George Ewing is a little restless. Last month he sold his family-owned mpnnow.com/">Messenger-Post Newspapers to publishing giant GateHouse Media. Now he sometimes wakes up ready to go. But go where?

Ewing plans to take up to a year off before making any decisions about his future. He has the pedal steel guitar that his wife gave him for Christmas; he's always wanted to dive into country music. And, he says, he might eventually get back into education.

He was teaching high school in Minneapolis 14 years ago when a call came from his father, George Ewing Sr., then publisher of the Canandaigua Daily Messenger.

"He said, ‘I'm not getting any younger," recalls Ewing, "and I only want to train one more person, and I don't know if I'll be here one year or 10 years. Are you interested?'"

Ewing Jr. said yes, moved back to Canandaigua, and eventually became president and publisher.

His former papers have a long and proud tradition. The Messenger, an impressive small-town daily, is the most recent incarnation of one of the oldest newspapers in the United States. Founded in 1796 as the Ontario Gazette, the first edition covered George Washington's Farewell Address to the nation. George Ewing Sr. bought it in 1959, George Jr. joined in 1993, and in 1996 the company acquired nine suburban weeklies from the late Andrew Wolfe. The Gates-Chili News(now the Gates-Chili Post)was added in 1999.

Both the Messenger and the suburban weeklies have won numerous awards. There are well-written, local op-ed columns and thoughtful letters to the editor. And they have had a fierce dedication to strong community journalism.

Ewing gives this explanation: "We've always had a philosophy, starting with my dad, and I subscribe to it: We may be a small, tiny part of the world, but we're in the world. And in order to understand who you are and where you are, you have to understand what's going on. We have definitely not followed the demands of expense-revenue ratios when it comes to editorial staffing. A newspaper is a newspaper first."

The papers have done more than cover the news. They have pushed hard for, as Ewing puts it, "projects we thought were going to improve the quality of life here": the VA Hospital and the community college, for example. And the Ewings themselves have quietly supported community projects as well. "If you're going to take the role of public watchdog and sometimes public scold," he says, "you have to put your money where your mouth is."

And yet despite the company's record of service, awards, and expansion, financial problems led Ewing to put the papers on the market: costs and the need for improvements were outstripping revenue.

Subscription rates for the Messenger-Post weeklies were only $20 or $30 --- "Readers have been accustomed to low prices for decades," he says --- and the papers' circulation had been flat. There weren't enough readers to build strong ad sales. Advertisers, says Ewing, "want eyeballs," and there was strong competition from free shopper publications.

Weekly newspapers across the country have also been affected by major changes in retailing. In everything from book stores to hardware stores, big-box chains are replacing independent retailers. What does that mean for the weeklies' future?

"A lot," says Ewing. "Hospitals, banks, auto dealers, hardware stores, grocery stores: that's had an impact on everybody. We have some of the majors in the area, particularly for the Sunday paper, but we don't have them all."

Four years ago, in an attempt to boost circulation, Ewing made a heavy investment in one of the weeklies, the Greece Post. Circulation rose --- "and then it started trickling back," he says.

"We did a survey, and one of the major themes that came across was, in effect, ‘love the paper, want to keep reading it if it were free.'" And so three years ago, Ewing converted all 10 of the weeklies into free publications.

That kicked the combined circulation of the weeklies up to more than 90,000. "It's huge, and it's consistent," says Ewing.

But while circulation rose, so did expenses --- and needs. Ewing held costs flat where he could --- but that meant keeping salaries lower than he wanted to and postponing technology improvements. And he had little control over one important expense: "Newsprint costs just kept soaring," he says. "They've gone up something like 40 percent in the last 2 1/2 years."

Ultimately, "I was going to have to cut costs," he says, "and that would have meant people, because in order to move forward in a very weak local economy, and with the capital expenditures we implemented, that was essential."

So he put his family-owned papers on the market. And in an unusual move, he went public with that decision in August so his employees could decide whether they wanted to stay.

He also told the staff that if he couldn't find a buyer he was happy with, he wouldn't sell. That decision reflects his journalistic principles. "It wasn't just financial," he says. "I was looking for a company that shared our philosophy. I wanted to avoid a scenario where you sell to somebody and two or three years later they flip it."

