Circulation Controversy Drives Credibility Factor to Forefront

By Vandana Sinha
December 15, 2004 02:36 PM

We have written prison sentences for greedy billionaire executives. We've pushed presidents to the point of impeachment. We've held entire governments up to the mirror of injustice.

And yet journalists are constantly condemned for staring blankly in space when it comes to turning that pen and notepad on ourselves.

Is that criticism warranted? Are the media unable to cover the media? Most times, yes. You know you've got unfinished business when you rank below auto mechanics and local politicians on the trustworthy scale. But it's as if the media got together and voted 2004 as the Year of Overcompensation, when near-obsessive self-absorption neutralizes decades of neglect.

There was the continued stone-throwing at Jayson Blair, an unfortunate deviant from good journalism. There was discovery of his possible successor, Jack Kelley from USA Today. There was finger-pointing and hand-wringing over Memogate or Rathergate or "How-I-would've-rather-NOT-get-that-memo-gate." There was the requisite rethinking after presidential election results contradicted our every prediction (as in high turnout would fall in Kerry's favor, and the economy and war in Iraq would trump any cultural issue). Let's not forget the flak over a reporter brainstorming questions with soldiers before a Rumsfeld "town hall" that locked out the fourth estate.

And most lamentably, there are the circulation inflations that plagued six newsrooms, from the Tribune's Spanish-language Hoy to Belo anchor The Dallas Morning News. That sparked a federal investigation into one paper, layoffs at two others and a whole new "memogate" by the Securities and Exchange Commission, essentially to ask a half-dozen other major dailies if they're reeeeaalllly sure their numbers are right.

Newswriters never feel comfortable trying on newsmaker shoes. You can practically hear the awkward feet-shuffling. But it begs the question of how journalists can better cover their own industry, their own bosses, their own news.

"I try to treat stories about Newsday the same way I do stories about companies I don't work for," says James T. Madore, a media business writer for the New York-based Tribune Co. newspaper under investigation for boosting daily circulation totals by as much as 100,000. "It's important to report fairly and accurately about all subjects regardless of their connections to me, personally.

"At the end of the day, the story has to speak for itself."

Our college-day, cover-letter idealism aside, the fact is, journalism is a business like any other -- subject to shareholder rants and profit margins. Treat it that way. Check for your media company's SEC filings, seek out internal documents and nail down inside sources who can tell you the business side of the business.

It's certainly not easy to forget who controls your paycheck, but chances are, the folks who will truly understand that you're just doing your job are the ones in your building and on your rolodex.

Of course, the reality of this industry, unlike any other, is its members have absolutely nothing to gain by talking to you. There's no public wrong to right. No political capital to shore up. Just plain and simple mortification, right in front of their readers. And at some tyrannical newsrooms, a suddenly announced job shift to the night copy desk.

"I cover a beat where nobody wants to talk to me because they're scared of retribution," says Eric Celeste, a 10-year media reporter now at The Dallas Observer, where he's covered his daily competitor's circulation woes. "There are no press releases put out. There are no PR people to help me."

It becomes a matter of building beat credibility. After that, Celeste says, sources came to him. He takes "real great pains" not to call his friends in the business. He's straight with his stories, he says, and doesn't break promises. And he knows how to separate the casual beer with colleagues at night from the phone interview with them the next morning.

Celeste's gentle suggestion: "It's not worth ostracizing the industry."

And go beyond the obvious targets in your immediate right and left cubicles. "I pursue many avenues, including suppliers, professional societies, business leaders and the union," says Newsday's Madore, who's part of a team covering the circulation issue. "My last call is generally to the company whether it's my employer or not."

A few words to describe that last call: excruciating, ulcer-inducing, very, very frightening. I know, I've had to make it myself.

When I covered the tech beat, a downtown software firm that went belly-up was funded by none other than my publisher. One of my first business stories had been its long-awaited, mountaintop-heralded arrival on the local tech scene. I worried its departure would be my last.

My publisher actually came down to my desk -- with its 3-foot-high stacks of paper, Pop Tart crumbs and all -- for the interview. I found myself asking the top boss where he went wrong with his $25 million investment. Luckily for me, he made it easier with his direct answers. But it helped to have done my homework and been ready with pointed, and follow-up, questions.

"The steps are the same you would use for any CEO," Madore says. "Also, avoid the pitfall of assuming you know a great deal about your employer. The newsroom is only one part of the company, and in most cases it is disconnected from the business operation. Don't assume you understand how all the pieces fit together to get the newspaper out every day."

Your aggressiveness and directness will probably win your publisher's respect, not to mention that of the most important audience here, the readers. They want to know we're not letting our own people slip through the same cracks we seal shut for CEOs and politicians, so let's prove that to them.

And then maybe, just maybe, we can edge out those darn auto mechanics in the next honesty polls.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism