BusinessTN

On June 1, veteran newspaper man Charles Hedberg, 74, closed on the sale of his 138-year old family-owned newspaper, the Centralia Fireside Guide, a 3,700-subscription paper dubbed the oldest newspaper in Boone County, Mo. The buyer? Seventy-three-year-old Hamblen County, Tenn., publishing icon R. Jack Fishman, founder and owner of Morristown-based Lakeway Publishing, which owns community newspapers throughout East and Middle Tennessee and Missouri(alongside a gaggle of specialty magazines and other related business ventures).

The transaction didn't garner much ink in Fishman's home state of Tennessee. Generally speaking, neither does Fishman, or his $14.1 million company. But those in the know, know Jack Fishman. A newspaper icon with national and international reach, Fishman is also a formidable presence in Hamblen County and Tennessee's economic and political spectrum, with an impressive network of powerbrokers who have come in and out of the limelight for decades in Tennessee.

As publisher and editor, his establishment of The Citizen-Tribune, Morristown's long-standing daily newspaper, has become the stuff of legends. In 1966, the then-upstart paper led by a Fishman fireball backed by 300 stockholders and a half a million dollars was not well received by all, especially those loyal to the existing 100-year-old pub, The Gazette Mail.

"And, you can't ask any of them about it because they're all dead," Fishman says.

Within ten years, The Gazette Mail folded. Today, Fishman's empire spans a broad cross-section of Tennessee with the Manchester Times, the Grundy County Herald in Tracy City, The Elk Valley Times in Fayetteville,The Tullahoma News and The Herald-Chronicle in Winchester. Add to that seven small market Missouri papers, five magazines and seven other publication-related divisions that also fall under the Lakeway umbrella and you have a community-based publishing powerhouse.

Despite his "small town" formula, it would be a mistake to underestimate the heft of Fishman's reputation — the Associated Press appointed Fishman as one of only 22 of its board members, three of which represent smaller markets. The self-described "backbone of the world's information system," AP serves thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television and online outlets around the clock and around the world. The largest and oldest news organization in the world, and a not-for-profit cooperative, AP represents more than 4,000 employees (responsible for a news organization record 79 Pulitzer prizes in journalism and photography) in more than 240 worldwide bureaus in 97 countries. AP is owned by its 1,500 U.S. daily newspaper members, which in turn elect a board of directors that directs the cooperative.

As such, Fishman puts Morristown — and Tennessee — squarely on that map. Through the years, Fishman has been a champion of community journalism in other ways than just representing rural newspapers on the AP board. For instance, around the dawning of the so-called "Information Age," Fishman received a presidential appointment to serve on the National Information Infrastructure Council where he was tasked with ensuring community newspapers did not get left on the off-ramp of the Information Superhighway.

Business section
Anyone who has ever lived in a small town knows that there are few people more powerful than a publisher/editor. Fishman is no exception. Because of that, Fishman has always been in a natural position to exert influence on economic development in his area. Fishman, though, also has a professional background in economic development that has been used much to the benefit of his adopted town of Morristown through the years. While a band director at Camden High School after graduating college, Fishman had a fateful meeting with the Camden chamber manager who steered him toward economic promotions and management. He worked for the Jesup, Ga., and Morristown chambers, continued his education and landed in Nashville to head up the Middle Tennessee Industrial Development Association in 1965. The Nashville move was short-lived as Fishman heeded the call from Morristown merchants asking him to startup The Citizen-Tribune.

"Jack is absolutely like a bulldog. He's going to work until there's no life left in the dog — and then some. He's our star salesperson," says Thom Robinson, president and CEO of the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce. "Jack is a very sharp, very astute business man (and) extremely high energy," adds Bill Wittenberg, president and CEO of Hamblen County's largest employer, recliner manufacturer Berkline/Benchcraft.

For instance, as chairman of the Morristown Industrial Development Board, Fishman's hand was in the January 2006 luring of Colgate-Palmolive to build a 150,000-square-foot toothpaste manufacturing facility in the Morristown Airport Industrial District, creating 220 new jobs in the state's third smallest county (geographically speaking). An Illinois company that manufactures products for the life science and water purification markets recently determined to locate in Hamblen County (pending approval of the sale of land for the project by the Morristown City Council). X-Link Bioscience Corp. plans to construct a new facility in the Morristown Airport Industrial District, its first location outside of Illinois. Though modest operations are planned initially, locals believe that as many other local industries have done, X-Link will grow into a substantial local employer. VIFAN, a manufacturer of food packaging products, wrapping paper and pressure sensitive tape, also recently announced it would invest $72 million in an expansion to its existing Morristown plant, adding a new production line and about 55 jobs to its current workforce of 120.

Headlines maker
Signs of Fishman's leadership have arguably always been apparent. They perhaps first surfaced publicly as a drum major leading the marching band at Jackson High School in his West Tennessee hometown, the place from which he graduated in 1952. While later attending Memphis State College, he organized a student group to lobby before the state legislature to approve the college for university accreditation. (While they were not successful, the 1957 student council leveraged Fishman's efforts and did push it through.)

With a history degree and journalism minor in hand, the accomplished clarinet player took that aforementioned band director's job. Could his soon-to-be meteoric rise in community development and politics, which led him to one day befriend even many former Tennessee governors such as Lamar Alexander, Ned McWherter and Don Sundquist and as well as state and U.S. politicians, have been predicted? Probably not. But it could be said that Fishman never lost his appetite for teaching or his commitment to education. First elected to the Tennessee Board of Regents in 1991, he served until 2004. In his honor, the board named Morristown-based Walters State Community College's library after him. The R. Jack Fishman Library houses over 50,000 volumes, 17 databases, current periodicals, a computer lab and plenty of study spaces.

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In his final editorial, Missouri publisher Hedberg wrote at the time of the sale of his company to Fishman that his decision to quit the newspapering business after nearly 50 years in the industry was both "not the easiest decision" his family had ever made "nor was it the most difficult." Fishman, too, will retire one day after years of building his private business in Tennessee. But he is showing no signs of slowing down just yet. Obviously still on the acquisition trail, and recently re-appointed to the worldwide AP board, his legacy also appears strong as both of his sons, Mike and Jeff, work for their father and have a desire to take over the business.

"This business here, the newspaper business, is fascinating," Fishman says. "And, it gives you the opportunity to be a part of the community in a very unique sort of way. Not only to provide the news but helping to build up the community, and we enjoy that."

Get to know Jack Fishman — if you know what's good for Tennessee.