John C. Tompkins left college his junior year to buy his first newspaper. Today, he is owner of News Media Corporation, a company that owns 65 different newspaper titles in eight states, serving smaller cities and towns with populations between 5,000 and 50,000.

Tompkins also boasts good cash flow from his properties, even during a pandemic, and claims that the reason his newspapers maintain profitability is because he makes sure that all of his managers follow simple rules in monitoring their productivity via a system of metrics.

Tompkins is not only bullish on our industry, he thinks now is a great time for entrepreneurs to buy community newspapers. In this segment of E&P Reports, Mike Blinder, publisher of Editor and Publisher, goes one-on-one with Tompkins to learn his secrets to success.