JOURNAL CENTENNIAL
No suit, no degree, no limits
How Tom Lang built a media empire on his own terms
Editor鈥檚 note: Today鈥檚 Centennial Sunday focuses on the 40-year tenure of Thompson H. Lang as publisher of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口, the third generation to do so.
It reads more like a novel than real life. A man at the age of 24 is forced to take over his family鈥檚 news enterprise after his father鈥檚 sudden death. Instead of selling the operation for a quick profit as some advise him to do, he expands the organization, eventually creating a dozen new businesses. Some serve clients from around the world.
He moves the newspaper to a modern, state-of-the-art newspaper publishing campus and creates a massive futuristic landscaped business park called Journal Center, which eventually employs roughly 10,000 people.
The man is not the typical business tycoon. Without a college degree and rarely seen in a suit, he is known simply as Tom to friends and to generations of employees. He is as comfortable working on the latest press machinery as he is leading discussions in a boardroom.
Longtime maintenance and pressroom employee Ray Hunter said that while Tom鈥檚 father knew about the plant and its machinery, it was Tom who 鈥渒new how to run everything.鈥� When a new piece of equipment came in, 鈥渉e would show us how it worked.鈥�
Tom also happened to be a pilot, even purchasing and flying a Russian aerobatic plane just for fun.
A colorful character in a fiction adventure? No. This was Thompson H. Lang, publisher of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 for more than 40 years, representing the third generation of the Pepperday/Lang family to do so.
A 鈥榥ews junkie鈥�
Tom Lang shared many traits of his father, C.T. Lang, and great uncle, Thomas Pepperday, the Journal鈥檚 two prior publishers. All three were very private individuals. They did not seek public recognition for their many philanthropic activities. They were savvy and visionary businessmen. And they took the role of the state鈥檚 largest newspaper to heart.
Tom Lang started his tenure as publisher of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 in 1971, after the sudden death of his father. He became president of both the Journal Publishing Co. and sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Publishing Co. The sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Publishing Co. printed and distributed the Journal as well as an afternoon paper called The sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Tribune. It was one of many newspapers across the nation owned by E.W. Scripps.
For the next four decades, Lang oversaw the growth of the Journal from 鈥渉ot type鈥� to the digital age, launching its first website.
He also greatly expanded the Journal鈥檚 reach by creating bureaus in Las Cruces; Washington, D.C.; Santa Fe; Rio Rancho; and Downtown sa国际传媒官网网页入口.
While leaving the day-to-day management of the newspaper to its editors, he was intensely interested in politics and news events. He was what many of us refer to as a 鈥渘ews junkie.鈥�
In fact, if a major event was occurring somewhere in the country, he would fly a team of Journal reporters and photographers in the Journal Publishing Co. jet to cover it 鈥� from the Oklahoma City bombing, to earthquakes, to hurricanes, to Ground Zero in New York City after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
鈥淗e was a strong supporter of the newsroom and had a real affection for the reporters digging for stories,鈥� said former longtime Journal editor Kent Walz, who worked with Lang for nearly 30 years. 鈥淗e was committed to uncovering and reporting the truth.鈥�
Walz recounted the time that then-governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson called Lang after a story he did not like was published. Richardson demanded that Lang fire Walz.
Needless to say, that did not happen.
Lang the entrepreneur
鈥淗e was confident. He was a risk taker,鈥� said Lowell Hare, president and CEO of Journal Center and longtime executive vice president and CFO of sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Publishing Co.
That risk often paid off.
When Lang received word of his father鈥檚 death, Lang was in Florida helping to install a press for Scripps. It was a role he had taken on due, in part, to his interest in machinery.
According to Hare, Lang realized that presses were always installed by the same company that sold them. Since there was no competition, 鈥渢hey could charge pretty much what they wanted.鈥�
鈥淪o, Tom got the wild hair that he was going to start his own press installation company,鈥� Hare said. 鈥淚n 1971, the same time he鈥檚 going through all of his new sa国际传媒官网网页入口 stuff, he starts Masthead International.鈥�
In the beginning, 鈥渉e brings in all these wild dudes from across the country he met鈥� while installing other presses, Hare said. Masthead ends up putting in presses for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune 鈥� 鈥渏ust about every major newspaper company in the country鈥� 鈥� as well as newspapers outside the U.S.
Locally, Masthead became a heavy equipment moving company. 鈥淲e moved all the equipment into the Intel facilities,鈥� Hare said.
Lang went on to either purchase or create another 10 or so companies, all complementing the newspaper operation and plant. They ranged from a landscaping business, to a polling company, to a security firm.
He also had the vision to purchase land far from the city鈥檚 core to build Journal Center.
A newsman at heart
Despite all of his enterprises, 鈥渢here is no doubt in my mind that Tom鈥檚 responsibility as publisher of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 was the most important thing to him,鈥� Hare said.
Part of the responsibility extended to a passion for protecting free speech.
In fact, Lang鈥檚 support 鈥� financial and otherwise 鈥� helped found the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, the state鈥檚 leading nonprofit advocate for transparency. He also supported many civil lawsuits to secure public records from government entities throughout the state.
Lang was a major philanthropist, mostly quietly, behind the scenes. Few knew of his contributions to multiple organizations, including All Faiths Receiving Home.
He declined to sit on community or business boards, fearing it would create the impression of favoritism in the reporting process. Some in the community viewed this insistence on privacy as being aloof and elitist.
He would use the Journal Publishing Co. plane to fly speakers from outside New Mexico to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 for charity events; transport hearts for transplants; ferry cancer patients out of state for treatment; and carry animals to the Rio Grande Zoo.
鈥淗e had a much bigger heart than anybody ever gave him credit for,鈥� Hare said.
A few years before his death, Lang stepped away from his role leading the newspaper due to health issues. He died in 2015, at age 69. He was succeeded as publisher by his brother, William P. Lang.
Coming May 3: Take a step back in time to the early 鈥�70s when the 鈥渉ot type鈥� printing process was used to turn reporters鈥� stories into a newspaper. A series of 50-year-old portraits tells the story.
Karen Moses is a retired Journal editor and can be reached at kmoses@abqjournal.com.
