As his newspaper group grew, my father was aware of, and took full advantage of, the economics of scale of group ownership. Besides the obvious advantage of central or mass purchasing, a chain can afford to do things a small independent paper could not do. Hire a man to do nothing but travel from newspaper to newspaper developing advertising sales, for instance, or developing circulation. “This consolidation applies to many businesses,” he said. “There are not as many mom and pop food stores today, or as many family farms.”
But changes were kept to a minimum. “He does not want to change just for change alone,” Middlesworth said. “If change is necessary to improve the product, we make that change gradually. You can’t or don’t want to change the paper’s image to the reader. He’s a very patient man.”
As Ken Byerly said, my father may be best understood as a collector or a builder. “He likes to see things grow. He takes in accomplishment. He’s very proud of the fact that his group of newspapers is now up to whatever it is up to. He feels this is accomplishment.”
One new technology in the newspaper field, the video-display terminals that allowed copy to be set directly into type from a reporter’s VDT, did cause Pops some concern. VDT’s placed more responsibility on the reporter to keep his copy free from spelling or grammar errors. “When we hire somebody now, we have to give them a spelling and grammar test,” Pops said. “I can’t say this is a great advance. It doesn’t make interesting writers. Some of the best writers I know can’t spell worth anything.”
And so my father was active in managing his companies even into his later years. A 1990 graduate of Ithaca College, Rodd Perry remembers being a “little awestruck” working for Pops his senior year: “He’s probably one of the only people I’ve called ‘Sir’ in my life….He really had a presence….He was very much involved in the running of his newspapers and radio stations down to minute details.” Ed Adams, general manager of WNCT in Greenville, said, “Mr. Park knew you on a first-name basis, and he knew what an operation was doing.”
He had no plans to retire. When he was seventy-one, he said, “I’ve seen a lot of my friends retire and get out of the stream of things. They’re not only unhappy, they get dull. They get very sensitive and feel people don’t treat them right. In business, I meet some of the most interesting and stimulating people. Besides, I enjoy it.” As banker John Watlington put it, “There are people who just don’t recognize time or age restrictions, who just go on doing what they want to do.”