Last Updated: March 02, 1999
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An American editor
The Newport Daily News’ Dave Offer has been at large
and small, and likes community journalism best
David Offer doesn't fit the normal newspaper mold. After
graduating from the University of Washington in 1965, he worked as a reporter
on the tiny Wenatchee (Wash.) World, learning quickly that an upset reader
could throw a punch to the nose as easily as write a letter to the editor.
The lure of the big city took him to The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, and
then The Milwaukee Journal as an investigative reporter. Then it was on
to managing editor of the 35,000-circulation La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune.
But he missed the personal touch of a small-town paper, and in 1988 he
surprised friends and colleagues by becoming the editor of the 14,500-circulation
Newport (R.I.) Daily News, returning to his community journalism roots.
Q. What are the joys and frustrations of putting out a small daily?
A. Being the editor of a small paper is exciting and challenging and
incredibly rewarding. You run the whole show. You can make changes quickly,
move fast. We don’t have the resources of a large paper but we try to think
big, to face issues with the attitude that the community is ours and the
story is ours and nobody, no matter how large, can beat us in our community
if we work harder and smarter. We don’t always succeed; nobody does. But
when things come together, it’s the greatest feeling in the world.
Frustrations? Sure, I wish we had another reporter or two, another editor,
a graphic artist, more photo support. More resources in general. Because
we don’t have a large staff, we have to pick and choose more than I like.
Some stories go uncovered or undercovered. But, overall, I’m proud of what
we accomplish, and very proud of my staff.
Q. Your paper circulates in one of the best-known playgrounds for
the rich, the backdrop for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” How
does this upper-crust image affect your coverage and content? How do you
serve the hordes of tourists?
A. The heritage of amazing wealth, which you can see in the famous Newport
mansions (they are now tourist museums), has remarkably little impact on
our news coverage. There are still rich people here, but Newport is a city
of 30,000 real people, and we cover an area with about 65,000 people.
Newport has all the problems of any urban setting, including poverty
(there’s a significant amount of public housing), education and even some
crime. Tourism is a major industry and, frankly, we don’t do a very good
job of selling our paper to tourists. Part of that may be the lack of a
Sunday paper, and part stems from the fact the tourists just don’t seem
to want what we offer.
Q. What is the size of your staff? How do you cover the flood of
day-to-day local news and still find time for enterprise, trend and investigative
stories?
A. We have a newsroom staff of 24, including eight reporters and a city
editor, a sports editor and two sports writers, two full-time photographers
and one full-time photo intern, a news editor and five copy editors/page
designers, a paginator and a newsroom clerk/librarian/obit writer.
The staff gets squeezed a lot, and there are days we can’t do everything.
So we compromise. We also plan — the city editor is an excellent planner,
and keeps her staff well organized. When it comes to the big story, be
it a breaking story or the occasional investigation, we have learned to
drop the less important and put our resources where it’s important.
We have also learned to free up a reporter or two for projects, especially
in the summer when we add a couple of interns. We recently had a reporter
and photographer take a detailed look at a homeless shelter in downtown
Newport, reviewing its successes and failures after 10 years of controversial
operation. It took several months, a few days at a time. But the story
got done.
Last year we used the entire staff for a weekend report on drunken rowdiness
on summer weekends. These kind of projects are important to the community,
and so we do them.
Q. Under our food-chain system of hiring, small papers break in green,
untested journalists. How do you recruit promising talent? Is turnover
a problem in knowledge and continuity of local coverage?
A. Staff turnover is not a huge problem here. We haven’t lost a reporter
in more than a year, and have only one copy desk vacancy. One photographer
left to take a fellowship. We replaced him quickly. But we do have trouble
finding good copy editors. The position that’s now vacant has been open
for six months. The key to hiring on a small paper is to look for promising
talent, be selective. Then help them grow and get better. People stay here
because they like the paper and the community.
Q. President Clinton made a one-day stop in Newport in early December.
That had to be one of the biggest spot news stories in a long time for
your newsroom. How did you handle it?
A. Clinton was the first sitting president to visit Newport in 22 years.
We pulled out all the stops. Two days before the visit, we ran three Page
1 stories and a photo on the preparations. The day before, we offered three
more front page stories.
Since the president was scheduled to visit a water treatment plant and
speak about water quality, we did a story on how bad Newport water tastes,
and why. (We quoted one former city council member as saying, “I use it
to flush. That’s about all it’s good for.”)
The president arrived in Newport at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3. Our
normal press start is 11:30 a.m., but the publisher agreed to a noon start.
We had six reporters and all three photographers on the story. With the
use of cell phones, we managed to get a complete story and photo of the
arrival in the paper that day. I did the rewriting (a hands-on role editors
of large papers don’t get to do) and the city editor edited the copy. In
addition, we had a sidebar on past presidential visits, with photos of
Eisenhower and Kennedy, and a story on kids making banners to welcome Clinton.
The next day we filled Page 1 with the visit, including interviews with
people who met the president, a woman at the water plant who introduced
him, and a story about how the national TV networks largely ignored his
speech on the evening news. Inside, we ran the full text of Clinton’s speech,
and a full page of photos. A copy editor wrote a column on the visit. We
followed later with stories on how much the visit cost the city in overtime
for police. These papers will be saved in the scrapbooks of our readers.
What a great feeling!
Q. How important is the editorial page to a community-based paper?
Is it difficult to advocate for unpopular causes because readers feel the
paper is a member of the family?
A. The editorial page is very important. I write the editorials. Almost
all of them are state or local (in little Rhode Island, state issues are
also often local issues). I try to make them meaningful, and avoid the
wishy-washy, on-the-other-hand approach. We take strong stands on local
issues. And, yes, sometimes we make people angry. That goes with the territory.
