directing editorial conflicts with the notion of freedom of the press. "I don't agree with owners that don't take responsibility for their product."

Peter Speck, publisher of the North Shore News and a competitor of Black's North Shore Outlook, said Black is an "upstanding person with a lot of class and integrity." Speck thinks Black's editorial directive was widely misunderstood. "The editorial is a little piece of copy that sets the tone of a newspaper," said Speck, "and he sets the tone."
Rick O'Connor, president of the Metro Valley Newspaper Group, said Black is a "very hands-off" boss, who called to discuss marketing strategies more than editorial direction.

"There is a tradition in community newspapers for the publisher to have a role in the editorial," said O'Connor, former owner of community newspapers in Vanderhoof and Fort St. James.

"Just because it is a tradition, doesn't make it a good one," said Ward. "If the paper is the only game in town it has to be particularly fair and vigilant."

Of more concern are Black's future plans. In the U.S., clusters of small community newspapers are forming around a major daily paper. Perhaps that is the way Black intends to build in the future, speculated Ward. From a business point of view, clusters make sense. Newsrooms can be shared and advertising rates lowered. But Ward warns that repetitious, homogenized news that lacks local content is among the dangers of such clusters.

Ultimately, Black is a businessman, who cites his father and journalist Ishmael Chambers among his heroes.

Whatever his next move is, you can be sure it will be well thought through.