Tom Turnbull

JT Turnbull, a lifelong Batavia resident, was seriously injured in a skiing accident on Jan. 27, and his friends have stepped forward to help raise money to assist him once he's released from the hospital.

Turnbull, who sustained a broken back in the accident, may never walk again.  He is likely paralyzed from his waist down.

He is expected to be at Erie County Medical Center for four to six weeks, undergoing treatment and physical therapy.

Once released, his home will require modifications to make it more accessible. 

Friends have established a fundraising effort on GoFundMe, and according to the page, Turnbull lost his skis and hit a pole, slamming into it backward at 40 mph.  He had disks in his back shattered, a broken foot, and a dislocated shoulder.

Since the accident, he has undergone multiple surgeries.

Turnbull graduated from Batavia High School in 2018, where he played hockey, anchoring the team as the goalie. He attended Siena College for two years, where he also played hockey, before transferring to the University at Buffalo, where he earned a degree in history.

After college, he went to work for the Tompkins Insurance Agency, where he has remained employed.

His parents are Tom and Michelle Turnbull.

Tom was a long-time publisher of the Batavia Daily News before becoming president of the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce. He retired from that job a couple of years ago.  Michelle is a retired physical education teacher who continues to sub for BOCES.  Both have been active volunteers in the community, with Tom serving in the Batavia Rotary Club, including running the annual baseball tournament, and Michelle being involved in parent volunteer groups and sports boosters.

The GoFundMe page set a goal of raising $50,000 to assist JT.  Over the course of the first day, it's already raised nearly $30,000 from 231 donors.  For more information, click here.

Tom Turnbull is no stranger to Batavia, its Chamber of Commerce, or the business community. He is a lifelong resident of the city; he’s been active in the Chamber for many years and was the publisher of the Daily News for the past 11 years. He is a familiar face and a respected leader.

The skills and experience Turnbull brings from his career at the The Daily News, journalism, business, marketing, public relations and community involvement, align well with his new position as the president of the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce.

“From my time as an advertising representative and also as publisher, I am used to working with area businesses on marketing and promoting their businesses. A lot of what we do here at the Chamber is just an extension of promoting and marketing area businesses and Genesee County as a whole,” Turnbull said.

The son of a local business owner, Turnbull, 60, holds a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and an MBA from the State University at Buffalo. Following the retirement of former Chamber president Lynn Freeman, Turnbull took over the job in October. He’s settling into his new role and is enthusiastic about his new career.

Turnbull jokingly says that his biggest challenge so far has been trying to figure out predecessor Lynn Freeman’s filing system.

“Seriously though, the biggest challenge has been getting my arms around all of the different aspects that the Chamber is involved in,” Turnbull said. “I have been amazed at the breadth and scope of our Chamber’s activities. From tourism to insurance to small business consulting and loans to public policy advocacy to regional collaborations to networking… it just goes on and on. Our Chamber is a very dynamic organization and I’m still learning about all that we do here.”

After 38 years at The Daily News, where he worked his way up from an advertising representative to the publisher, Turnbull was used to knowing his field inside and out. There weren’t many situations that he hadn’t run into in the newspaper business. As the new kid on the block at the Chamber, he’s getting used to not having all the answers and he’s embracing the challenge of researching the ins and outs of his new profession.

“It is different but that’s also part of what makes this switch to the Chamber so exciting. I’m learning something new every day and enjoying every minute of it,” Turnbull said. “Our chamber is one of the best run in the state and that was one of the things that excited me about taking this position. Lynn and the staff have done a great job. The way I look at it is I’m just going to take the baton and keep on running.”

Being born and raised in Genesee County and having lived here his whole life, Turnbull values and believes in the Chamber’s mission of creating an environment for business success that will enhance the quality of life for all the citizens of Genesee County.

“I love this county and I believe that this position will allow me to give back to the area which has been so good to me and my family.”

The Chamber has around 600 members and plays an important role in supporting the business community because a strong business community ensures a better quality of life for everyone.

The Chamber's function includes training for businesses, representing business to elected leaders and providing networking opportunities for business owners and employees. The Chamber helps businesses connect to the community and grow.

For 2014, the Chamber is sponsoring the return of the Home Show, which will take place March 28, 29 and 30 at the Ice Arena. Planned events are the awards dinner Feb. 22 at the Clarion, Celebrate Agriculture dinner March 22, golf tournament Aug. 6, and the Decision Makers Agricultural Forum in September.

Currently being discussed by the Town of Batavia, is the possibility of a new Welcome Center to be built on Veterans Memorial Drive and Park Road. The Welcome Center would house the offices for the Chamber, which serves as Genesee County’s tourism agency.

Turnbull has been married to his wife, Michelle, for 20 years and they have a 14-year-old son, JT.

