Hello moosehead5032,
Thank you for your question.
According to the American Journalism Review, the paper is mostly
employee owned at this time. But there is an interesting story behind
it:
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=769
"...PUBLISHER JOHN GOTTSCHALK knows the territory. His first job was
sweeping floors for the weekly paper his grandfather founded in
Rushville, Nebraska, a few miles down U.S. Highway 20 from Wessling's
house. In 1966, after graduating from the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, Gottschalk took a job selling ads for the weekly
Sidney, Nebraska, Telegraph. Two years later, he bought the paper. In
Sidney, Gottschalk acquired a taste for public service and served a
term as mayor.
He joined the World-Herald as assistant to the president in 1975,
after selling the Sidney paper. Five years later, he was elected vice
president. He moved up to president and chief operating officer of the
Omaha World-Herald Co. in 1985, and to CEO in 1989.
Gottschalk, 55, is only the fifth publisher in the 109-year history of
the World-Herald. That averages out to better than 20 years a
publisher. "I have the luxury of thinking not in terms of months or
quarters or years, but of generations," he says...
...The World-Herald once came close to losing its independent status.
In 1962 the paper was about to be sold to the Newhouse chain. Then
Omaha construction contractor Peter Kiewit stepped in, as a company
brochure says, "literally at the 11th hour."
Kiewit had no interest in running the World-Herald, Gottschalk says,
"but he didn't want his hometown paper owned by someone else." The
next year, he bought out the heirs of the founding Hitchcock family,
then set about creating an ownership structure Gottschalk calls "as
bulletproof as any in the industry."
Under the Kiewit formula, nonunion employees became eligible after his
death to buy stock. They now own 82 percent of the company; a Kiewit
foundation owns the rest. This makes the World-Herald one of only two
large employee-owned papers in the country. The other is the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel.
Newspaper stock analyst and AJR columnist John Morton recalls a number
of other newspapers once owned by employees, including those in Kansas
City, Missouri, and Peoria, Illinois. Most of them got in trouble as
employees quit and "cashed out," he says, draining their resources and
forcing eventual sale to corporations.
Neither Gottschalk nor Keith Spore, his counterpart in Milwaukee,
thinks that could happen to them. In Omaha, for example, employee
stockholders who sell can receive only book value for their stock.
Anything over that must go to charity. So neither employees nor the
Kiewit foundation has any financial incentive to sell to a buyer
offering a premium.
Any sale or change in the structure of the World-Herald requires
approval of the employees and the foundation. Should the business
someday turn so sour that both decide to get out of it, the newspaper
would be sold at auction by sealed bid, no second chances.
Gottschalk says he doesn't expect to see that happen in his lifetime.
With stock values rising 20 percent a year "as long as I can
remember," Omaha retirees have done very well, Gottschalk says. "I
like making millionaires."..."
Its a rather complete and interesting article and worth a read.
In searching for information about the "Kiewit foundation", I came
across the following at the University of Nebraska Medical Foundation:
http://www.unmc.edu/durham/donors/kiewit.htm
"...Peter Kiewit was a native of Omaha and, with the exception of one
year in college, lived his entire life in Omaha. He began working for
his father?s construction company after school in 1914, when he was 14
years old. Under his continuing leadership, the company thrived and
was one of the largest employee-owned businesses in the United States
at the time of his death in 1979.
Kiewit was a philanthropist and community leader for a wide array of
projects in Omaha during his lifetime. He did not believe in inherited
wealth, and made plans for his personal estate to become a private
charitable foundation upon his death.
In 1980, the Peter Kiewit Foundation was created entirely from his
personal wealth. It is not related legally or administratively to the
operating companies that still bear Kiewit?s name..."
Action Performance Companies lists Michael L. Gallagher as Chairman
Trustee of the Kiewit Foundation:
http://action-performance.com/Home/Press_Releases_Detail.asp?intPressID=148
"...Action Performance Companies, Inc. (NYSE:ATN - News) appointed
Anne L. Mariucci, 45, and Michael L. Gallagher, 60, to be the two
newest members of the company´s Board of Directors, bringing the
number of independent Directors to seven and the total number of Board
members to ten. Mariucci and Gallagher and will serve on the
Governance and Compensation committees, respectively...
