The walls of Paul Scholl’s office in Carmichael are filled with print replicas of classic art, three portraits of Jesus Christ and a Bible quote. But behind his desk hangs a mounted dagger with a feather attached. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” explains Scholl. As a career newsman and ordained minister, he understands the power of the written word. It’s made him successful in business.

Scholl started a newspaper close to 18 years ago and bought others as the owners looked to retire or struggled financially. Today, his company Messenger Publishing Group publishes 18 papers (11 weeklies, five bi-weeklies and two monthly) covering 13 cities across six Capital Region counties. The group he built has a total monthly print circulation of 230,000. And he’s looking to buy more.

Scholl continues to purchase papers while print advertising revenue and circulation numbers decline industry-wide, according to the Pew Research Center. A report from the Medill School of Journalism showed 3,200 print newspapers in the U.S. ceased since around the time Scholl started publishing. Newspaper owners are struggling, but not Scholl.

“We had our biggest month ever last month. We’re gaining steam,” he says. He attributes this to his expansion across the Capital Region through acquisition. Scholl has enough papers to drown Sacramento and its surrounding suburbs in ink, and that’s appealing to advertisers. Plus a physical publication has qualities that websites can’t replicate.

“There’s an integrity that goes with the printed local newspaper,” Scholl says. “For us, being in print and online, we’re getting all the advertisers first, because they know print is still king.”

Starting a news blog? “I’m sorry, that’s child play,” Scholl says. Starting a print newspaper? “It would be extremely difficult.” He wouldn’t recommend it to any with at least some background in the industry. Even Scholl has had to shutter papers he’s created, like the North County Messenger and the West Sacramento Sun. However, he has used his decades of experience to devise a system for growth through buying and developing legacy outlets.

Previously, Scholl worked in several management jobs at different newspaper companies, handling marketing and circulation. After 25 years, he decided to launch a paper of his own. In 2006, Scholl started the American River Messenger out of his home garage. Part of the motivation was to promote his services as a hospice chaplain, but the news operation soon took priority.

Scholl said he was greatly influenced by the three years he spent at Alameda Newspaper Group, a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. While there, he was part of a team that researched different scenarios where they took ownership of nearby papers and the steps to take after completing the sale. “It was quite the growing experience, and I don’t think I would have been able to pull all of this off if I hadn’t had that kind of training.”

The strategy Scholl developed involves being proactive. He keeps tabs on nearby papers in the event they go for sale. Sometimes he swoops in to rescue a paper after it has closed. The owners of the Gridley Herald gave staff one day’s notice before printing its final issue only for Scholl to revive it a week later, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported. On the front cover read “The Herald Living to See Another Day.”

Another time, Scholl stuck his business card and a note in the door of the Rancho Cordova Grapevine-Independent’s officeafter it abruptly ceased. A few days later Scholl and the owner shook hands and he took over operations. “Was it the best thing we ever put out? No, but we printed that week and then we grew it from there.” Scholl moves fast after landing a sale. He can incorporate a newspaper into his business within three days. This speed ensures readers never miss an edition. There is a year of “growing pains” to work out advertising, billing and staffing. “Then by the second year, I’m out there shaking hands and kissing babies.”

Without Scholl intervening in these papers, he says “every single one of them would have closed. So not only would you have a news desert in a couple of communities, you would have a news desert in Sacramento County.” But were any of them profitable at the time of purchase? “Well, if they were profitable, they wouldn’t sell them,” he says. So Scholl buys failing newspapers and makes them financially sustainable. He does this by cutting costs. Production is streamlined and standardized, making it easier for customers to buy ads across multiple papers. It’s a successful formula others in the industry have noticed.

“This is a very cutthroat business, and Paul is a survivor,” says Susan Laird, a journalist who’s worked in the Sacramento area for decades. For a few years, she was the editor at Valley Community Newspapers, at one time Scholl’s competitor. “He’s assembled a little geographical publishing empire, and because he’s doing it through efficiency, he’s an innovator in that sense.”

