Waack the Waack: Longtime general manager reflects on decade with D.O.

Pete Waack flipped through the want ads in The Post-Standard, looking for a job in his new hometown.

At 35-years-old, he had recently moved to Syracuse from north of Boston to maintain joint custody of his two kids after a divorce. He searched for a gig that would allow him to put his publishing and legal experience to good use.

One note in the newspaper’s classifieds caught his interest. An independent student newspaper needed someone to run its business operations.

The Daily Orange seemed like a good fit. He made a trip to 744 Ostrom Ave. for an interview.

“I just remember him walking out the door, like, ‘Was he the second coming?’” said Tiffany Lankes, the editor in chief at the time. She had just fired the previous general manager, who didn’t have the background or passion required for the job, and was in dire need of a replacement.

Waack had experience and qualifications that aligned perfectly with the job description and had an impressive interview, she said.

In September 2001, Waack began running the business side of the paper, starting a tenure where, eventually, he was the only full-time employee. It meant constantly working on short- and long-term projects. Waack trained the advertising staff, dealt with advertisers on a daily basis, prepared for board meetings and negotiated the lease for the newspaper’s offices with the university.

He handled countless crises at The D.O. — including a lawsuit that threatened to end the paper — during one of the most tumultuous periods in media history. Every year seemed to bring a new challenge — declining advertising revenue, failing technology, the closing of the paper’s longtime printer — not to mention a changing cast of students. But Waack remained a constant.

An era ended on June 16, when Waack worked his final day at The D.O. He’s now the president and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation, the independent student-run media at Colorado State University.

At The D.O., Waack struck a careful balance, maintaining the financial side of a paper run by students.

“Pete always let the students make their own decisions,” said Tony Olivero, a 2012 graduate who was an assistant sports editor and on-campus alumni representative for the Board of Directors. “The D.O. is a place where there’s turnover, but there’s a need to make mistakes and grow. Not everyone who goes through The D.O. becomes the next great journalist.

“Pete just always understood and respected that that’s the most important thing about where we are.”

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Waack’s day-to-day job ranged from the most interpersonal tasks to the most mundane.

“If you have someone call to complain because they didn’t get a newspaper in the morning, I’ve got to be willing to jump in my car and give them papers,” he said.

The first thing Waack did each morning was tidy up. He wiped down dirty counters, threw away stray food containers and sorted recycling that had been placed in the trashcan.

Waack also witnessed the media industry change.

When he took over as general manager, print advertising generated a reliable stream of revenue. As he spent the next decade in the same role, The D.O. continued to make profits in an industry that at times struggled to adapt to the changing media landscape.

Dave Levinthal, editor in chief in 2000, ran the paper during what he called the last “days of milk and honey.” He joined the board of directors in 2010 as an alumni representative and has seen the financial challenges Waack has battled.

Waack was constantly figuring out how to make ends meet at The D.O., while also finding a way to fund sports travel, pay salaries, and keep the house and its equipment in decent condition, Levinthal said.

Waack grew to know the city and developed relationships with advertisers. That helped keep print revenue steady, but it didn’t solve all problems.

Waack navigated The D.O. through a lawsuit that could have ended the paper about a decade ago.

The newspaper had recently run a roundup of campus news stories “ripped from the headlines” of the past year, inadvertently restating information the editors knew to be false. The story claimed a local bar was hit with a health code violation, when that wasn’t the case.

As a result, the paper faced a libel lawsuit potentially worth $1 million. It threatened to end The D.O.’s status as an independent corporation, or possibly as a news operation altogether.

Waack sat in a lawyer’s office in New York City, terrified for The D.O.’s future — and his.

“That was the most frightening moment,” he said.

Waack and a lawyer eventually negotiated the lawsuit down to $40,000 paid over four years, in addition to $10,000 worth of advertising. The lawsuit had a lasting impact on the paper’s finances, leading in part to a reduction in the printing schedule. It was fully paid off in the fall of 2010.

In 2011, when financial realities were particularly harsh, Waack took extra, personal measures to ensure the paper’s viability.