...Gallagher is Chairman Emeritus and founding partner of the law firm
of Gallagher & Kennedy. Gallagher has a strong background in sports,
from his days as a college and professional baseball player and
founding director of the Maricopa County Sports Authority, to his
current service as Chairman of the Sun Angel Foundation, a charitable
organization that supports Arizona State University athletics.
Gallagher´s public company Board member experience includes serving as
Presiding Director and Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee
of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. He is also a Director of the Omaha
World-Herald newspaper and is Chairman Trustee of the Peter Kiewit
Foundation...."
At the University of Omaha MBA Site I learned the following:
http://cba.unomaha.edu/mba/lss_lwz.html
"...Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein has been with the Peter Kiewit Foundation
since 1983, serving first as Associate Director before being named
Executive Director in 1986. The Peter Kiewit Foundation is the largest
private foundation in Nebraska. It has distributed more than $400
million since its inception in 1980. Lyn supervises all grantmaking
done by the Foundation, which averages about $20 million annually.
Grants are made in a wide array of areas including education, culture,
youth, community development, human services, scholarships and
classroom teacher awards. The Foundation was created in 1980 from the
estate of the late Peter Kiewit and conducts most of its philanthropy
within the state of Nebraska. It is not affiliated legally or
administratively with the operating companies which also bear Mr.
Kiewit's name..."
At the US Department of Defense, we find out a little more about Lyn
Ziegenbein, though a search on her name at Google reveals many
connections and directorships other than noted here:
http://www.defenselink.mil/jcoc/jcoc_70/participants.html
"..Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein has been with the Peter Kiewit Foundation
since 1983, serving first as Associate Director before being named
Executive Director in 1986. The Peter Kiewit Foundation is the largest
private foundation in Nebraska. It has distributed more than $400
million since its inception in 1980. Lyn supervises all grantmaking
done by the Foundation, which averages about $20 million annually.
Grants are made in a wide array of areas including education, culture,
youth, community development, human services, scholarships and
classroom teacher awards. The Foundation was created in 1980 from the
estate of the late Peter Kiewit and conducts most of its philanthropy
within the state of Nebraska. It is not affiliated legally or
administratively with the operating companies which also bear Mr.
Kiewit's name.
A native Omahan, Lyn is an attorney. She served as an Assistant United
States Attorney for Nebraska and has practiced privately. She is
admitted to the Bar both in the District of Columbia and Nebraska. Her
undergraduate degree is in journalism from the University of Kansas,
and she earned her law degree at Creighton University where she was on
the Law Review.
Lyn currently serves on the boards of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce,
Assurity Life Insurance Company in Lincoln, Nebraska and the Council
on Foundations Board of Directors in Washington, D.C., where she has
been vice-chairman. She is a member of the Council's Management
Committee and the Audit Committee. Lyn serves as chair of the Greater
Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau; is a board member of the UNMC
Eppley Cancer Center; and is on the board of the Nebraskaland
Foundation. Lyn is also a Trustee of her church and is the president
of her son's school parent organization. Lyn formerly served as a
director of Alltel Communications, Norwest Bank Nebraska, and several
national non-profit organizations. She was appointed by former
Governor Nelson to serve on his Welfare Reform Task Force and was
appointed by President G.H.W. Bush to a White House Commission on
Educational Excellence. Lyn recently completed five years of service
on the Nebraska Selection Committee for Rhodes Scholarships, the last
as its chair. She was elected in 2003 to the board of the Higher
Learning Commission in Chicago and is a member of the Omaha Sports
Commission and its executive committee.
Lyn has been recognized by the Omaha Y.W.C.A. as a Woman of
Distinction, was named the Outstanding Young Omahan in 1986, received
a "Distinguished Nebraskan Award" from the University of Nebraska in
1993, and is in the Westside High School Hall of Fame..."
As an interesting aside to ownership of the Herald (and since it seems
to fit with the general trend of the questions you have been asking
here), Ecotalk.org notes:
http://www.ecotalk.org/Vote-By-Mailproblems.htm
"...It looks like a high-tech ambush. But Matulka isn't going down
without a fight. The feisty construction worker is running for
Nebraska's U.S. Senate seat against incumbent Republican Senator Chuck
Hagel. Matulka's "war chest" is less than $5000. But campaign
financing isn't his biggest concern. Who owns the voting machines and
how easily they can be rigged or "malfunction" is what's got him all
riled up. He's calling press conferences... demanding to be heard.
