Developer taking back championship golf and Daily Sun
 

I'm amazed that after two days, this hasn't been posted on this forum.

From the online news:
Developer taking back the reins at golf division, The Villages Daily Sun
November 18, 2018

"The Developer has taken back the reins at two major entities in The Villages – the golf division and The Villages Daily Sun.

"The Developer is once again the employer at the championship golf courses, after handing off that responsibility about a decade ago to Golf Management Solutions, a limited liability corporation formed by Ken and Timothy Creely.

"GMS employees were reportedly told they would have to go through orientation to remain on the job. However, it is interesting to note “The Villages Golf & Country Club Team” is inviting job applications on golfthevillages.com for “a variety of positions available,” including “indoors, outdoors, front line, and behind the scenes” jobs.

"At a recent meeting at the The Villages Daily Sun, it was announced that the Developer was taking back the roughly 300 employees at the newspaper.

"The Daily Sun employees were separated in 2012 into a private media management company, Villages Media Management Inc., headed by longtime Daily Sun Publisher Philip J. Markward. He served as the employer of the workers who produced the newspaper, while Mark Morse, Jennifer Parr and Tracy Mathews continued to own the newspaper’s masthead and printing press."

I have a friend who works for Golf Management Solutions. He had this to say:
1. GMS employees don't have to go through orientation. They just need to fill out new withholding tax forms.
2. GMS is always recruiting new employees.
3. The Developer is also taking back the golf cart stores and the Information Technology that does The Villages computer work.

Taking back
 

Agreeing with you that it is odd this announcement hasn't generated much public commentary. What's more, I don't expect the man behind the curtain will explain his decision. I hope it's not profit-motivated, leading to higher golf fees. As for the newspaper, I don't care, unless the plan is to convert it from a chest-thumping propaganda sheet to real news. Yes, I still believe in unicorns.

What does this mean for us

Nothing

Of course it's profit motivated....do you know any business that isn't? As for the newspaper, this is a local newspaper, not a regional or National paper. If you've lived in small communities that had local papers you shouldn't see much difference in the news content. I also believe that the "chest-thumping" propaganda you perceive is important to growth and subsistence of the lifestyle we enjoy and if the helps us let it continue.

If you are supporter of the developer = Maintain/Improve Quality.

If you are not a supporter = Money & Greed.


:popcorn:

Give this six months before deciding anything negative or positive. If I was making “book”, I would go with positive.

I'll go with positive. Negative is turning over assets to outside companies. Many times that signals a developer is through and moving on.

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Profit motive
 

Say what you will, my friend. However, as far as newspapers go, I've worked for several small community papers, and electronic media. Devoting so much coverage to enterprises owned and operated by the paper's owners (Villages Health, retail space lease-holders, etc.) was not and is not ethical journalism. Ignoring stories that reflect poorly on the paper's owner is not ethical journalism. Withholding or failing to report on issues affecting the community is not ethical journalism. Fortunately, most of us (but not all of us) know what we're looking at when reading the Daily Sun. Too bad the major Florida newspapers don't cover this city-sized community better.

Well, your experiences with community newspapers is different....mine has been with papers similar to the DS. As an editor once told me, the goal of our paper is to report the news, generate profitable revenue through our advertisers and to not put them in a position where that revenue is in jeopardy. Kudo's for you in finding outlets that don't have those issues.

Only time will tell...why Da Family is doing this. :shrug:

Agree 100%.

Please stay on topic; Several off-topic posts were removed that wandered into a discussion about media/journalism in today's world.

The topic is the developer's business decision to re-take control of the golf management and Daily Sun.

Moderator

I will have to see what kind of stories they have in The Villages Daily Sun in the future.

I used to skim through a lot of regional business magazines while an abstractor at Information Access Company when we were working on a product called the Area Business Data Bank.

Some of the stories I have read in The Villages Daily Sun remind me a lot of those regional business magazines.

I bet the reason these are being brought back to the developer is something innocuous. Perhaps there are grandchildren or great grandchildren in Journalism and golf course management school.

:bigbow: I think with the Morse's its always about the money, lol.

The Morse Family is a success story. All based on free enterprise. They are directly responsible for making thousands of people happy and successful.

The business's that have been created, full and P/T employment, the Villages Lifestyle, on and on.

