Saturday, July 1, 2000 | 3:12 a.m.
Given that the Las Vegas Sun was born in much simpler times, the paper offered just words back then, albeit meaningful ones.
In today's high-tech, computerized world, the Sun is so much more than that -- and in the coming years it will be even more than it is now -- says Sun Editor and President Brian Greenspun.
"I think the future of the Las Vegas Sun is dynamite," he said. "It won't only be newsprint. It won't only be the Internet. It won't only be broadcasting. It'll be those plus whatever else is coming. I'm convinced it will be something that doesn't exist now."
"I can't tell you all the shapes and sizes it is going to take. But what I can tell you is my family is committed to making sure we are a communications company a generation from now, and, hopefully, two generations or three generations from now."
Greenspun says those who sit on their laurels and don't change in an ever-changing world will suffer the consequences -- including obsolescence.
"I always remember the story about the train companies -- what happened to the railroads," he said. "It was back in the early 1900s that airplanes (came about) and the railroads had the first opportunity to (invest in them). They said nope, we are a train company (not) a transportation company. So they went down with their blinders on."
"I never wanted that to happen to us. We are a newspaper company. Beyond that we are a communications company. Communications to me means the gathering of information and the dissemination of that information in a way that makes it useful and reliable to the community."
Greenspun says that process is not restricted to newspapers, TV, and the Internet.
"What it is restricted to," he said, "is (getting) quality individuals to gather information. We have developed what I think is an incredible reportorial, editorial, photographic staff that can do much more than print on a piece of paper what they have gathered.
"They can send it out on the Internet, which we are doing. They can put it out on Las Vegas 1, which we are doing. They can distribute it to the satellites, which we are going to figure out how to do. So the core of the Las Vegas Sun is the people."
Much of what Brian knows about newspapering he learned from his father, late Sun Editor/Publisher Hank Greenspun.
"He started a newspaper on guts -- he ran it on guts," Brian said. "A lot of great journalists came here because he had guts, and they had a willingness to follow him and work for practically nothing. His life was the Las Vegas Sun."
But despite all of the success the Sun has achieved with its award-winning editorial content, Brian is quick to note that the Sun never has been a financial success and, given the climate for smaller papers in today's big chain-controlled media industry, the independent newspaper probably won't ever be a financial success.
"At the end of the day, the economics of newspapering does not favor the second newspaper in a town making any money -- so it was always week-to-week, paycheck-to-paycheck for this newspaper," Greenspun said. "Given that as a backdrop, my dad was always looking for ways to secure the future of the Las Vegas Sun."
Critics of the Sun have been quick to say that Hank used the editorial power of his paper -- and later ignored the needs of the publication -- to build a personal fortune in other ventures, including early television, cable television and the development of Green Valley.
Brian says such analysts are, like the short-sighted railroaders, on the wrong track.
"I grew up and grew older listening to that criticism from people who didn't know their behinds from a hot rock, but who were always willing to express their own beliefs for my father's motivations for anything he did," Brian Greenspun said.
"You read it all over the place. Every time something is written about Hank -- he did it because of this and he did it because (of that). But I was in the room. I know what the motivation was. First, foremost and only the Sun's survival was the only thing he gave a damn about."
Brian said of course his dad knew there was money to be made from other ventures, but: "He was hoping to generate (money) to keep the newspaper alive because, in Hank Greenspun's mind, the most important calling he had was to run a newspaper in the city of Las Vegas."
And so in the 1950s Hank opened KLAS Channel 8, which he later sold to billionaire Howard Hughes, and which still operates today as Channel 8. In the 1970s he won the franchise rights to build what became the largest cable distributor in the valley.
The most important things Brian learned from his father in the newspaper industry came early in his career and are still practiced at the Sun today.
"The most important thing I ever learned about the newspaper business from my dad was that when you write about people, you must be as accurate as you can and as fair as you can be because the harm that you can do is so much greater if you write something that is wrong about a person than if you took their money," he said.
"People's reputations and their good names -- he believed -- were the most important things they had. And we had a responsibility to make sure that when we wrote stories or columns about them that we were fair."
