Hazleton Standard-Speaker, June 28

Hazleton Standard-Speaker sale good for area, new publisher says

By Kent Jackson
Staff Writer

People and businesses in Hazleton can become more attuned to places from Scranton to Pottsville now that the Standard-Speaker belongs to a regional news organization, the new publisher told members of the Chamber of Commerce on June 27.

Publisher Scott Lynett said his family’s company, Times Shamrock Communications, can use its resources to make Hazleton better known to its neighboring cities.

“There are great stories in Hazleton,” he said during the chamber’s Red Carpet Breakfast at the Top of the 80s restaurant. “We believe by getting the word out there, breaking down those walls, it’s going to benefit this community.”

Lynett said he believes Hazleton advertisers can benefit from the reach of Times Shamrock just as businesses in Wilkes-Barre expanded markets when Times Shamrock purchased The Citizens’ Voice newspaper there.

“It’s been a huge growth engine for our clients,” he said.

In the past week, The Citizens’ Voice published articles on the 150th anniversary of Hazleton and the economy of Hazleton. Lynett said those stories wouldn’t have reached Wilkes-Barre readers before Times Shamrock bought the Standard-Speaker on May 1.

In addition to the Standard-Speaker and The Citizens’ Voice, the company owns the REPUBLICAN & Herald in Pottsville and its flagship, the Scranton Times-Tribune, that Lynett’s great-grandfather, E.J. Lynett, purchased 112 years ago. Times Shamrock also owns daily newspapers in Towanda and Shamokin; weeklies in Detroit; Baltimore; Orlando, Fla.; San Antonio, Texas, and smaller communities; Scranton radio stations WEJL ESPN Radio 630 and 1240 AM, WEZX Rock 107 FM and WQFM and stations in Milwaukee, Wis.; Baltimore and Tulsa, Okla.

Lynett called publishing the Standard-Speaker his dream job, which he prepared for by earning a Master’s of Business Administration and law degrees and by working at The Citizens’ Voice. He said his family is committed to staying in Hazleton for decades. The Standard-Speaker will invest a portion of revenues into community organizations, just as Times Shamrock’s other businesses do in their communities.

Times Shamrock will spend $500,000 to equip the Standard-Speaker this year and continue to train the workers to remain competitive with other media, he said.

“If we can improve the Standard-Speaker, I think we can improve the community,” he said.

At the company’s newspapers in Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Pottsville, some 150 journalists gather stories.

“If we can provide that content,” Lynett said, “we should be able to get a larger audience than ever before.”

In Greater Hazleton, according to a new study by Times Shamrock, 36,500 of 78,000 people read the Standard-Speaker. That gives the Standard-Speaker a market penetration rate of 46 percent, an enviable rate in an industry where newspapers in New York and other major cities achieve rates of 10 percent to 15 percent, he said.

A business advertising once in the Standard-Speaker would have to advertise on the top four television shows – “American Idol,” Dancing with the Stars,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “CSI” – to reach as many people in Greater Hazleton, Lynett said.

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