CUTV News Radio Spotlights Franklin Schurz of Schurz Communications

Bozeman, MT – Franklin Schurz Jr. is the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Schurz Communications Inc., a media holdings company that publishes the South Bend Tribune and 11 other daily papers.

With close to three decades of professional experience in the publishing industry, Schurz served as president of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, the Hoosier State Press Association, the Chesapeake A.P. Association, and the Institute of Newspaper Controllers and Finance Officers.

He has been Editor and Publisher of both the South Bend Tribune in South Bend, Indiana, and the Morning Herald and Daily Mail in Hagerstown, Maryland. Schurz also spent time in broadcasting, serving as President of WDBJ Television, Inc. Roanoke, Virginia; WAGT Television, Inc. Augusta, Georgia; KY3, Inc. Springfield, Missouri; and WASK, Inc. Lafayette, Indiana.

Now retired, Schurz reflects on a career of sustained excellence in the publishing industry.

“We were successful by most definitions. We may have been old fashioned in our values. We went by principles that had been developed before us that we happen to agree with and held true to them.

“It's amazing what you can do when you get a lot of good people and you have a common purpose and then you just let them do what they're terrific at,” says Schurz. “I'm proud of having worked with people who I thought were at their prime. We were recognized nationally despite being a fairly small operation because our people had a free hand to exercise their excellence.

Despite sweeping technological changes in the creation, production, distribution and delivery of newspapers, Schurz still believes journalists are up to the challenge the future presents.