CherryRoad Media Has Announced The Promotion Of Industry Veteran Lee Bachlet To The Role Of Chief Operating Officer
CherryRoad Media has announced the promotion of industry veteran Lee Bachlet to the role of Chief Operating Officer effective the 1st of the year 2023 CherryRoad has over 70 newspapers in 15 states and has quickly become one of the most far-reaching community journalism operations in the country. After acquiring its 1st newspaper in late 2020, the company grew to 7 papers in the summer of 2021. Growth accelerated that fall and continued through 2022.
Bachlet joined CherryRoad at the beginning of 2022, tasked with helping to lead the growth charge. In coordination with owner/CEO Jeremy Gulban, he oversaw acquisition and integration strategies as the company expanded. He also worked on long-term strategy as the company began to take shape.
“It is time for our company to mature, and we have to step back and look at our structure,” Gulban said. “While we will continue to grow, and Lee continues to work on those efforts, we also need to refine our structure so we can successfully transition from rapid acquisition mode to a sustainable model that helps us continue to serve our communities. We felt like Lee, with his breadth of and varied experience in this industry, is the right person to help us take those next steps.”
Bachlet has been in the newspaper industry for most of his life. He started as a youth carrier in his hometown of Cheyenne, WY, almost a half a century ago. He has worked for newspapers across the country, including in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Nevada, Kansas and Louisiana. While his background is weighted toward the business end of the industry, he has also been both a reporter and editor.
Hearst President: Quality-Focused Journalism Drives Success
As per Hearst Newspapers president Jeff Johnson, the company has grown in challenging times as a result of it focusing on quality journalism essential to communities.
Johnson said, “The mission of serving the readership and holding the powerful accountable and giving a voice to the powerless – those are important statements, and we believe in them sincerely. Sometimes there are tough days in the newspaper business. Right? And you’ve got to work through that, and it helps us quite a bit to have the support of Hearst.”
He further stressed the importance of newspapers investing in content to show readers that they are important. “In the long run, that’s always been our role and if you deviate from that importance in the community, it doesn’t seem like that’s a sustainable model.”
Hearst Newspapers runs 24 daily and 52 weekly newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Unionization Rate Hits All-Time Low
The percentage of American workers who are members of a union fell to a new low in 2022 despite the total number of unionized workers increasing.
Driving the news: 10.1% of workers were unionized in 2022, down from 10.3% in 2021 and a high of 20.1% in 1983, the first year the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported comparable figures.
Why it matters: Unions play a powerful role in the workforce, with advocates saying they advance worker rights while critics say they stymie progress. By the numbers: The workforce added 273,000 unionized jobs in 2022, up 1.9% from 2021.
•› But the number of total jobs increased by 5.3 million, a 3.9% jump, outpacing the growth in union roles. The big picture: Several high-profile unionization efforts have fetched headlines in recent months, including the ongoing campaign to organize Starbucks locations and Amazonwarehouses.
•› 71% of Americans approved of labor unions in 2022, the highest mark recorded by Gallupsince 1965.
•› But companies like Starbucks and Amazon have resisted unionization efforts, arguing that they’d be better off without them. Zoom in: The rate of union membership among public-sector workers is five times greater than the rate of privatesector employees — 33.1% to 6%, according to the BLS.
•› Median weekly compensation for union members was $1,216 in 2022, compared with $1,029 for nonunion workers. The bottom line: Unions have momentum in the public square, but that hasn’t yet translated into a greater share of the workforce.