Laird describes Scholl as “a Christian gentleman” and “an angel for our industry.” She said he’s “an old-school newspaper guy but without the staff” because of how few newsroom workers he employs. Messenger Publishing Group has 24 employees, but only three full-time reporters. Editors also contribute copy when not managing the 20 or so freelance writers. Decades ago these community newspapers that covered a city neighborhood or rural town had an editor, a couple of reporters and a photographer. As revenue declined industry-wide, hyper-local publications shifted to relying on freelancers who often are more akin to paid volunteers due to how little they’re compensated. “You can’t live on a freelance salary in the community newspaper business,” Laird says. When not using paid contributors, Scholl utilizes a costless means of filling pages that some in the journalism industry scrutinize.

Four years ago, two newspapers briefly went to war in Contra Costa County. The announced closure of a 161-year-old newspaper in Martinez made headlines around the Bay Area. A scramble ensued to save it, but the owners never returned any calls, according to three sources. This set the stage for what happened next. After failing to buy the paper, Scholl launched the Martinez News Messenger, a bi-weekly free paper mailed to households in the city.

Then there was Rick Jones, editor of the defunct Martinez News-Gazette, who relaunched the paper as a weekly subscription-only publication. The two papers went head-to-head. Despite similar names and pulling from the same pool of local freelancers, the two differed in content strategy. Jones focused more on hard-news topics like local government, crime, industry and national stories. No big exposé pieces, but “the news of the day,” Jones says.

Scholl’s papers tend to have more positive news with feel-good stories centered around community events, schools and nonprofits. He also republishes news releases which he gets for free. These are articles an organization writes to inform the public of something they feel is noteworthy. Often they’re self-promoting in nature and highlight the successes of a politician, government agency or business rather than news relevant to the general public. It is information from an official source. However, the story can be incomplete without journalists working to verify that information, add context and challenge narratives.

“It’s hard to weigh what value, I mean, in this day and age, somebody that’s putting out a weekly or monthly deserves credit, in my mind, for sure,” Jones says of Scholl’s papers. “What news value it has, I guess, is in the eye of the reader, so to speak.”

In the end, the war had no winner. The COVID-19 pandemic ensued in early 2020 and both Martinez papers ceased after about two months of operation. But Scholl went on to grow his enterprise. He bought a dozen newspapers in four years. The East Sacramento News was one of them. Lance Armstrong was the last editor to work at the paper before Scholl bought it. He said it was noticeable how the paper began republishing news releases after the change of ownership. Times are tough in the industry, and he can see why someone would use free content. Last year the paper’s previous owners shut down its Galt press facility. It was the last newspaper company-owned printing press in Sacramento County.

“In today’s challenging world of print journalism, in which newspapers continue to battle for their

survivals, change is inevitable,” Armstrong wrote in an email. “While I prefer newspapers that are heavy on original content written for the papers in which they appear, I also understand the significant budgetary constraints that many newspapers are facing today.”

Scholl says many news releases are written by “yesterday’s reporters,” former journalists who went on to work in public relations as the industry contracted. These articles are written by people with reporting experience using accurate information “you really should have.” What Scholl does is collect it from various websites and puts it in one place, reaching people through print who otherwise might have missed it. “We’re basically performing a service aggregating all of this news.”

And service is important to Scholl, who sees Messenger Media Group “more as a mission or ministry, as opposed to a business.” It’s a view informed by his faith background. He was a church pastor for about a year and has officiated hundreds of weddings. There was a time when he brought his Bible to the corporate boardroom. Scholl is also well known for his involvement in the area’s various chambers of commerce. He always says hello to folks at meetings and has endeared himself so much to local stakeholders that two years ago the Carmichael chamber named him “Businessman of the Year.”

“He certainly has his foot in all these communities,” says Jim McCormick, president and CEO of the Sacramento Choral Society & Orchestra. Scholl “gives nonprofits a good break” by offering discounts and complimentary ads. One time he surprised McCormick with a full-page ad when he only paid for a quarter. “He goes beyond the call of duty. He’ll even come to our concerts.”

Scholl plans to continue serving the community and growing his company. Some day he’d like to pass the business on to a new owner. Until then, he will run it under ideals he says are summed up by John 18:37, the Bible passage on his office wall: “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.”

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