That might be difficult. Omaha's largest newspaper is part of the only
company in Nebraska certified to count votes on election day. And
Chuck Hagel has been an intrinsic part of that company for a long
time.
According to his press office, in 1995 Chuck Hagel resigned as CEO of
American Information Systems (AIS), the voting machine company that
counted the votes in his first Senatorial election in 1996. In January
1996 Hagel resigned as president of McCarthy & Company, part of the
McCarthy Group that are one of the current owners of Election Systems
and Software (ES&S), which itself resulted from the merger of AIS and
Business Records Corporation. According to publicist/writer Bev
Harris, Hagel is still an investor in the McCarthy Group. ES&S is now
the largest voting machine company in America. One of its largest
owners is the ultra-conservative Omaha World-Herald Company...
...ES&S, the largest voting machine company in America, claims to have
counted 56% of the vote in the last four presidential elections.
Again, it's owned by the ultra-conservative Omaha World-Herald
Company, the McCarthy Group, and former owners of Business Records
Corporation. ES&S was created from a merger between American
Information Systems (AIS) and Business Records Corporation. Bob and
Todd Urosevich founded AIS in the 1980's. Bob is now president of
Diebold-Global, while brother Todd is a vice president at ES&S.
Business Records Corp. was partially owned by Cronus, a company that
seems to have a lot of connections to the notorious Hunt brothers from
Texas, as well as other individuals and entities, including
Rothschild, Inc.. Right wing Republicans Howard Ahmanson (who financed
AIS) and Nelson Bunker Hunt have both heavily contributed to The
Chalcedon Institute, an organization that mandates Christian
"dominion" over the world..."
But, back to the Herald ownership a bit more.
Yahoo Finance has a brief summary of the company, but since it does
not appear the stock is publicly traded, there is no breakdown of
insider shares held:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/124/124685.html
Hoover's Subscribers might find out a little more by ordering reports.
Subscriptions start at $59.95:
http://www.hoovers.com/omaha-world-herald/--ID__124685--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
Now, a site with Ming the Mechanic lists a few interesting items:
http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-000525.htm
"...Omaha World-Herald Company:
Employees own approximately 80%. Of the 280 employees, only 28
currently own more than one-half of one percent. World-Herald employee
stockholder maximum is 15%, so under the ownership rules, it is
possible for just a few shareholders to hold significant sway in
voting.
- Two of the 28 main shareholders (John Gottschalk and A. William
Kernen) are on the Board of Directors for the Omaha World-Herald and
ES&S. In 1995, both went public with an effort to reorganize the
company so that they could concentrate less on the newspaper and more
on other World Company investments. The reorganization was blocked in
a lawsuit, which later settled.
- The Omaha World-Herald also owns: World Investments Inc., World
Marketing Inc., World Events Inc., World Diversified Inc., World
Newspapers Inc., MBS (a New York database marketing company), ACE
Mailing Services (Atlanta, Georgia), Art & Technology (Omaha), Lee
Marketing Services (Dallas, TX), World Technologies Inc. (Omaha),
World Marketing Integrated Solutions, Total Fulfillment (Tempe AZ),
The Rylander Company (Chicago IL), Redstone Communications (Omaha)..."
In checking on A. William Kernen, I located the following:
Concordia University:
http://www.cune.edu/2005a.asp?durki=185
A. William Kernen
Regent
Senior Vice President & CFO, Omaha World-Herald, Omaha, Neb.
United Way of the Midlands
http://www.uwmidlands.org/foundation/structure.htm
A.William Kernen, Chair of UWM Foundation
President
Kernen Partners, LLC
He is also involved in the Lutheran Church and Symphony orchestras,
but little of substance appears in searches on him on the web.
In searching "Kernen Partners, LLC", I found absolutely no other mentions.
So, as you can see there is a bit of privacy surrounding the ownership
of the Herald and not surprisingly as a privately held company. I
trust the information above has been helpful and informative for you.
Search Strategy:
"Omaha World-Herald" +ownership OR owners OR shareholders
"Kiewit foundation"
"Kiewit foundation" +directors
"Lyn Wallin Ziegenbein"
"owners of" OR "shareholder of" OR "director of" +"Omaha World-Herald"
"A. William Kernen"
Regards,
-=clouseau=- |
