近距离内射合集

Editor鈥檚 note: The Journal continues its Centennial Sundays series with an interview with Lowell Hare, who helped the Journal and its many companies successfully navigate four decades of challenges. The series commemorates 100 years of Pepperday/Lang ownership of the Journal.

For 40 years, he鈥檚 been in the room where it happens 鈥� where the important financial decisions have been made involving the Lang family鈥檚 vast business enterprises.

鈥淟owell Hare has been, hands down, one of the most influential hires in the history of the Journal,鈥� said Pepper Lang, senior vice president of Albuquerque Publishing Co.

Commuting from Denver to Albuquerque several times a month over those four decades, Hare has worked closely with former publisher Tom Lang; his brother, current publisher Bill Lang; and Pepper Lang, Bill Lang鈥檚 son. Hare has now stepped back from some of his positions but remains active in leadership in the operation.

His relationship with the Lang family began in 1975, when he was at Arthur Andersen CPA. It handled much of the family鈥檚 tax and estate affairs.

Hare left Andersen in 1980, but continued his relationship with the Langs by forming a company with them based in Denver called H&L Investment Company. It still exists today.

When Hare joined the Journal as chief financial officer in 1983, he stepped 鈥渋nto a pivotal role during a time of significant transition,鈥� said Pepper Lang.

Legacy family businesses face many challenges, especially when navigating complex ownership and asset transitions.

鈥淲orking closely alongside the Lang family, Lowell provided the critical strategic foresight and financial planning needed to successfully guide them through a highly complex transition from the Pepperday family,鈥� Pepper Lang said.

As the Journal diversified over the years 鈥� most notably into real estate and development  鈥� Lowell served as a 鈥渟trategic pillar.鈥� 

鈥淭he master plan of the Journal Center as the state鈥檚 premier business park, and its current transformation into a vibrant mixed-use development, stands as a testament to the vision shared by Lowell, the Lang family and our partners,鈥� Pepper Lang said. 

It's no secret that the newspaper industry has faced some head winds in recent years.

鈥淭here are less than 12 family-owned metro papers left in the country,鈥� he points out. 鈥淥ur ability to weather this storm and continue our mission is largely due to Lowell's leadership and management of these diversifications.鈥�

When people ask Hare what he does, he relayed in a recent interview that he says, 鈥淚 guess the easiest answer is, since 1983, I can't think of one major decision or transaction dealing with any of the Journal companies that I wasn't involved with.鈥�

Below is an edited version of that interview.

What was your role when you joined the Journal in 1983?

I had several hats. I was the CFO of everything, including Journal Center. I was a partner in Journal Center, and I was in charge of the development of Journal Center. I was on the boards of all of the companies, and I was the CPA for the Lang family, which meant I dealt with Mrs. Pepperday (widow of Thomas Pepperday, who bought the Journal in 1926). And my role back in those days at the newspaper was pretty much the CFO. 

What's your role now?

I'm at the holding company. I'm the vice chairman, and because we have a CFO (Racquel Barnes), I'm the executive CFO. The holding company is Journal Enterprises Inc., which sits on top of Journal Publishing Company, Albuquerque Publishing Company, and the rest of the Journal companies.

At Journal Center Corporation, I've moved up to chairman and CEO.

When Tom Lang became publisher in 1971, at the age of 24, after his father鈥檚 death, the expectation was that he would sell the Journal. What is the story around that?

I wasn鈥檛 here in 1971, but my sources are pretty good. The short of it was, from 1933 on, Albuquerque was unique in that we were a JOA (Joint Operating Agreement) newspaper 鈥� Albuquerque Publishing Company (APC) did everything but editorial for two newspapers 鈥� the 近距离内射合集, owned by the Lang family, and The Albuquerque Tribune, owned by E.W. Scripps. The Journal was always the majority owner.

I believe the people in Cincinnati with Scripps presumed that either Tom Lang was not capable or didn't want the responsibility of being the publisher of a statewide newspaper at that young age because everybody knew he had a lot of other outside interests.

And I think they presumed that they could come in and buy the Journal. It didn鈥檛 take Tom very long to figure out that was their goal. But that was not his goal. He, even at that age, saw the value of an independent, family owned newspaper compared to a chain newspaper company.  When I entered in 鈥�83, I was immediately put on the board of APC, which meant I was part of the annual meetings with Scripps. Those meetings were Tom, Bill and me, and generally two people from Scripps. And I will tell you, those were not very friendly meetings. Our side had not forgotten what took place in the early 鈥�70s. And so that also probably sheds some light on why there was such fierce competition between the Journal and the Tribune through the years.

Is it unusual for a newspaper to remain in the same family for so long? 

I have one way or another been involved with all four generations of the family.

And granted, most of that has been with Tom and Bill and more lately with Pepper. There鈥檚 a lot of times when you never see businesses go past the third generation. But we're here. 

How did Journal Center come about?

The decision to relocate (the Journal) from Downtown was made in the mid-1970s. There were discussions about diversifying out of just the newspaper business and getting into the real estate business. A lot of my practice was real estate. And so maybe this is an opportunity not just to move the newspaper but also to move it to a location where you can actually get in the real estate business and start diversifying the family assets.

My first time on the site would have been 鈥�78, 鈥�79. And there wasn't a direct road here. There were no streets. There was nothing.

The first properties that were built were the 近距离内射合集 production building, which was completed in 鈥�82 and the administration (and newsroom) building, which was completed in 鈥�86.

