Last Updated: October 01, 1996
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Editors who gathered to share ideas about how to cope with tight newsroom budgets concluded that the worst thing to do is whine about the situation.
"If the senior people stand up and do a lot of moaning and whining then I guarantee the newsroom will react accordingly," said group discussion leader Michael E. Waller, publisher and CEO of the Hartford (Conn.) Courant. "I've always seen my job as finding ways to get around obstacles."
Waller noted that newspapers need to grow from new ideas because "you can't cost-cut your way to success." He suggested unleashing the power of existing staff to help solve problems. "The more decisions made further from where the work is being done the worse off a newspaper is going to be," he said.
Miami Herald Executive Editor Doug Clifton agreed that leadership and empowering staffers are key to getting the best work from the newsroom. "The power of the individual is what makes great newspapers," he said. "You just have to give them a warm place to work and electricity for their computers and they will deliver good work."
And, Clifton noted, there is always a need to keep journalism's purpose in mind. "In the search for profit we've got to remember that we are in the business of providing service to our readers," he said.
Editor Chris Peck, of the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., called on editors to build constituencies throughout the newspaper and to stand up for the newsroom's needs. "Somebody has to take the fight to the bean counters...if we don't do it then it won't be done," he said. "We need to build allies within the organization. There are allies for content throughout the newspaper if you look."
Ted Natt, who is president, publisher and editor of the Longview (Wash.) Daily News, agreed that communication with publishers is central to a thriving newsroom.
"We've got to educate our publishers that content is the key to the future,"
Natt said. "That's what we do that nobody else can deliver."
Pollock is editor of the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News.
