The Mogul Confesses : Publishing Potentate Al Neuharth Applies a Three-Letter Term to Describe Who Earns the Title CEO

NEW YORK â€”  Al Neuharth first realized he was an s.o.b. at the age of 6.

As a young boy growing up in South Dakota, Neuharth’s father died when he was 2, and he fiercely protested his mother’s decision to marry a farmer who had come courting. After he threatened to run away, his mother relented and never did remarry.

“I’ve often wondered whether I did the right thing for Mother,� says Neuharth. “I know it turned out to be the best thing for me. If she had married that guy, my name would be Schmidt and I might still be down on the farm.�

Omen of the Future

Neuharth’s temper tantrum was a sign of things to come, because he has pretty much had things his way ever since. The founder of USA Today and former chairman of the Gannett Co., he is America’s premier media tycoon--a shrewd, conniving operator who by his own admission has stepped over more than a few bodies on his way to the top.

In his 16 years as Gannett’s top officer, Neuharth guided what was once a chain of sleepy, undistinguished newspapers to the heights of the media world. Today, it is a corporate behemoth that includes 84 newspapers, 10 television stations, 16 radio stations, and the nation’s largest billboard firm. Its earnings have increased annually, swelling to a record $364 million last year.

Much of the credit for this expansion goes to the company’s gray-haired, tough-talking former CEO. A short man with a sly, disarming smile, Neuharth has orchestrated brilliant takeover campaigns and, in the case of USA Today, anticipated changing newspaper markets well in advance of his rivals.

Not Out to Pasture

Although he retired from the top post at Gannett earlier this year, Neuharth, 67, hasn’t been put out to pasture quite yet. In his newly published autobiography, “Confessions of an S.O.B.,� he tells the story of his newspaper career--warts and all. He also takes potshots at some of the more well-known personalities in American journalism.

“I believe in being very candid about everything,� says Neuharth, as he relaxes behind a desk in Gannett’s plush New York offices, high above the bump and grind of Midtown Manhattan. While he speaks, nervous aides wait outside, poised to whisk him off to his next stop on a publicity tour for the book.

“To me, an s.o.b. is someone who uses whatever tactics it takes to get the job done, to rise to the top. And in truth, I think that more CEOs or bosses would use my tactics in some degree than will admit it.�

In his book, Neuharth does not paint a pretty picture of the business world. Driven by an insatiable hunger for power, he manipulates friends, ignores his wife and children, torments his rivals and generally stops at nothing to reach his goals. Along the way, he drives hard-working employees into the ground and angers fellow executives with his bullying tactics.

But “Confessions of an S.O.B.� is also an upbeat story: Brushing aside the skepticism of corporate nay-sayers, Neuharth turns USA Today into a success. He wins the loyalty of many employees who come to respect his blunt honesty, and compiles a superb record of hiring women and minorities.

Through it all, Neuharth wears his self-imposed s.o.b. label like a badge of honor. If others find that distasteful, the author could care less.

“I’m going to kick you in the butt if you screw up and pat you on the back when you do well,� he says of his management style. “I treat everyone alike. Sometimes I get complimented and sometimes I get criticism.�

Sometimes he deeply offends people. When Neuharth complained in a USA Today column earlier this year that “most of the young, attractive, enthusiastic female flight attendants . . . have been replaced by aging woman who are tired of their jobs,� he was strongly criticized by flight attendants and other groups for being sexist.

“If that gets me into trouble, I’ll take that,� Neuharth says, sounding amused. “When I criticize a female or when I criticize a grossly overweight person or anybody else, it’s because, dammit, I think they ought to do better, just as I do (with) men.�

It is only toward the end of the book that Neuharth grudgingly acknowledges the drawbacks of his all-business approach to life. But, perhaps tellingly, he allows others to make the point. In four separate chapters, his two ex-wives as well as his son and daughter criticize a husband and father who apparently cared more about rising to the top than listening to problems at home.

“Al Neuharth is a snake,� writes his second wife, Lori Wilson, a former Florida state senator. “The world is Al’s prey. He’s like a stalking animal. Once you’re his target, professionally or personally, he’ll do whatever it takes to get you. You might as well roll over and enjoy it.�

Neuharth’s son Dan, now a journalist and a psychologist, writes that he and other family members have come to terms with their father and love him. But he says his adolescence reflected “the deep hurt of a young boy whose father chose career ahead of family.�

‘Cried a Little’

To be sure, the former CEO says he “cried a little� when he read these chapters. But what might be a private matter for most families has become a ritual of public promotion for the Neuharths: This week, the family appears on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show to hawk the new book and discuss the problems of “living with an s.o.b.�

Asked why she would help her ex-husband promote the book, Wilson doesn’t bat an eye. “I’m hoping he’ll remember me in the will,� she says.

Neuharth also relishes the publicity, however negative. As he relaxes behind a desk, his left leg swung over the arm of a chair, the author says his book consists of lessons for aspiring s.o.b.’s. They are especially useful, he says, “if you were born middle class or poor and have to make your own way.�

Lesson One: Where Will The Promotion Lead?

As a young reporter at the Miami Herald in 1954, Neuharth impressed editors with his ability to jump on breaking stories. Three years later, they offered him the job of running the paper’s Washington bureau or directing its city desk. Neuharth chose the latter because he felt it might lead to other promotions. He also concluded this was no time to kick back and enjoy his early success.

