Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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An American
Editor
Stan Tiner has changed the Register into a scrappy,
independent voice for southern Alabama
In 1992, Stan Tiner received a call from his friend Howard Bronson,
who had recently become publisher of the Mobile (Ala.) Register. Would
Tiner consider being the Register’s editor? "Under what terms?" Tiner asked.
"Simply make it the best newspaper in Alabama," Bronson said. That challenge
might have seemed laughably ambitious to people familiar with the paper’s
reputation as the "Cash Register." Yet Tiner itched to be back as an editor
— a job he had left in Shreveport, La., first to run for Congress and then
to direct public affairs for a utility. Moreover, he knew Bronson was a
man of his word. Tiner accepted, and within a year the men had transformed
Alabama’s oldest — and, some say, sleepiest — daily into a crusading news
hound.
They staked the Register’s future on vigorous reporting, fresh writing
and a defiance of the status quo. Bronson poured money into the newsroom,
which Tiner used to hire an "over-the-hill gang" of veterans and some talented
upstarts. The strategy produced results, and not only in circulation. The
Register has covered its walls with state and regional prizes as it has
asserted its independence in tackling the state’s biggest issues. People
may still cuss the paper, but they don’t dismiss it.
Q: What did you learn while you were out of the newspaper business?
A: That newspapers did not seem as vital or important to people as I
had imagined when I was an editor. One of the main things I saw, being
public affairs director for a major utility, was that much of the coverage
we got was unsophisticated and often inaccurate.
I came back to the newspaper industry with a sense that we needed to
be better prepared to deal with specialized reporting, like business. We
needed people who were better trained and able to deal with sources at
the level that was necessary to (a) get the news and (b) present it in
a clear and cogent fashion.
Q: What was the Register like when you arrived?
A: Recently I saw Dean Reese Cleghorn at the University of Maryland
and he laughed about how I had taken away one of his bad examples of journalism.
He had routinely used the Register in class as an example of what young
journalists should aspire not to do.
When I came to the Register, it had a news staff of about 80 and was
a pretty sleepy operation. Within a year, the staff had grown to about
130, and that’s where we are now. We opened up the newshole and probably
tripled the travel budget.
Q: Many people consider you to be a Southern liberal; your publisher
is a conservative. How does that relationship work?
A: I think it is ideal. I understand that the publisher, who is a conservative
Republican, is the boss of the editorial pages. But he allows me to have
a voice in editorial page decisions. If I were to say, Howard, that editorial
would embarrass me or is so offensive that I wouldn’t want to be affiliated
with it, he wouldn’t print it or would adjust the viewpoint.
I am clearly the boss of the newsroom, and he has never told me that
I had to publish anything. We play off each other. If he thinks we have
done something wrong, we have a thorough discussion. I need to have answers
to questions sometimes, and that’s good for editors to have someone to
answer to. I can’t think of a better person than a publisher.
Q: What qualities are necessary to build a great newspaper?
A: First, let me give you Tiner’s four pillars of wisdom:
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Hire the right publisher who will give an editor the freedom and resources
to...
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Hire an able staff of dedicated and motivated editors and reporters and
give them the freedom to do their jobs.
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Back their efforts to the hilt, but do not be afraid to make the big decisions.
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Thank God every day you edit a newspaper under those conditions.
Q: So how do you define a good paper?
A: One that reflects the region so that when you pick it up, it doesn’t
look like every other paper. One that talks about hard issues and, while
not a booster for the community, is not afraid to be an advocate for its
goals and values. One where honesty and forthrightness in the coverage
of the news is included. And one that has a heart and soul.
Q: How much direction do you receive from the Newhouse family, which
owns your newspaper?
A: None. Mark Newhouse has responsibility for the Mobile paper. He comes
in once a month and visits with the publisher and sometimes with me. Never
has he told me what I ought to do. It took me awhile to learn his style
of things, because I like to know what other people think. Instead of Mark
giving me his opinion or his ideas on what to do, he would say, "I don’t
know. You’re the editor. You’re the fellow who needs to figure out what
you want to do."
Q: How willing are you to share leadership with subordinate editors?
A: I’m a lot better at it than I used to be. When I first became editor
in Shreveport, I thought I had to do everything. I would say that now I
do a pretty good job of dispersing responsibility. But there are times
when you have to step up and be responsible for what you’ve put in the
paper.
Q: How much of your personality is reflected in the paper?
