What is Landmark all about?

Executive stockholders meeting, April 1978

"We are striving to build a company distinguished for unusual character and skill in newspaper publishing, broadcasting and cable TV."

Both inside and outside Landmark, people often ask me: "What is Landmark about? What are we trying to accomplish?

It would be typical to respond in terms of earnings, growth, return on investment, new markets and new products.

Landmark is about all of these things, but these things are not all Landmark is about. We have, or should have, all of us, aspirations that can be expressed only in broader terms and higher purposes.

Every individual needs a dream. Every organization needs a purpose that transcends its several functions. And from time to time we need to talk about dreams and purposes so that by word and example we put up a polestar for our associates and employees.

My dream for Landmark is to be distinguished by two things: extraordinary dedication to public service and outstanding business performance. Some think these goals are contradictory, even antagonistic. I think not. I think that they are inseparable - bound up together - and that the sooner we can accept this concept, the quicker we can see that our transcendent purpose must be the pursuit of excellence.

Why is it that conspicuous public service coincides with impressive business results? This is how I reconcile the two:

To me, public service means providing our communities with first-rate products - products they need and want, at prices they will pay. It is courteous, dependable service. It is being aggressive and independent in publishing and broadcasting the news. It is exercising that independence with professional discipline and respect for the public, striving relentlessly to be fair. It is setting a standard in our communities for ethical business practices, too.

Our products are, themselves, public services. So the essence of public service, for us, is to perform the main functions of our businesses with unique skill and character.

I measure business results in the long term - over five to 10 years. In contrast, many companies - particularly the public companies - tend to have shorter horizons. They are most concerned about the year's profits or even this quarter's profits. The length of your economic horizon makes an enormous difference in the way you operate your business.

The most important factor in the success of all of Landmark's businesses is high market penetration. Nothing within the control of a local television station will do more for market penetration than having the best news programming in town.

Content, of course, is only part of the means to high penetration. Our best newspaper readers already have the reading habit. If they can count on delivery of the paper every day when they want it ... if our cable subscribers can count on a consistently perfect picture ... this will do wonders for market penetration.

The character and reputation of our products and service determine market penetration, too. If our news reports are never influenced by the private interests of the owners or any other interest groups ... if our editorials are vigorous and courageous but also show respect for contrary opinion and are never tailored to the whims of the publisher or editor ... if we own up to our mistakes, in business matters as well as news, and correct them promptly ... if we do not tolerate the arrogance that's evident in many newspaper and broadcasting organizations ... if we do not allow anybody to set up kingdoms and think the product, or any part of it, is his ... if we treat every customer with dignity ... if we have strong feelings for our communities, respect for the public and intense desire to serve them ... if we can do these things, we will have a business as successful as we could possibly hope for. Why? Because we will have the most precious asset of all - public trust that our products and service are reliable. That's the surest way I know to capture and defend your market.

It takes years to build a tradition of excellence and reliability. The price is high in terms of managerial skill and human effort. When times are tough, it takes skill and nerve to prune the waste that saps good business results, but never to cut into the muscle. But that process is less painful when we comprehend that waste does not serve excellence. Indeed, its existence reflects an absence of high standards. It reflects a blindness to the fact that our obligation to public service is in conflict with tolerance of unnecessary work or mediocre performance.

If we really intend to build a tradition of excellence, we have to apply a philosophy of perpetually rising standards and a long-term outlook to every aspect of our business. I have already stressed how it applies to the standards for public service and business performance of our products. It also applies to the quality of the organization we build.

When we decide to hire someone or to make a promotion, too often we take the quick and easy road. We hire the best person available at the time, or we promote the person in line or someone else readily available. That's the nearsighted way to make personnel decisions. It usually results, at best, in maintaining present standards and perpetuating an organization that inevitably will become stagnant.

Every time we hire someone, every time we make a promotion decision, we should hold out for a better person than the incumbent. And we need people who can go beyond the jobs at hand, people who can grow and develop as our standards climb.

Overall, our organization has improved, particularly in the past four or five years, but improvement has been uneven. So we need to raise our standards in all parts of the company when we hire and promote. This will require better planning, more care and tougher decisions by all of us. But the time is now.

In expanding Landmark through acquisitions, I believe we have adhered to a consistent philosophy. All of the properties we have acquired will meet our tests. They will support a good product and a high level of service, and still make a satisfactory profit, measured in the long run.

Holding to these criteria has washed us out of a lot of acquisitions. Some media operate under competitive conditions that require a stripped-down product to be successful. We have avoided these.

A more difficult obstacle in the newspaper business has been the trend toward selling papers on the auction block, at extraordinary prices. Some of the buyers are operating like strip miners, extracting exorbitant profits at the expense of customers and their communities.

At times, it's been suggested that the only way we can compete with the strip miners is to play the game by their rules. The idea is that we can squeeze our return out of the properties, and then do what's right by the customers and communities. It would never work over the long run, because the strip miners are steadily depleting the franchises they acquired. That's not our game, and we are not going to play it.

We will stick to our plan and our standards, and I'm confident this will produce all the acquisitions we need. We are seeking newspapers, television stations and cable systems in markets with unusual potential for growth. We are seeking properties that have high penetration of their markets, or if they don't have it, we must convince ourselves that we can capture the market.

To sum up: We are striving to build a company distinguished for unusual character and skill in newspaper publishing, broadcasting and cable TV. We will judge ourselves by the level of our public service and by business results. If we measure performance over five to 10 years, excellence in public service will enhance business results. And you cannot have independent media unless they are independent financially. Each goal will support the other.

To build a tradition of excellence, our goals will be moving targets. The standards we set for our products and service, and for our people, will rise consistently.

We have a unique opportunity in Landmark. There is no other industry with as much underused capacity to serve people ? to stimulate their minds and elevate their spirits. As a private company, we have a better chance to use that capacity. How well we use it depends on our desire and our will.

Copyright 1978 Frank Batten