Dara McBride served as editor in chief in the 2011-12 academic year, when the paper faced financial problems due to decreasing advertising revenue, she said. The board discussed ways to shrink the budget. Options included limiting the amount of paper that could be used in the printer, cutting staff and reducing salaries.

Waack made a cost-cutting sacrifice on his own. To save a few thousand dollars, he reduced his own health care coverage and limited how much money was put into his retirement plan. It gave the paper time to evaluate other ways to address its budget concerns, McBride said.

Waack has been creative in developing other revenue sources, most recently with the development of Beats and Eats, a block party sponsored by The D.O. that has brought local businesses and live music to Clarendon Street the past two Aprils.

Waack also credits the students for helping keep the paper afloat.

“We made money 12 out of the 14 years that I’ve been here,” he said. “In this industry, which we’ve seen get smaller and smaller, the fact that I’ve ended almost every year with a little bit of profit and the same number or more students working on the paper, that’s sort of my proudest accomplishment.”

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For members of the editorial staff, it was rare to really get to know Waack.

His office was tucked off to the right of The D.O.’s main entrance. Even if he was in the building when editorial staff members arrived, he was out of the way of those heading upstairs to work on the next day’s paper.

But those who did interact with Waack more regularly — students on the Board of Directors, in management or on the advertising staff — knew a man with a passion for college media and a personality fit for a college campus.

Emily Meyers, last year’s student advertising manager, said Waack was encouraging, open to ideas and easy to work with. He offered advice for life beyond The D.O., suggesting that Meyers take up golf because it would be a useful way to mingle in the corporate world.

When Waack took the job, relating to students wasn’t difficult. The age gap wasn’t as significant. But even as he aged and his co-workers remained college students, he still managed to seem at home.

Much of that came from his interests outside The D.O. He was on various boards, including Syracuse First, Syracuse Sports Corporation and the ArtRage Gallery. He loves to fish and travel, and to play, watch and read about sports. He’s also interested in politics and has been a Green Party member for many years.

Ben Tupper, a landlord in the East neighborhood who has known Waack for about 10 years, said he forged a great business relationship with Waack, but he was also fun to talk to about music, sports and local restaurants.

“I knew I could go in there and talk about the SU game, some new bar or restaurant on Marshall Street or some show on campus,” Tupper said. “Pete didn’t think I was crazy because he was interested in the same stuff.”

While Tupper said it could be easy to get burned out working with college students and witnessing them make mistakes, that wasn’t a factor for Waack.

“If you love your job, all the dumb stuff doesn’t get you down,” he said. “That was the secret ingredient, a commitment to his work and The D.O. A lot of credit for the paper’s quality goes to Pete.”

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Even after leaving the house he worked in for 14 years, Waack continues to help The D.O. He was a guiding presence for the Board of Directors while it searched for his replacement, participating in interviews and offering insight on the most qualified candidates. Chris Russo began his work as The D.O.’s new general manager on Aug. 17.

Waack didn’t take the new job because he was unhappy, he said, but because he wanted to take advantage of an opportunity to grow.

As CEO of the Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation at Colorado State, he manages a newspaper, radio station and TV station with a staff of five full-time employees and about 250 students. There’s an accountant, so Waack no longer has to track down every late payment. There’s a full-time ad professional who trains staff.

Waack is able to focus on a strategic plan for the company as a whole, he said.

When people ask what he misses most about Syracuse, Waack said the answer is The D.O.

He has left behind a house filled with its own history, from the walls to the filing cabinets. For over a decade, Waack has been a part of that history. While his name or image may not appear much on the walls at 744 Ostrom, The D.O. largely owes its recent history, and its ability to continue making history, to Waack and what he’s done for the paper.

“Pete knows everything that’s happened in that building and all the people that have come through it,” said Lankes, the editor who hired Waack. “He will leave a pretty strong legacy and has elevated the expectation for someone in that position.

 
“The D.O. has not been immune from industry problems, and some problems have only gotten worse,” she continued. “Without someone like Pete there who has held it together and been able to navigate these tougher times, it’s not unrealistic to question if The D.O. would still exist.”