A: I think it’s really important for editors to write — to have a conversation
with your readers about what you want to do, what your goals are, who you
are. I’m not afraid to write about my family or my values as a Christian.
That’s something an editor probably wouldn’t do in New York. But I think
it’s important for people in Mobile to know me, although they may disagree
with my politics. But I also give my writers the freedom to show their
personalities, too.
I also think the editor should be part of the community. I don’t like
the term "civic journalism." It’s got too much baggage, but by gosh the
paper and the people who work for it live in the community, their kids
go to school there. They ought to be part of the PTA. If they are people
of faith, they ought to attend services. We shouldn’t try to divorce ourselves
from all those things that make a community what it is. How are we going
to know what’s going on if we are not a part of it.
Q: What was your biggest mistake after coming to Mobile?
A: The Register’s feature section was very much directed toward the
community’s elites. I made a quick decision to democratize that section
and to send a message through the social news and features that we were
not for just one segment of the population but for everybody. In the process,
we probably filtered out the elites too much.
So I have rectified that by creating a Thursday section we call High
Profile, which has an old-fashioned motif to it and the person in charge
of it is called a society editor. While not entirely dedicated to the rich
and famous, the section has very much of a glitzy tone that seems to serve
that segment of the readership.
Q: And your best decision?
A: To move quickly to show the independence of the paper. That was a
startling departure from the way the Register had been in the past. We
called it the "new" Mobile Register. In my conversation with the readers,
I laid out a plan that said we were not going to be like the paper was
before. There weren’t going to be any sacred cows and so forth. Frankly,
a lot of people didn’t believe it in the beginning.
Q: What are your coverage priorities?
A: Mobile and Baldwin counties are our first obligation, so we put a
great portion of our energy into that endeavor. But we see ourselves very
much as a state newspaper ... and a voice to represent the needs and interests
and concerns of southern Alabama.
Q: You have focused on special reports. What has that done for you?
A: It has served our readers well, because it’s the kind of depth reporting
the newspaper didn’t do previously. It’s the only way to get at certain
topics like political reform and environmental issues.
For example, within a year of my arrival we published a special report
on air pollution. It caused a tremendous controversy among the business
community, which had always counted on the Register to be their faithful
booster. Our publisher had us meet with our critics so they could point
out any error in our report. Well, they couldn’t. As the conversation ended,
our publisher concluded that we had put out an accurate and fair report.
I think that after we left that meeting, word went out in the community
that the newspaper was not going to be steamrolled by the business interests
anymore. Maybe equally important, word went out to our staff that we were
not going to be run over.
Q: So how’s t3he newspaper’s circulation doing?
A: Quite well. We are up in circulation both weekday and Saturdays and
Sundays. We have folded the afternoon paper into the morning paper. Even
when you account for the duplicate circulation that winnowed out when that
was done, which was a little more than a year ago, we continue to be up.
We have also doubled the single-copy price during that period. The public
has responded very well, and we have done that without a marketing or promotions
department. Almost everything we have done has been based on the news product
alone.
Q: What’s the best change you’ve seen in journalism?
A: The quality of journalists is much better. I was on the cusp of the
old journalism and the new. My first newspaper job was in Texarkana, Texas.
One editor there kept a whiskey bottle in the bottom drawer and about every
15 minutes he took a swig. ... There was a lot of drinking in those days
and more colorful characters, but many journalists in that period were
not nearly as professional as newspaper people have become. ...
Everybody is a college graduate now. Many of our people have master’s
and even terminal degrees. Every person in our newsroom has a high ethical
set of standards, so that if I went out and tried to tell my editors and
reporters to do something wrong, they wouldn’t do it.
Q: Is there anything you miss about the old days?
A: It’s a little antiseptic today as compared to what it was in Texarkana.
At that time, whatever happened pretty well dictated what was going
to be in the next day’s paper. Much of our paper today is well planned.
Just about everyone is working on a project months in advance. But newspapers
are not about breaking news anymore. We’re about depth and completeness
in information.
Q: Is the business still fun?
A: It certainly is, and that comes back to my point about being out
for a while. You realize all the things you want to do, and you recognize
what you didn’t do before and also some of your own deficiencies. Mobile
had not been an aggressive paper. Coming here was almost like walking into
a virgin forest with these great big trees waiting to be cut down in every
direction you went.
Thomson is an associate professor of journalism at the University
of Alabama. He was associate editor of the Register from 1992 until 1996.