For the first time in a long time, Tom Turnbull experienced a "first day on the job" today.

Thirty-eight years after a "first day" with the Batavia Daily News, Turnbull was the new guy trying to figure out where the supply of pens and paper clips were stored in the offices of the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce.

Turnbull replaces Lynn Freeman, who retired, as chamber president.

"I've always had a deep love for the chamber and have always been involved," said Turnbull during his introduction mixer at Terry Hills.

The way Turnbull sees it, he's taking over a great organization that doesn't need an overhaul.

"Our chamber is one of the best run in the state and that one was of the things that excited me about taking this job," Turnbull said. "Lynn and the staff have done a great job. The way I look at it is I'm just going to take the baton and keep on running."

The chamber, he said, plays an important role in supporting the business community because a strong business community ensures a better quality of life for everybody.

The chamber's function includes training for small businesses, representing business to elected leaders and providing networking opportunities for business owners and employees.

"There's strength in numbers and I think that's what a group like the chamber does for the small guy," Turnbull said. "You have 600 members and there's strength in numbers for advocacy, working with government and getting your views out. Also we can bring a lot of seminars, a lot of training that small companies can't usually afford to do on their own."

From WBTA

Tom Turnbull, publisher of the Batavia Daily News, will become the new president of the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce.

He replaces retiring Lynn Freeman, who steps down at the end of the month.

Freeman, 70, announced his retirement in June saying he wanted to do other things.

Turnbull has been publisher of the Daily News in Batavia since 2002. He holds a master's degree from the State University at Buffalo.

As part of the Richmond Memorial Library's regular series, "Books Sandwiched In," the publisher of the Batavia Daily News spoke today about his assigned book: "The Death and Life of American Journalism," by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols.

As Turnbull explained, the book examines why commercial journalism has declined in the United States and what might be done about it.

The authors take the position that robust journalism is essential to a functioning democracy, and if there are fewer reporters and fewer media outlets, the public will be less informed and more susceptible to be misled by the government.

The book opens with some sobering statistics about circulation declines for newspapers (broadcast news is hardly mentioned in the book) and correctly notes that the declines started well before the advent of the web.

While the authors place some blame on free online news and loss of revenue to sites such as Craigslist, the real problem, according to McChesney and Nichols, is corporate journalism.  

Conglomerates, not merely chains, that owe a greater allegiance to shareholders than readers, started depending on higher and higher profit margins in the 1990s, leading to cuts in news rooms and a decline in journalistic quality at many newspapers.

Not satisfied with the 15 percent profit margins many family owned newspapers maintained throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries, shareholders and CEOs beholden to them upped the ante to 30 and 35 percent profit margins.

The explosion of the Internet only added to the woes of newspapers with an abundance of free content -- most of it supplied by newspapers -- and competitors that robbed newspapers of vital classified advertising revenue. The recession made things worse, and in 2009 more than 15,000 newspaper employees lost their jobs.

If journalism is going to be saved, according to McChesney and Nichols, it won't come from a free-market approach with Internet entrepreneurs inventing a new news industry, and it won't come from the government allowing newspapers to form a cartel to protect their interests.

Instead, the authors argue that the solution is some form of government subsidy -- from vouchers for readers to direct handouts -- and the ability of newspaper ownership groups to more easily form nonprofit entities.

As Turnbull notes, even the authors acknowledge none of these solutions are perfect. They're all expensive, and Turnbull indicated he didn't see politicians -- or the public -- supporting subsidy solutions.

"The authors make a really strong argument at the end of the book that subsidies are not only necessary, but worth it," Turnbull said. "I think when you look at this book, it's not really a blueprint for the future of journalism, but a series of talking points."

While Turnbull didn't offer up his own version of what the future of journalism will look like, he did express concern that it isn't possible yet for a news operation the size of the Daily News to generate enough revenue online from advertising sales.

Turnbull is also skeptical that readers will pay for their news online. While there are various experiments in "pay walls" being conducted by newspapers around the country, Turnbull noted that none have yet proven successful.

Meanwhile, Turnbull said, subscription fees for the print newspaper are an important part of the Daily's revenue pie.

"Almost everybody reads everything on the Internet," Turnbull said. "And like I said, we can’t find a way to make money on that."

In an audience of mostly retirees, they all indicated they are avid Daily News readers.

"You're my favorite group (to speak to)," Turnbull said with a smile, and one audience member piped up with, "The day’s not complete without a good solid reading of the Batavia Daily News."

UPDATE: Tom Turnbull sends along a couple of clarifications. Regarding the quote "Almost everybody reads everything on the Internet," Turnbull said. "And like I said, we can’t find a way to make money on that." 

Turnbull said to be clear we should note that comment was in response to somebody in the audience talking about the media habits of the "younger generation." Also, " we can't find a way to make money on that yet."