"Now what's fair is a subjective determination. If you have a belief -- an honest belief -- that someone is doing wrong, and your facts support that, you go write it. But, if you don't know, you have a responsibility to ask."
Greenspun, who has worked at the Sun in many capacities since he was 12, was, in his 30s, given by his father the job of running the paper.
"He said: 'I'm going to be looking over your shoulder. But I want you to make the decisions that have to do with the business of this newspaper. If there are decisions you make that are going to cost money, I'm not going to interfere because you have to make those mistakes. If it is only money, I don't care. But if it is a mistake in terms of people, I'm going to step in.' "
Brian recalled that at editorial meetings the topics of conversation about stories were whether the Sun was right about someone -- "Is he a good guy, is he a bad guy? Did he do right or did he do wrong? It was never anything about is it going to upset an advertiser? Can we make any money? -- none of those things ever entered into it."
Brian Greenspun is the second of four children Hank and his wife, Barbara, raised. In addition to graduating from Las Vegas High, he earned both a bachelor's degree and law degree from Georgetown University.
Upon returning to Las Vegas in 1972, Brian worked in the Clark County public defender's office and was an alternate Juvenile Court judge and an alternate North Las Vegas Municipal Court judge. He is a member of both the Nevada and California Bar Associations.
But like his late father, who also was an attorney, Brian's heart was in another field -- newspapering. And, while he has gone on to be successful in many ventures associated with the Sun, his roots are deep in the newspaper.
"What I see for myself and what others see for me may be very different," he said. "I grew up in this newspaper. My father was editor and publisher of the Las Vegas Sun. One title he was very proud to have (editor), the other he felt he needed (publisher)."
"I always wanted to be editor of the Las Vegas Sun. I keep the title president and editor. I'm president because, from a business standpoint, I'm ultimately responsible for the way this business works. I've jealously guarded the editorship even though there may be far more qualified people in our newsroom to be editor."
"(Being) editor says to me I have a significant impact on the quality of information that is disseminated into this community. That is what an editor's role is, and that is where I see my role."
If he could describe himself as either just a "newspaperman" or as just a "businessman," Brian says it's no contest -- he would pick newspaperman.
"Am I a businessman? Yeah, (but) I don't like the title," said Brian, who in 1993 was appointed by his longtime friend and college chum, President Clinton, to the White House Conference on Small Business Commission.
"I am introduced when I give speeches as a successful businessman. I cringe. I don't like it. Businessman means to me the pursuit of the bottom line. I have never pursued a bottom line."
"A newspaperman means that you have a heart and soul and means you are intertwined with your community. That is what I would choose for myself. Whether I am perceived that way is wide open to debate. I know that. I understand that."
He says he fears he never will be perceived as the editor his father was. But Brian also says, if all of the other Sun-related business interests went away and just the Sun remained, "I'd like to come down here and write columns and edit the newspaper."
As president of Greenspun Inc., however, Brian is in charge of a lot more than just a newspaper.
As chief executive officer of the family's management company, his interests include American Nevada Corp., which developed Green Valley in Henderson, the company's interest in Cox Communications cable TV, and the Greenspun Media Group. The magazines ShowBiz Weekly, Las Vegas Life, and Vegas Golfer, the weekly papers In Business Las Vegas and Las Vegas Weekly, the online service Vegas.com, and the political commentary The Ralston Report are all part of the Greenspun Media Group.
In the last 10 years he has been the primary force in significantly increasing his family's wealth through sharp business investments. Brian credits, in part, Southern Nevada's good business climate for not only his success, but also for his parents' success.
"It is being in the right place at the right time," he said. "You can make a lot of mistakes in this town and, because of the incredible growth, overcome them, where if you make those same mistakes in a town that is not growing you are out of business."
"I think the secret to my success is that I have had parents who were willing to risk what they had on the ideas and initiative of their kids. Most family businesses that you read about have the founders who have made it and who are very reluctant to turn it over to the next generation for fear they will blow it all."
"Because I had a father who came from nothing, he risked it every single day because it didn't mean anything to him."
Brian Greenspun, like his father, attempts to use other successful ventures to further the success of the Sun. Two such businesses are ShowBiz Weekly, originally called Visions magazine, and the cable company, originally called Community Cable TV.
