Let's Hope There's a Chapter 2 for Chris

I certainly hope today's news of Chris Hendricks retiring from McClatchy doesn’t mean we’ll hear the last of this dynamic industry leader. At 54, he’s far too young to retire. And the industry certainly needs his brash, sometimes blunt leadership style.

I’ve experienced the Hendricks Effect firsthand. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting on the board of the Local Media Association and have seen it there, and have watched him disrupt numerous other meetings that, until his intervention, had been droning along.

In 2015, Chris earned our Award of Merit, based in part on how impressive his leadership of the Local Media Consortium had been. While presenting the award on stage, I said I would have bet against any media initiative that involved the word “consortium.” I was wrong – because I hadn’t counted on Chris being at the helm.

The local media industry – not just newspapers, but broadcast media as well – is stronger and more viable because of Chris’ leadership. He’s been involved in interactive media more than two decades, from the early days of the Internet while at Nando.net in Raleigh. He’s been a vocal critic of pureplay competitors attempting to be friends but in reality eating everyone’s lunch. Conversely, he’s also been eager to embrace those who have been earnest and fair in their efforts to partner with local media, as we're seeing from Facebook right now.

McClatchy, like many companies that own metro newspapers, is under duress as print ad revenues continue to plummet. Chris leaves them in a much better position than had someone else been at their digital helm. The company has transformed to the point that it got 30.6% of its total ad revenue from digital sales in 2016 – far greater than the industry average. When many newspaper companies hunker down to protect print, Chris has led McClatchy toward the growth light – pursuing digital-only sales. And the proof has been in the results: McClatchy’s bundled (digital with print) sales  saw a 14% decline last year while digital-only sales grew 14%.

As my friend, Michael Romaner from Morris Communications, said, “No one in the industry has brought more vision and contributed more to the industry than my friend Chris Hendricks.”

I agree.