"Historically, newspapers are not just the presentation of news," he says. "I see them as the glue to a community. There's a strong teaching element to them. This is why I have real problems culturally and socially with niche distribution of information. I think it's very important for people to be exposed to a headline about a story they don't want to read. At least they'll know something's out there."

He is optimistic about GateHouse, which he says shares his approach and will be able to make the investments the papers need.

"We fit perfectly into their philosophy," he says, "which is, ‘Locally based newspapers are where it's at.' They'll tighten up on expenses. Where they'll tighten up, I don't know. They have buying power I never could have touched. They are getting newsprint prices about 15 percent lower than mine. That's a huge number."

On the editorial side, the Messenger-Post papers will be able to share in GateHouse's company-wide news projects, says Ewing. "For example, when Katrina hit, they opened up to all their editors and reporters the opportunity to be on a team of four or five people to go down and report," he says. "It would be covered through their network by them as opposed to Associated Press. Using their philosophy of local, local, they went in as if, what if this was your neighborhood? They won several awards for it."

In the weeks before the Messenger-Post sale went through, several current and former Messenger-Post writers published unusually candid columns on their apprehension about the change. Their concern is understandable. Around the country, when large media companies acquire small ones, staff is often cut, and the products sometimes suffer as the bottom line becomes the top priority.

"What GateHouse is going to do with it, I haven't a clue," says Ewing. "On one hand, I worry about it, because we built what we have over 47 years. On the other hand, you just have to let go."

GateHouse (formerly Liberty Media) is one of the largest newspaper groups in the country. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the company owns more than 430 publications, including 76 daily newspapers, more than 232 weeklies, and 109 shoppers.(Paradoxically, GateHouse is now local. It moved its headquarters from Illinois to Fairport last year, and its CEO, Michael Reed, lives in Victor with his family.)

GateHouse has a voracious appetite for small companies. Earlier this month, with the ink barely dry on the Messenger-Post contract, GateHouse acquired nine shoppers and one more weekly when it purchased another Canandaigua-based company, AdNet Community News, Inc.

The sale to GateHouse comes as Rochester's daily newspaper, the Democrat and Chronicle, is struggling with a decline in its circulation. And to counter that decline, it is focusing more and more on the Messenger-Post papers' strength: local news.

"To date, they can't touch us," Ewing responds. "You see gimmicks like more reader input, blogs, and ‘send us your photo.' It's all feel-good stuff, which is nice, but you also need reporting. You need the old watchdog role."

Dailies like the D&C are also responding to their readership decline by publishing new products. Some of these are similar to the special sections --- homes, health care --- that community weeklies have been publishing for a long time. Might there come a time when the dailies' new publications might squeeze out weeklies, lessening the competition and, ultimately, the public's news? Are we headed for a future with one print news source per metropolitan community?

With that question, Ewing becomes a forceful media critic. "Anything's possible," he says, "but I don't see that happening here. My question with their model as I understand it, is: Are they robbing Peter to pay Paul? They're fragmenting their rates. Advertisers, they're not dumb. Why should I spend X amount of dollars for video when I can go with this product for less? But they obviously have a model, and they're working on it."

"Most major newspapers now are run by accountants and public-relations people," says Ewing. "It's about repackaging. It's all in the presentation. There's no depth to the D&C, for the most part. Their editorial and op-ed page is good, but what they call local news is window dressing. In fairness to the folks there, they're not allowed to do what they'd like to do because of budget constraints and corporate-mandate constraints. So what you get is re-packaging. But news? No.

"Not to berate the D&C; they're very good at major stories. They seem to have taken a greater shift at in-depth regional stories. When they latch on to something they feel needs digging into, they'll do it. But it's sort of the mid-level story that gets missed."

"I think the D&C did a very good job questioning the fast ferry," he says. "I don't think they did as good a job as they could of covering the shortages in the county budget and how that's managed. I'm using those as examples to explain the constraints the editorial department is under. The people I know are first-class individuals who want to do a good job."