Brian's first attempt at a cable TV guide failed. In the early 1980s, however, Sun entertainment columnist Dick Maurice and his business agent, Gary Greco -- both have since died -- came to Brian to pitch a similar idea.
They said, "Why don't you change the nature of this magazine to an entertainment magazine? Write about everything that is going on in this town (combine it with the cable television listings) and put it in all of the hotel rooms," Brian said, noting that they also suggested that the new magazine be inserted into the Sunday paper.
"My dad said it won't work," Brian recalled. "He said there is no way one hotel is going to put (a magazine with) another hotel's ads in their hotel rooms."
Still, he told Brian to give it a try because it was a worthy idea, especially during what was a bad recession -- a time when new ideas were needed to stimulate the economy.
At that time Steve Wynn, operator of the Golden Nugget, and Henry Lewin, operator of the Las Vegas Hilton, were engaging in a friendly rivalry of one-upmanship with various promotions.
When Wynn put Visions magazine in his rooms, it was with the understanding that it would contain no advertising from other hotels. Brian contacted Wynn one day and told him he was changing the name of the magazine from Visions to ShowBiz and that he would be selling advertising to other hotels.
"He said, you know my policy -- there will never be advertising from another hotel in a room at the Golden Nugget," Brian said. He said he told Wynn, "I've got to tell you, the same magazine that would have gone in your rooms with your ads is going in the 2,000, 3,000 rooms at the Las Vegas Hilton."
Greenspun recalled Wynn saying: "Are you telling me that if I have an ad in the magazine and you put it in my rooms, I get to talk to the people in the Hilton rooms?" to which Greenspun responded yes, which was followed by a short pause.
"He said the policy at the Golden Nugget had just changed. 'I want the magazine in my rooms. I want the back page. And I don't want you to ever take it out.' That made the magazine. Thank goodness for Henry Lewin and Steve Wynn for their vision."
Shortly after that, other hotels bought advertising and put ShowBiz in their rooms.
In the early 1970s the efforts to install cable valley-wide had stalled -- wrapped in so much legal red tape that only an attorney could sort it out. Brian was given that task.
"It became my job to create the environment where cable could grow and get the right kind of partners that can make it grow," Greenspun said, noting that a number of other people assisted him in accomplishing that and other successes with the product.
"It (cable TV) really helped the newspaper when we needed it. Everybody wanted cable, while everyone didn't want a newspaper. I did a lot of work at the Legislature that helped it. That created an opportunity for people to have cable if they wanted it."
"The cable business allowed this family to have the wherewithal to make a better newspaper (and) to go create other editorial products that over time are going to be very significant in this town. It has given us a sense of economic freedom, if you will, to fulfill not only my dreams but the visions of all my siblings."
Greenspun says change in a newspaper's philosophy is inevitable when the times and town are constantly changing. So the Sun today is far different from the Sun of yesteryear.
"(A lot of) this section that we are publishing, which commemorates the 50-year anniversary of the Sun, is what the Sun has been and what it has meant to the community," he said. "I believe newspapers are as much a reflection of their communities as they are a beacon to the community of where they might be."
"The town has matured and it continues to mature, so therefore the quality and quantity and the type of news we cover has matured with it. Today, there aren't those inherently rotten people (to crusade against). Are there things that are wrong? Sure, (but) my sense is that most of the people who are doing these things are making dumb mistakes. They are not necessarily malicious people."
Greenspun said a crusading editor today "would be looking real hard to find big issues to deal with. It's a different kind of fight. The nuances are different, the subtleties are much greater. There are still bad things happening -- things that need to change -- but they are evolutionary, not revolutionary. So we cover the news."
"I am not the crusader my dad was, although I would like to think that if an issue came up, I would be willing and able to jump out in front of it."
Brian Greenspun and his wife, Myra, have been married 29 years. They have a daughter who this year followed in her father's and grandfather's footsteps by graduating from law school.
Asked what one thing he would do immediately -- if it were his decision alone -- to improve the situation for the Sun, Greenspun said: "I'd buy the Review-Journal."
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