Plus ++ The Charter School here unbelievable % rate the amount of students go on to higher education.

I could go on further about The Morse Family, all positive, it is to me mind boggling and their success continues.

Here's to ya Mr. Morse " Cheers "

Well, the original Mr. Morse has been gone for several years now. His progeny are now in charge and it seems to me that Jennifer is the brains of the group. Tracy is a great decorator/designer and Mark is probably a good numbers guy.

I've also heard that they are taking back the IT responsibilities. Hopefully, we will be able to get Wi-Fi at the squares rather than a weak signal from a nearby restaurant.

I wish they would take back the furniture stores. They were excellent! And the service incredible.

This is simple. There is a new generation of the Morse family who want in on the family business. They need high paying prestigious jobs. You can grow by buying more land and building more houses, or you can grow internally by internalizing businesses you might have subcontracted out previously. Or you can build 100 seat theaters, expand your in-house bank, etc., so the developer's family can manage them. Nothing wrong with all that, but it's interesting to watch.

I think the newspaper and golf courses have been going down hill for the last five years so I am glad the developers are again becoming involved because I think they will bring them back to what they were. I agree about the furniture store too. Used to be awesome when the developers ran it. Now all are kind of so so or worse.

I personally know people who work for the GMS (also live with one) and this is blown way out of proportion to what is actually happening. It's a business move and nothing more.

I love the "arm-chair experts" who have heard from their neighbor at the pool, whose barber told them because they KNOW someone that sells the homes that The Developer is ______(you can fill in the blank) here.

:thumbup:

:bigbow::bigbow::bigbow:

Until proven otherwise, I am going to expect that this is a good thing. The developers have done nothing yet to make me question their business competence. Doing what is right to make Villagers happy is directly correlated to the success of their business model. And I will never critize anyone for wanting to make money, as long as they are not trying to rip people off. Capitalism is a major pillar of how our country has prospered into an envy of the world.

My thoughts:

At First the family was entering into the build out faze. They started to give up some control. They have now let the younger generation into the plan. They have enough land to build for the next 20 years so let's take back control of our facilities. Not a bad idea.

Like :agree:

This was my first thought as well. I haven't been in TV that long but everything that I've seen so far has been positive as far as what the Developer is doing.

More than likely there were issues with GMS and not meeting the standards of The Villages.

A very good thing
 

I have lived on a championship golf course for 17 years, Glenview, it used to be beautiful before the mgmt group took it over, it has gone down hill for many years not with trees not being replaced, weeds growing everywhere, brush growing, etc, even lack of repair in a timely way of sink holes, I for one am thrilled the developer is taking back control. I have already noticed that they are working on the course, fixing sink holes after 4 months, spraying for weeds, etc. Very good.

Yep….. Unicorns for sure...LOL ! Keep on Believin'...

What great news to hear !

I was a bit curious this past Summer when Mark M. was presiding over the Developers Annual Presentation. He kept holding up a copy of the Daily Sun. I was puzzled....now I know!

They always owned it, just didn't run it.....now taking a more active control. The Morse's own, control, are on the Boards of over 40 Companies which is one of the reasons this place looks and feels as it does, they do their best to maintain the culture and the expectations. There are a minority here that doesn't like that but so far they are in the minority

I would surmise that is a very small minority. I can understand the discomfort with a single entity having that much control, but the way they have developed and maintained TV so far, is beyond exemplary. Anyone that has visited other similar (none quite equal IMO) 55 plus communities, can attest that most are very inferior and not nearly as well managed and maintained. Del Webb is one that does a good job, but their developments are not on the scale of TV. As long as the Morse family continues to provide the kind of environment that they have, and continue to, create, I'll gladly overlook the "big brother" aspect of their management.

Ethical Journalism? Isn't that the unicorn? I got my Journalism degree back in the 80's, worked in TV and Radio newsrooms and I must say the profession has not Evolved, it has Devolved since then. My J-teachers and former mentors would not believe the circus performers that "reporters" have become today. I don't watch or listen to the broadcast news anymore, I do appreciate having the Daily Sun to read and I think they do a good job. If they don't cover bad news about The Developers, maybe that's because there isn't any. Do you know of any? I don't. I applaud the quality of management and the excellence of our Village lifestyle; whatever The Developers do, they do extremely well, and I don't see any reason to nit-pick.