Points of Departure

“With every promotion, I tried to figure out in advance where that job would lead. Some people view promotions as a measure of approval. I saw them as points of departure to the next, bigger job.�

Lesson Two: He Who Leads Should Learn When to Leave

Years later, through hard work, clever career choices and skillful self-promotion, Neuharth had risen to the second-ranking executive position at the Gannett Co. Paul Miller, the firm’s 65-year-old CEO, had assisted Neuharth in his climb up the corporate ladder. But the ambitious young executive soon began plotting his overthrow.

The deal was cut when Neuharth, then 49, threatened to leave the company if he didn’t become CEO within a year. At a secret meeting, Miller was told by Gannett’s board of directors that he had to relinquish his post.

“I don’t think it was cruel at all, I think I did him (Miller) a favor,� says Neuharth. “He was a prime example of many, many bosses and CEOs in the business world who cannot let go. His company suffered and his employees suffered.�

Lesson Three: Expect Others to Do Unto You What You Would Do to Them.

Now that he was Gannett’s CEO, Neuharth says he had to be on the lookout for those who would topple him from power. The first threat came in 1978 from Karl Eller, head of the Combined Communications Corp., a conglomerate of newspapers, billboard companies and broadcast stations.

Eller discussed a possible merger with Gannett, but Neuharth guessed that he wanted to run the company. That suspicion was confirmed when Eller, who was a guest in Neuharth’s Florida home, accidentally left the room intercom switch on when he telephoned his wife in Phoenix.

With Neuharth listening in, the unsuspecting Eller reportedly told his wife: “Honey, this is gonna work, I know it is. I’ll run it all within six months. Al’s OK, but he’s just not as good as I am. I’ll have it all.�

Fought Back

Armed with this information, Neuharth blocked Eller’s efforts to take over leadership of the two companies, which by then had merged. In a dramatic showdown, he won the backing of a majority of the board of directors, forcing Eller to resign from the board three months later. “He was accidentally feeding me his game plan,� explains Neuharth. “Would I turn that (intercom) off? If you heard somebody say, ‘I’m going to get your ass,’ would you listen to see how he’s going to get your ass? I listened. I’m glad I did.�

Not all of Neuharth’s war stories have a happy ending. In his biggest setback, Gannett’s 1985 campaign to merge with CBS backfired. Looking back, the hard-charging CEO says he was too aggressive--and too insensitive to corporate pride at CBS.

In a tense meeting with CBS officials, for example, Neuharth voiced impatience with the pace of business negotiations over the $9-billion merger. He snapped that the deal had been agreed to, and that he would head up the proposed new company, with CBS honcho Tom Wyman holding the No. 2 post. The proposed merger fell apart shortly thereafter.

“I blew it,� he says. “I flexed my muscles, my ego was overwhelming. I should have let Tom tell them the news. Instead, here I come in and say, ‘Hey, you guys. . . .Let’s get this deal done.’ It was dumb.�

A good chunk of the book is devoted to Neuharth’s greatest triumph, the launching of USA Today. The flashy newspaper, which pioneered a blend of color photos and graphics with snappy, upbeat stories, is now the nation’s second-largest daily paper, with an estimated 4.8 million daily readers.

As a result of his brainchild, Neuharth claims, “more newspapers have decided that a good newspaper doesn’t have to be dull. I think it (USA Today) has convinced major newspapers that they’d better get with it and get colorful and interesting if they’re going to compete with other print media.�

Industry Criticism

Critics, however, say the paper has trivialized journalism. When it first appeared, Benjamin Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post, declared that, “If USA Today is a good newspaper, then I’m in the wrong business.�

In response, Neuharth told a USA Today board meeting that “Bradlee and I finally agree on something. He is in the wrong business.�

The war of words between Bradlee and Neuharth is one of the highlights of “Confessions of an S.O.B.� But the author also makes free-wheeling comments about the state of American journalism beyond the Potomac:

According to Neuharth, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times head the list of the nation’s top 10 newspapers. The Tribune is cited for offering a “balanced combination� of news from the Midwest and the world. The Times “might edge the Tribune as No. 1,� he adds, if the Times’ editors “could control the endless prose of many of its so-called stars.�

Meanwhile, Neuharth claims that the New York Times is a “dull good newspaper� and that the Washington Post is the nation’s most “over-rated newspaper,� because it is “erratic. . . .It will run hard with unethical or unprovable stories, usually involving politicians.�

He also repeats one of his favorite theories, that Bradlee was the mysterious “Deep Throat� of Watergate, a shadowy figure who fed key information to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. To this day, the true identity of Deep Throat has never been revealed.

“It’s a theory and a hunch, I have no evidence whatsoever,� he says. “Bradlee was in the best possible position to gather and feed to them, based on tips to him at cocktail parties, telephone calls. And my instincts tell me that (they) decided this was the thing that would give sex appeal to the Watergate story.�

Bradlee has declined comment. A secretary adds that the Post’s executive editor “has no intention of responding to what Mr. Neuharth says.�

As the interview draws to a close, Neuharth sounds vague or just plain evasive when asked about his future plans. The normally blunt executive says something about “new ventures� and waves off further questions.

He claims, however, that retirement has opened him up to human experiences that he would not have had before as a CEO. From the beginning, Neuharth says, he has been a “people person� no matter what critics say.

Pressed for an example of his new sensitivity, the author says that he recently had a pleasant in-flight chat with a stewardess about his controversial “skygirl� remarks. Neuharth had left a copy of his book on the plane and was standing in the baggage claim area when “this efficient, attractive flight attendant in her blouse and high heels came running up.

“She’d run off the plane with this book, and she said, ‘Mr. Neuharth, you left this book behind, unless you wanted me to have it.’ So we hugged and I thanked her. Well, that was an experience with a real person who was a total stranger that you don’t have when you’re in a sheltered kind of life.