{"id":19247,"date":"2018-09-13T18:30:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T23:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=19247"},"modified":"2018-09-13T18:42:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T23:42:24","slug":"paddock-family-selling-daily-herald-company-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/09\/13\/paddock-family-selling-daily-herald-company-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddock family selling Daily Herald company to employees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Paddock Publications<\/p><\/div>\n

After 120 years of family ownership, Paddock Publications is changing hands. The descendants of patriarch and founder Hosea C. Paddock are selling their interest in the parent company of the Daily Herald,<\/a> which is expected to convert to full employee ownership before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Calling it \u201cone of the most important decisions we have ever made,\u201d Doug Ray, chairman, publisher and CEO of the company, announced Thursday that Paddock Publications would switch entirely to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, a move approved unanimously by the board of directors Tuesday. The Arlington Heights-based publisher has been partially employee-owned since 1976 when the ESOP was established.<\/p>\n

Ray said the action had been under consideration \u201cfor some time\u201d and would allow employees to become greater financial participants in its future success and provide significant tax benefits for the company.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Daily Herald, Paddock Publications operates the monthly Daily Herald Business Ledger, the weekly Reflejos Spanish-language publication, a group of small downstate newspapers throughout Illinois, a commercial publishing business and a growing list of niche publications.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Doug Ray<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe all know the dynamics of a changing newspaper landscape, one newspaper sale after another, in some cases to investment firms, and in others to large public companies,\u201d Ray told employees. \u201cAll the while the Paddock board of directors has fostered independent newspapering and has supported a culture of community service best served by local control. \u00a0This ESOP transaction is designed to continue our family-oriented legacy and importantly to build upon a successful and sustainable business model driven by employee owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

It marks the end of an era of Paddock family ownership of the company that began in 1898 when Hosea C. Paddock, an entrepreneurial editor, bought the Palatine Enterprise and soon added weekly newspapers in Arlington Heights, Bensenville, Itasca and elsewhere. Through four generations, the company has remained in the family \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am nostalgic, proud of our company, and optimistic,\u201d said Robert Y. Paddock Jr., executive vice president and vice chairman. \u201cI am happy we have an opportunity through the ESOP to continue Paddock Publications\u2019 commitment. \u00a0We value journalism, community, and our employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither my cousin Stu [Stuart R. Paddock III, senior vice president of information technologies] nor I have family members working in the paper. In these days of industry change and consolidation, we think employee ownership can in effect become the fifth generation of Paddock Publications. We think we and management will work to continue the good business and journalistic role we have in our communities, with us being two among many employee stockholders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stuart Paddock said in a statement: \u201cAs the communities we serve have grown and prospered, so has the family business. To Bob Paddock and myself, it is most important that the culture of family ownership, the thriving standard of excellence we reach for every day and our integrity is preserved through future generations. There is no better owner we can think of to accomplish this than the very employees responsible for our historic success. While we will still come to work every day, we are proud and satisfied knowing our traditions will continue well into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ray said no changes were planned in the way the company operates \u2014 including its board of directors and management.\u00a0\u201cThis is the plan for the future,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cOur readers value what we do and tell us that every day. We\u2019ll keep doing the same kind of work, and I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll be one of the winners after this is all played out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling it \u201cone of those win-win situations in our business,\u201d Ray said of the ownership change: \u201cI suspect it will be the envy of the industry, and certainly the employees in our industry. This is a way to continue on in the same fashion that we\u2019ve been operating the business for generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing very well. We could not contemplate this kind of transaction if we were not doing well. I think it\u2019s a good day for Paddock Publications.\u201d<\/p>\n

(This blog operates under an agreement with the Daily Herald. I am a full-time employee of Paddock Publications.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 120 years of family ownership, Paddock Publications is changing hands. The descendants of patriarch and founder Hosea C. Paddock are selling their interest in the parent company of the Daily Herald, which is expected to convert to full employee ownership before the end of the year. Calling it \u201cone of the most important decisions... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19247"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19257,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19247\/revisions\/19257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}