This week: Credibility and conference countdown

Staying objective: When the community you serve is endangered by a government decision, what do you do? Here's how the Clovis (N.M.) News Journal, the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal and The Day at New London, Conn., responded when the Base Realignment and Closure Commission put their bases on the closure list. Click here for the whole story.

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APME conference: It's not too late to join us in San Jose for "The Next Big Thing" later this month. Click here for quick links to all the information you'll need.

STAYING OBJECTIVE WHEN MAJOR ECONOMIC LOSS IS AT STAKE
By Bob Gorman
Managing Editor
Watertown Daily Times

When Cannon Air Force Base was included on the Department of Defense's base closure list issued May 13, banners reading "Keep Cannon" sprung up everywhere in Clovis, N.M., including in front of the Clovis News Journal.

Click on the photos above to view larger versions.

But you weren't going to find one inside the newsroom. Despite a page one editorial begging the community to rally behind state government efforts to keep the base open, News Journal Editor David Stevens didn't want the rah-rah spirit permeating his staff's stories. Thus, he issued a "no banners in the newsroom" edict.

"When you write about what is going on in the community, every story is like a pep rally," said Stevens. "But we have tried to be that objective observer. We have tried to write about the plusses and minuses of Cannon."

Small and medium-sized newspapers around America faced the same challenge to their credibility during this summer's Base Realignment and Closure process. Turn the lights out at Atlanta's Forts McPherson and Gillem and you register a blip-less economic loss of $671,000 a year to the Southeast's metropolitan monster. But shutter Cannon in rural New Mexico and you rip $212 million and 7,000 jobs — one-third of the economy — out of a region where the largest city, Clovis, has a know-all-your-neighbors population of 32,000.

"We prepared two (newsroom) budgets, one with Cannon and one without," said Stevens. "And there is a dramatic difference."

How do journalists remain objective when the loss of a military base will lead to a radical drop in population and business, and eventually newspaper sales?

You just do it.

Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, S.D., is not just home to half of America's fleet of B-1B bombers. It is South Dakota's second largest employer behind state government. But when the Department of Defense recommended sending all 29 bombers and $278 million in annual payroll and business to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, Editor Peggy Sagen of the 29,618-circulation Rapid City Journal immediately sent a reporter to Texas to see what Dyess had that Ellsworth didn't.

The Journal's stories showed that Dyess had plenty going for it.

"We took some heat from the community," said Sagen. "The chamber (of commerce) called the publisher to complain, but he backed us. He just said 'Write the news.'"

The DoD report was like a sucker punch to community newspapers. The Groton Naval Submarine Base has been a part of the New London, Conn., economy since 1900. After it survived the base closure round of 1995, no one expected the DoD to go after it 10 years later, said Lance Johnson, editor of The Day in New London. Yet on May 13, there was Groton, one of America's best known and historic military bases, on the chopping block again.

Reaction by the 41,113-circulation paper was swift. That afternoon it printed a six-page broadsheet special edition with wire and local stories about the BRAC process and the history of Groton.

Johnson said that as the pending closure of Groton began to sink in, depression in the community — and the newsroom — sunk in as well.

"There are 8,500 jobs on the base and about 30,000 jobs connected to the base." said Johnson. "It's $3 billion — 10 percent of the economy. The Navy is connected to the arts, charity. A part of our history would go away."

Like the subs built at nearby General Dynamics Electric Boat, The Day's management decided to go deep. During the next three months its reporters wrote "a couple hundred substantive stories" said Johnson, about the internal battle within Navy ranks over the value of subs versus surface ships.

The Day's persistence led to the leak of an internal Navy memo that showed "the numbers were cooked," said Johnson. The Navy's sub training center in Groton hadn't been factored in, and thus moving all of Groton's assets to the sub base at Kings Bay, Ga., as the DoD recommended, would end up costing the Pentagon more rather than saving it money over the years.

The summer of discontent ended Aug. 24 when the BRAC commission removed Groton from the closure list. The Day's Aug. 25 headline "Too Good To Close" mirrored the information the staff dug up.

Ellsworth was also removed from the list. The Rapid City Journal's headline, "Flying High," stood above a photo of local leaders clinking glasses of champagne.

Cannon, on the other hand, was given a reprieve but left on death row. The May 14 News Journal headline, "BRAC Attack," had given way to Aug. 25's "Saved – For Now."

Rapid City (S.D.) Journal, Steve McEnroe

This is the photo the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal printed with its May 14 story on the announced closing of nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base. The photo has been taken prior to the event in anticipation that the base might be on the closure list of the Department of Defense. The base was removed from the list three months later by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
Click on the photo above to view a larger version.

"People who saw the AP story thought it had survived," said Stevens. "But when they read our paper they realized it was just a delayed execution."

The BRAC commission gave the DoD until December 2009 to find a new mission or close the base. In the meantime, the F-16s that roar over the nearby desert are on the way out. How soon the Air Force and its payroll will be leaving Clovis is not known.

The Air Force might just "keep a night watchman there for three or four years," said Stevens.

Clovis was stung by the Web site "closecannon.com" (which has since been discontinued) that was produced by airmen who were rooting for Cannon to be closed. The News Journal covered that element of that story too.

"We have people on the base who thought it should be closed even though they are told not to have a public opinion," said Stevens. "Their major complaint is that the leaders of Clovis are intentionally keeping bars and restaurants (that cater to the military) from opening. That doesn't make sense, but that's what they think."

Taking flak from the rank and file along with the Pentagon doesn't give Stevens much confidence that a new military presence will be assigned to Cannon. But he is clear about how the Clovis News Journal, circulation 8,697, will cover the renewal or death of Cannon Air Force Base.

Said Stevens: "This newsroom, as long as we have one, is going to be objective."

REMINDERS ON THE CONFERENCE:
Don't miss "The Next Big Thing" in San Jose Oct. 26-29. It's not too late for plane tickets and there are still rooms available (including some at our overflow hotel across the street from the Fairmont).

The conference is packed with great sessions focused on the issues we're all facing. And there's lots of opportunity to get energized and inspired by fellow editors. And did we mention the receptions, restaurants, wine-tasting and just plain fun?

If you need to catch up with conference details, here are key links:

FAST LINKS
• Conference registration (online)
• Conference registration (mail-in form)
• Updated conference schedule
• APME Katrina Aid Fund

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