One reason why we selected this site over Downtown is we got a spur from off of the railroad to come right into this location. And so over all the years when we were printing the paper, we were able to bring all our news print here by rail as opposed to by truck Downtown. 

But the biggest reason was Tom's vision as to how Albuquerque was going to grow. He saw Albuquerque moving from Downtown north along I-25. And he was right.

The north I-25 corridor鈥檚 got more employees than any place in the city. We have more employees than Downtown and more employees than Uptown.

Can you talk a bit about the growth of Journal Center?

Journal Center was originally owned by the Albuquerque Academy. It is about 400 acres gross, and that would include all the streets and the arroyo. It's two phases: the original Journal Center, which is kind of everything east of Tiburon, and then Journal Center Two is the stuff back on the west.

When we bought the Academy out, we just bought them out of the original, what I call the Journal Center, which is about 280 of those 400 acres. And then Journal Center Two is about 120 of the 400 acres, which the Academy sold off to others.

But we still maintain all of it. We still govern that. We still enforce the covenants on both Journal Center Two and Journal Center. For the most part, there's nothing left to be sold or developed.

What were the major challenges of developing Journal Center, which now has retail, office, medical, hotels, residential and restaurants?

We had to prove to the community that we were for real. And so we had to put in streets and landscaping and trees and all of that before any buildings were built to show them the Journal Center Corporation was real and we were here for the long term. 

Our related company, Journal Publishing Company, owned the biggest piece of land and built an unbelievable building. But that wasn't enough. We had to show them by building streets and all of that. So we had to front end a lot of that cost.

The other thing is, we weren't your typical developer that said, 鈥淗ow quickly can we sell this land?鈥� That is, we were trying to make a difference. We were trying to create an area that was different than anything else in Albuquerque.

And it centered on landscaping, lush landscaping. Now, granted, we have to move with time, too. We've taken more grass out than we've put in in the last 15 years. But what made us different was this is a place that you can walk. It's got winding sidewalks. It's got grass. It's got trees. 

But you know, you only get about 20% of your prospects. Because the other 80% says, 鈥業鈥檓 not willing to spend the money鈥� (required to meet the higher standards set by the Journal Center covenants). 

Before COVID, we weren't quite as built out, but I figured we had between 10,000 and 11,000 people working in the Journal Center.

Now if you want to be a Class A office park today, you have to have residential within your park. Both of our residential projects are four-story elevator-served apartments, and we have 400 units. So you've got, let's say, probably 650 to 700 residents.

So, we have everything. So, the biggest challenge was just the delay. It took a long time to develop Journal Center.

An integral fact is the newspaper business was very good in the 1980s and 1990s. And that's why Journal Center was able to reach its vision and ultimately turn out the way we'd hoped it would be. Because we were able to stay the test, we were able to get through the tough times. If we would have thrown away our vision and let people just buy land without telling us what they were going to build, we could have gotten it done a lot quicker. But we wouldn't have ended up with what we wanted.

What are the benefits of working at a family owned newspaper, specifically the Journal?

I've had the luxury of primarily working with two owners, Tom and Bill. Having more family members, some of whom don鈥檛 work at the paper, actually makes your life harder. Here, we're all working together.

And this particular family gets back to the core that we're a newspaper. We don't make widgets. We don't invent weird things. We don't do that. We are the No. 1 news source in New Mexico for the public good. Do we want to make a profit? Yeah, we have to. You can't maintain a business if it's not profitable. But that isn't at the heart of our mission.

The Lang family trusted me and gave me a lot of responsibility and gave me some great, challenging work to do. And I'm better for it.

I mean, it's kind of a crazy thing to commute to a place for 40 years. But I like the family. I trust the family. 

One of the best benefits for me, I've never in 40 years had to wonder if I've got to stretch something or if I've got to cross the line on something. We don't do that. And I have a lot of peers that didn't have that.

You have worked for years with Bill and Tom Lang, and most recently with Pepper. Can you talk a bit about how they鈥檙e different and how they鈥檙e the same?

Tom was confident, a risk-taker. He had a much bigger heart than anybody ever gave him credit for. He had a unique management style, a direct management style. Depending on the problem, he knew the four or five people he was going to talk to, and then he was going to make a decision. 

Bill is much more of a community guy. I mean, Bill has brought the Journal 鈥� out into the public more at the high level. We've always been out there as advertisers and stuff, but ownership and editors are out there, where Tom resisted some of that. Bill is a consensus leader. He wants buy-in. He's more deliberate in his decision-making. But again, at the heart of it, you know, he is a family owned, independent newspaper person. He believes in that. That's important to him. That's his family.

Pepper brings a unique thing as far as being a Navy SEAL. He's kind of a combination of his dad and his uncle. He's a little more of a risk-taker. I think he's a little more decisive. He's willing to try to defend what he thinks, and he knows not everybody's going to accept that. But, you know, he's used to being a leader. That whole Navy SEAL network and all the things he's gone through that none of us know about, that's changed him. And it's positive. So, he'll have the confidence of a Tom, but he'll want to be the consensus leader of a Bill.

In conclusion, what is the Journal's longevity and success due to?

I think it's due to the Lang/Pepperday family ownership. It's due to many long-term, talented employees. And it's due to loyal readers and advertisers. To me, that's why we're still around.

Karen Moses is a former editor of the Journal. She can be reached at kmoses@abqjournal.com.

Coming Aug. 9: 50 years of John Trever cartoons anchor the Journal鈥檚 opinion pages.