OK, too much time. When you call a Hilton property home, you probably have a problem. Being on the road a lot sucks, but then again, so does unemployment. One thing that happens when you travel a lot is incessant boredom. I mean, you can only go to dinner so many times solo or sit alone in hotel bars before you want to visit the local insane asylum so many times. After a while, your head explodes.

Like now. I’m sitting on a plane and I’m bored to tears on this lovely way-too-freakin’ small regional jet. I’m heading west to deal with a problem at a newspaper, but that’s another story.

Boredom doesn’t just strike wanton former-journalists flying around the country. It also hits corporate newspaper executives as well as the local publishers.

Ever wonder how so many stupid corporate decisions are made? You know, the ones like outsourcing circulation call centers to regional facilities; the elimination of re-delivery for readers who didn’t get their newspaper; consolidating advertising production; the centralizing of credit and finance functions? And, shock of shocks, consolidation of copy editing and the closing pressrooms?

They came out of boredom. Yep, I think so. Either that, or the above-mentioned insane asylum. Never mind that they save most newspaper company’s a butt load of money. No, these ideas were most likely thought up in a bar somewhere by someone who was bored out of their mind and perhaps had had a few too many.

And never mind that many other industries have consolidated operations into either regional or national centers. Never mind the newspaper industry was living high on the hog and beyond its means for years before the you-know-what hit the fan. Forget the fact that the publisher, er, I mean President & Publisher have had their own little kingdoms for more than a century.

Nope, these seemingly insane ideas, and every other idiotic idea that has reduced the true value of a local newspaper has, I believe, been hatched out of pure boredom.

But, boredom doesn’t just strike when you’re traveling. Indeed, boredom hits during inclement weather as well.

If it snows where you live, or are reading this, you know that the newspaper building becomes a ghost town when it snows.

Sure, there are reporters, editors and production staff, but advertising and a lot of the executive branch play hookey and stay home.

But not the publisher. Nope, the stalwart icon of the newspaper usually trudges in and goes into their office. Why?

Who knows. Maybe they feel the need to feel important. Maybe they feel badly not going to work when they bitch at people who don’t. Who knows.

But, one thing is for sure, when they get to the office, they settle in.

And they get bored.

But, the publisher’s boredom usually translates into dumb new projects or asinine questions.

One recent snowy day somewhere in the country, a bored publisher started asking questions about all the projects corporate had launched to most members of the operating committee.

Now, some of the OC reveled in this thinking that they were getting special attention from an otherwise aloof P&P.

The more seasoned executives, however, recognized this for what it was.

Boredom.

Never mind that the boredom-fuelled questions and demands to participate in this or that took time away from dealing with the real issues of the day – growing revenue, remaining relevant to the community and saving jobs. Nope, this publisher (or shall we say dictator) never cares about that.

And that, my friends, is one of the biggest problems I see with modern publishers. They don’t care.

Perhaps they’re bored with the state of the newspaper. Perhaps they long for a by-gone era when publishers were publishers and not junior accountants. Perhaps they are bored with hearing newspapers are dying.

For whatever reason, these very same publishers are the ones who have gotten us in to this mess.

A long time ago, publishers used to be the definitive answer and authority in a town. Many publishers carried as much weight (both in physical weight and political power) as the mayor. In many cases, the mayor still has a direct line to the publisher and vice versa. Yes, publishers prior to chain ownership were truly powerful people.

They typically came from long lines of publishers. Wealthy families that owned the newspaper. They were demigods.

But all that changed when newspapers started coming under the ownership of far-away companies. Group publishers were created to oversee the publishers. Vice presidents were created to oversee the group publishers. And along the way, the publishers became the CEO and CFO of the newspaper.

Sure, there are controllers or finance executives to oversee the daily numbers, but the publisher is the person charged with ensuring a core profit is made. A publisher is responsible with maintaining the newspaper’s P&L. The publishers hate what they do.

I believe most publishers who came up on the editorial side want nothing more than to be back in a newsroom, chewing out a reporter who didn’t get a fact straight. Publishers from the advertising and other disciplines (are there really other disciplines any more) want to go back to their roots and not have to deal with layoffs, dwindling profits and rising expenses.

Publishers want to return to the kingdom as the czars they once were. But, that won’t happen. I know a senior vice president of a publishing company who at one time was a publisher. She hates her current job. I don’t know who would want to move down from a publisher’s role to a corporate V.P., I mean, trust me, working on the corporate staff isn't a lot of fun. I believe she longs to be a publisher again in a little town.

Fact of the matter is, who wouldn’t want that? You can make decisions that help shape your community; you are the town’s big shot and you quite frankly do what the hell you want.

Pretty cool work if you can get it.

But publishers have become lazy and nothing more than corporate hacks. It’s time for them to grow a pair and return to being publishers. Executives who are hard-driving and full of themselves. People who know how to both intimidate and be humble. People who are, well, publishers.

And publishers publish – they leave running the various departments to the department heads. The way it should be.

The way it was.

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