A rhetorical question about a newspaper company and hiring practices between its left and right hands

Why would anyone want to work at a newspaper company where an employee of the company owner’s ranch is put on the payroll of one of the newspapers? Not only does it punish the bottom line of that newspaper (and any profit-based bonuses to which its publisher might be entitled), it makes a skeptical mind wonder if there might not also be legal or tax reasons for this being done, and then wondering what such reasons might be.