But we also try to be open and fair and listen. We print a lot of letters
to the editor (about 100 per month), and I solicit opposing views when
I write an editorial that I know will anger people. We have an editorial
board (publisher, city editor and editor), but it functions only when we
interview political candidates for endorsement. The rest of the time I
operate fairly independently, consulting with the publisher on issues that
interest him. After 11 years, I have a pretty good idea what they are.
Q. In this cyberspace age of media giants, how does a small, family-owned
paper keep up with the technology needs of our business and your readers?
Needs such as computer-assisted reporting, digital imaging, Web site?
A. The unfortunate answer is we don’t keep up. The paper does not have
a Web site. We do have a computer with an Internet connection for reporters
to use for research. But we have not ventured into computer-assisted reporting
yet.
Q. Over the years, as a director of SPJ and an officer of the APME,
you’ve been a forceful voice against the use of anonymous sources. How
important is the unnamed sources issue to our standing with the public?
A. Unidentified sources weaken our credibility — even more in these
skeptical times than when I led the investigative team at the Milwaukee
Journal in the 1970s. They may be justified in extreme situations, but
too often they are the result of lazy reporting. Our written policy is:
“Avoid use of unidentified sources whenever possible. Readers are skeptical
of them. Reporters too often agree not to give names of persons who could
be persuaded to allow themselves to be identified.” We should do everything
possible to be on the record all the time.
Q. Small papers can experiment with bold ideas easier than large
papers, which tend to be bound by layers of bureaucracy. What are the improvements
you’re most proud of at the Daily News?
A. The improvements that make me most proud are not big things but incremental
changes, mostly involving hiring and training a staff and instilling the
philosophy that being small does not mean being less good. We’ve gone through
the usual big changes: redesign, pagination and so forth. But these are
not as important than constantly challenging the staff to think big.
Rather than just cover the school board, for example, we try to get
into the schools to show how kids learn and teachers teach. We have an
annual year-long school project in which every reporter writes a segment;
some write two. In an effort to get closer to the community and to encourage
volunteerism, we established a community service award, with the winners
selected by a committee of community leaders. We hold a service banquet
each year. We honor students of the week, athletes of the week. All of
this is helpful in retaining and gaining readers.
Q. Talk about the public journalism movement. Is this old news to
small papers because, by their nature, they listen more closely to their
readers?
A. To the extent that public journalism means listening to readers,
it is part of what we do every day, both through structured efforts and
by being open when people write or call or stop us in the supermarket.
When it moves to sponsoring meetings on controversial issues and directing
the events in the news, I have concerns. Our job remains reporting the
news and offering opinions. That’s where I think we can best serve our
readers and our community.
Q. You’ve been tapped by ASNE Secretary Rich Oppel to chair the Society’s
Small Newspapers Committee in 2000-2001. This is a daunting task, given
the perception that ASNE is a big paper editors’ organization. How can
ASNE be more helpful to small papers?
A. Nearly 85 percent of the papers in this country are under 50,000
circulation. A large percentage are under 20,000. Of course, ASNE must
serve these papers and their editors. To do that well, it must offer programs
that deal with the real issues these editors face. The concerns of small
newspapers should be considered in every ASNE program, particularly at
the convention and in The American Editor. The society is moving in this
direction, and I’m flattered Rich has asked me to help.
Q. Ed Seaton, current ASNE president and the publisher of a small
paper, has made appreciation of international news one of his priorities.
Is this realistic when it comes to small papers? Do you have room for news
from the Middle East, Bosnia, Russia?
A. I’m impressed with Ed’s effort and agree with him about the need.
At the same time, I acknowledge that international news often is pushed
out in favor of local coverage. I don’t expect that to change.
Newport is an international city, with foreign officers at the Naval
War College, tourists from all over the world, and other economic ties.
Even in sports, we’re international. We hope to recapture the America’s
Cup one of these years. So Ed is right: we need to do more with international
needs. But it isn’t easy.
Q. You are an energetic and cheery editor. But being the public persona
on a newspaper in a small town, with speaking gigs and other claims on
your time, must be wearing. Briefly, what is a day in the life of Dave
Offer like?
A. Life ain’t bad. But since we’re a p.m. paper, it does start early,
with a 6:15 a.m. news meeting. I scan the wire, read the Providence Journal,
and formulate ideas before the meeting.
Afterwards, I help the city editor edit local stories. Then I write
the next day’s editorial. Then I read and deal with mail, including letters
to the editor. I write and mail all my own letters. We have no secretaries
in the company.
After that, there’s no pattern. Some days I’m dealing with local stories.
Other days I handle administrative matters t hat need attention. I seem
always to be meeting with people — readers, business people, public officials.
I do some speaking, attend some government meetings and civic functions.
I write a column about the paper and the community, serving as a cross
between an answer man and an ombudsman.
My work day usually ends between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. But if the weather
is good and the urge hits, I leave earlier and head to the golf course.
Because the Daily News is a small, family-owned paper, we have fewer meetings
than other papers. Fewer reports, less paperwork. That’s good.
Our publisher, who owns the paper with his brother and sister, does
not enjoy public speaking. So I am the paper’s representative in the community.
I enjoy this part of the job. It keeps me in touch with what’s going on
in town.
Q. Has the fun gone out of our business? Have we become too boring
and dull?
A. I don’t think young staff members are having as much fun as I did
in my days as a reporter. The spirit just seems different. In part, that’s
understandable. It is a job and they work hard. And this is important work.
Still, I hope I’m wrong and it’s as much fun for them as it was for
me. As the editor, perhaps I’m just not aware of the fun stuff that’s going
on.
Ketter, former ASNE president, is director of the journalism program
at Boston University.
