Mike Gebhart’s newspaper career ends where it began: With his dad

ST. LOUIS — It was Mike Gebhart’s father, Eugene, who set the hook, perhaps accidentally, but that’s of little consequence, that allowed newspaper ink to flow into his son’s veins and start him on a lifetime journey in the industry.

It was fitting, then, that in the closing moments of his father’s life, Mike was able to tell Eugene that his long-time love affair with the industry had ended with the sale of The Albany Herald to the Dublin Courier Herald Publishing Co. and DuBose Porter.

“That was something only God could orchestrate,” Mike Gebhart said. “As my father lay on his death bed, I was able to tell him that the sale of The Herald was going through, and that this thing he’d started for me in 1978 was coming to an end.”

Almost 50 years after his father gave him a composing room job at the Suburban Journal of St. Louis, a job Mike Gebhart desperately needed as he was a “flat-broke” college student at the time, Gebhart put the wraps on a journalism career that saw him move from the composing room to sales to senior management at newspapers in St. Louis, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Michigan, Albany and, finally, Atlanta in Georgia.

Along the way, the St. Louis native said he would most cherish the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.

“It was time,” Gebhart said of his decision to sell The Herald, the final of his holdings after his COVID-era purchase of the seven newspaper properties that made up the Southern Community Newspapers Inc. family of publications. “People like Bob Prather and Tom Stoltz — my mentors — held up my ladder throughout my career, allowing me to climb in this business. It became time for me to hold up the ladder for someone else.”

Born in St. Louis and raised in the city and later in nearby suburbs, Mike Gebhart was a “true city boy” who developed a passion for sports.

“When I graduated high school, I was conflicted,” Gebhart said. “I didn’t know if I was going to play pro baseball or football. Trust me, even though my dad worked in the newspaper industry for 25 years, I never even considered that industry.”

When the sports dream died, Gebhart earned a degree in Behavioral Science at Missouri Baptist College (now University) in St. Louis. He attended, but never finished, seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I came back to St. Louis to start grad school in 1978, and I was flat broke,” he said. “My dad, out of necessity, hired me to work in the composing room at the Suburban Journal. To me, it was just a way to make some money. Little did I know that I would fall in love with the industry.”

Gebhart shortly moved into sales, part of a 110-person staff, where he exceled.

“I fell in love with the newspaper industry, the fact that everyone does all this work to get a paper out, and the next day you turn around and do it all again,” he said. “That excited me.

“But, I have to confess, there was enough capitalist in me that really enjoyed making money.”

Stoltz, who was a manager of the Suburban Journal, saw something special in Gebhart and started him on his way to the management track.

“Tom carved out that opportunity for me,” Gebhart said. “But initially I was reluctant; I was making more money than most managers at the time.”

Thus started the young newspaperman on a journey that carried him to some of America’s largest cities, in senior management positions that earned him a growing respect in the industry. Among those stops was an eight-year stint in Albany at the Herald.

“(Wife) Nancy and I went to all these different places, but I can say today in all honesty that our stay in Albany was phenomenal,” Gebhart said. “We developed the closest relationships, met amazing friends in Albany. It was there that we learned what Southern Hospitality really meant.”

During his time in Albany, the newspaper was owned at various times by Gray Publishing, Triple Crown Media and became a part of SCNI. In 2019, after COVID “literally cut our revenue by 50% overnight,” Gebhart decided to “roll the dice” and buy the seven SCNI publications. A short while later, in 2022, Gebhart sold the six Atlanta-area publications to newspaperman Otis Brumby.

“I was genuinely excited about just owning The Albany Herald,” Gebhart said. “I think (Herald Publisher/President) Scot (Morrissey) has done a great job there, but my plan was to come down there once a month to work with him and The Herald staff and really turn things around.

“But my father became terminally ill, and my mother has Alzheimer’s, so Nancy and I were pretty much bound (to St. Louis). And, no matter how capable the person is who’s in charge of the daily business of a newspaper, I believe if you’re going to be a successful local news source, the owner has to be in the field, has to be present. And I’ll be frank: All that was going on in my life really started weighing me down. It became obvious to me that the time was right.”

Gebhart said the final hours of his father’s life convinced him he’d made the right decision.

“On Monday night, I was sitting with my dad, and he was very coherent,” he said. “I told him that the journey that he started for me in 1978 was coming to a close. He was pleased.

“I was preparing Tuesday, writing down notes for things I wanted to share with the staff at The Herald on Zoom while Scot announced the sale, when the phone rang. It was my dad’s number. I answered, and the hospice nurse that was caring for my dad said, “He’s asking for you.” I’d been told that dad probably had a few more weeks to live, so I told the nurse I had important business to finish. She said, “Your dad said come. Now.”

Gebhart sped to his father’s home.

“I walked in, took my dad’s hand and said, ‘Dad, no man has ever loved his father any more than I love you. It’s OK now. Go to Jesus,’” Gebhart said.

With those words, his father passed away.

Part of his emotional roller coaster now behind him, Gebhart said he and Nancy are still “grounded” in St. Louis because of his mother’s ill health.

“That’s the primary thing right now,” he said. “We want to get more involved with our child in Florida and the two in St. Louis, and we want to spend more time with our 10 grandchildren. We both hope to travel in Europe — that’s something we both love — and I’m in talks now to become an adjunct professor at my alma mater.

“I think of my life in terms of that old Kris Kristofferson song: ‘Why Me Lord?’ All glory literally goes to God. I’ve truly been blessed beyond expectation.”