| SUBSCRIBE | | Why we charge |
|
|
|
history
T.H. Lang Has Local Roots Albuquerque native has steered the Journal since 1971
Thompson H. Lang, president of the Journal Publishing Co., was born and raised in Albuquerque and publishes the Albuquerque Journal as an independent, hometown newspaper with a global view.
Lang took the reins of the company in 1971 and charted the course for growth and development that has marked the past 33 years for New Mexico's leading newspaper.
Weekend and summer jobs at the newspaper were part of his teen-age life. His hometown schooling was at Washington Junior High School and Albuquerque High School. He also attended the University of New Mexico and the University of the Americas in Mexico City.
Lang was thrust into his position at age 23 by the unexpected death of his father, C.T. Lang. He also assumed leadership of Albuquerque Publishing Co., the joint operating agent that prints and distributes the Journal and The Albuquerque Tribune.
Lang has maintained the political independence of the Journal while directing a steady, phased expansion of its reach.
The Journal expanded its presence in the state capital and northern New Mexico with a special Journal North edition and opened a Las Cruces bureau in the southern part of the state. The newspaper continued its growth with the addition of the West Side Journal and Rio Ranch Journal, zoned sections to emphasize news west of the Rio Grande and south of Bernalillo County.
"The Journal has always been the newspaper of record for the state, and I want our coverage and reach to live up to that," Lang said.
At Lang's direction, the Journal maintains an investigative team specializing in reporting in depth on the people and institutions that affect the lives of New Mexicans. He also has aggressively fought against secrecy in government.
"Newspapers are empowered by the people under the First Amendment to report and record for the people in our free society. This is a duty and a privilege," Lang said.
Lang has extended the newsroom's reach outside state borders.
The newspaper has sent reporters to cover the Death Squads in El Salvador, politics in Mexico, the economic crunch in Russia and the floods in Honduras. And, piloting the company jet, Lang has taken reporters and photographers to cover major events around the nation earthquakes in California, hurricanes in Florida, an airliner crash in Iowa and the federal-building bombing in Oklahoma City, and most recently 9/11.
As the news-gathering end of the operation was growing, the production end was changing even faster. When Lang became publisher, the Journal was still being produced with "hot type" that dated largely from the Industrial Revolution. Lang developed the expertise within the Journal organization to phase the newspaper into the rapidly evolving digital revolution in publishing.
Today, the Journal is in fourth-generation publishing in which most news and advertising content is computer generated and merged digitally to create full-sized newspaper pages. Lang has also pursued other business interests. He started Masthead International, a press-erecting and machinery-moving company with an electrical contracting arm under the Masthead name; ADSAC bulk-mailing service; Leeco Grounds Management; Research and Polling Inc.; Corporate Security Investigations; Snaproll Aerobatic Company Inc.; and Magnum Systems; and he acquired Starline Printing.
He also founded a real estate company, Journal Center Corp. , and developed Journal Center, the trend-setting business and industrial park in which Albuquerque Publishing Co. is the anchor tenant. With Lang's insistence on top-quality architecture and construction, Journal Center has become one of the prestige business and industrial addresses in Albuquerque.
Journal Center Corp. also developed Las Brisas estate acreage in Corrales.
For relaxation, Lang practices aerobatic discipline in his Russian-built Sukhoi aerobatic aircraft, does tournament-style water-skiing with his children and reluctantly volunteers on the San Joaquin River in California, and drives a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