While Ewing is optimistic about the GateHouse ownership, he has strong concerns about the future of newspapers in general.

"It all started in the 1980's," he says, "when Wall Street suddenly found out that there were big profits to be made in the newspaper industry and went gangbusters for acquisitions. On the surface, there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is, they demanded the same rate of return as if they were selling toothbrushes, cars, or bars of soap.

"The economy had its normal swings, especially in the early 1990's, when there was a downturn. Rates of return, from an average of 20 to 40 percent, had to be met. Where do you cut?"

The answer: "The editorial side. You cut staff," says Ewing. "The result was a weakening of the news product, an erosion of the quality. That upset readers. Then the industry decided to jump into the internet, which, on the surface, was a great idea. But once you give people something for free, good luck trying to get them to pay for it."

And, he adds: "The erosion in the quality of newspapers goes hand in hand with the erosion in the quality of education, and I think there are huge cultural ramifications."

Many news consumers now go to sources like Fox News or Air America, where they can hear what they want from people who agree with them. "Now," says Ewing, "people can tailor the news: ‘Send me articles about XYZ subjects; I don't want to read anything else.' Everything is compartmentalized. People get defensive and argumentative when you try to present another opinion or question someone else's opinion. It's unhealthy."

"If you read historically about the development of newspapers," says Ewing, "even de Tocqueville talked about it when he visited the country. One of the things that truly amazed him was the amount of local newspapers, each of which represented a different point of view or political posture, in the same community. You don't get that now."

In a recent New York Times column, David Carr described sitting with his four morning papers, while his kids wanted nothing to do with them. Are newspapers becoming obsolete?

"Newspaper circulation, particularly for the large dailies, has continued to erode," says Ewing. "Where it will bottom out? I don't know. I can't see them ever disappearing."

"The internet is going to grow," he says. But, he adds, "a larger issue isn't newspapers vs. internet; it's are people going to read? Are they going to want this type of information?"

"Have people in this country become so self-absorbed that they've got all of the information they want, and they're therefore isolated and removed from not only the immediate area but the area around them?" asks Ewing. "If you talk to people from overseas, many of them are amazed at how ignorant Americans are of the world and what's going on."

Time Inc. is cutting 300 print-media jobs to focus more on web sites. Two top political reporters recently left the Washington Post to start a political website. Some observers speculate that the web is the newspaper of the future.

"But what do you consider news," asks Ewing, and what do readers want? "I'm all for giving readers what they want," he says, "but I still believe that if you're serious about the role of a newspaper, you have to give them more than what they want."

SIDEBAR: Ewing's take -- we need metro

George Ewing's role as publisher of 11 local newspapers gives him a unique perspective on the region and its changes over the past several decades.

One of its strengths, he says: "The fact that this area has held its own despite the incredible number of layoffs."

"In the long run," he says, "I think this is going to be a very healthy area, given the quality of various educational institutions. Moving forward, there are signs of more collaboration both from the County of Monroe and Ontario County."

But he has warnings, as well.

"In Monroe County, I've been very disturbed by the divisiveness of the political structure," he says. "It ripples up to the national level --- winning at any cost. Keeping the party in power is more important than prudent management and direction."

"I'm a firm believer in metro organization," he says. "I spent a lot of time in Minneapolis. It's nuts the way communities around here compete for the same jobs, new industry.

"The classic example: when the Infotonics center was announced to be located in Canandaigua, Jack Doyle and others in Rochester had a hissy fit that it was in Ontario County and not Monroe County. People don't give two hoots if it's in Monroe County or Ontario County. They want the jobs. From that facility on 332 to downtown Rochester is at most 25 minutes. It's nuts."

"In Ontario County," says Ewing, "it's a lack of coordinated planning for development. The lake is over-developed. Fortunately, there is still very good water quality, but I'm worried about that. The Board of Supervisors is generally a lot more open-minded and collaborative than they are in the Monroe County Legislature.

"But within the Town of Canandaigua, it's still a rift. It's all territorial. It's nothing unique to here. Throughout New York State, there are too many governmental entities. On a business level, as with education, too many mandates, too many restrictions."