ALTERNATIVES FIGHT TO STAY EDGY UNDER CORPORATE OWNERSHIP

When The Hartford (Conn.) Courant announced its purchase of a group of alternative weeklies, including the Hartford Advocate, some in the alternative newspaper community worried that the Advocate, a longtime critic of the Courant, would lose its feisty independence.

The sale cleared federal regulators in late April, and the parent company plans to name a new chief executive to oversee the weeklies.

But in a time when major media companies are increasingly gobbling up smaller fish, and looking to reach the young and middle-aged readers who comprise the alternative media niche audience, the Courant acquisition raises a now-familiar question: Can an alternative paper retain its editorial identity and independence under mainstream management?

Louisiana paper's struggle

One place to look is Lafayette, La. There, alternative-media stalwart, The Times of Acadiana (a weekly with 33,000 free circulation) is struggling to maintain its identity under new ownership. After nearly 20 years of being the thorn in the side of The Advertiser (a daily with 41,000 paid circulation), the locally owned Times was sold in August to Thomson Newspapers, the daily's parent company.

So far, the transition into the Thomson fold has been rocky. Nearly the entire Times editorial staff of seven has turned over since the purchase. Meanwhile, a number of current and former employees, readers, and local industry people say that despite recent examples of good journalism by the Times, editorial content in a few instances has been watered down or squashed.

For example, The Times of Acadiana altered a cartoon that criticized an established local ambulance company, Acadian Ambulance. Publisher Beth Ardoin, who made the decision, says there were libel concerns. Critics say the incident was a classic example of a newspaper protecting a sacred cow and confirmed their worst fears of mainstream ownership of an alternative. 'I'm hoping it was just a one-time blip and there will continue to be diversity of reporting,' says Mike Maher, communication professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette.

Just business

Thomson executives say they saw the purchase as a strategic business move and don't plan to change the formula that's made the alternative successful. 'They're two entirely different cultures, but we have done our best to keep all of that intact and gone out of our way to make sure they stay separate as editorial,' says Ed Moss, publisher of the Advertiser and CEO of Thomson's Acadiana strategic marketing group, which oversees both papers. As for critics, Thomson claims some former employees' motives are suspect.

The Advertiser started printing the Times on its press and folded the Times' business operations into a single office, an organizational model used by Stamford, Conn.-based Thomson in each of its 22 strategic marketing groups in North America.

Editorial and ad sales staffs remain separate, with the exception of one ad sales rep who handles joint buys for major and national accounts for both papers. 'It fits the overall strategy that Thomson has used in the United States,' Moss says. 'We look for marketing opportunities by buying nearby weeklies and dailies.'

Ardoin, a former Times sales manager who was named publisher last fall after Thomson took ownership, says she can 'definitely see why people would be fearful' of the ownership change. She insists, however, that Thomson is keeping its promise not to interfere with editorial. 'They expect it to be controversial,' she says.

Meddling in editorial

After the sale took place, Thomson, primarily through Moss' predecessor, John Miller, started meddling with editorial, according to sources. His style clashed with that of then-editor Harris Meyer, a strong-willed and award-winning journalist who came to the weekly two weeks before it was sold. Meyer quit two weeks after the sale over editorial autonomy conflicts. He says the first sign of trouble came just after the purchase, when Miller complained to him about a story that alleged conflicts of interest between Thomson executives and the local mayor. The story was written before the purchase, but ran in the first issue following the sale.

'That really was a sign that he was going to control what went into the paper editorially,' Meyer says.

The same week the story ran, the Times and Thomson executives drew up rules regarding editorial autonomy. In a Sept. 14 memo -- two days before Meyer resigned -- Thomson vice president of operations Tom Hay wrote that although it wouldn't be a normal procedure, the publisher and other Thomson officials have the authority to pull or alter stories before publication when there are libel or fairness concerns. Meyer says Hay's memo contradicted his earlier verbal commitment that Thomson officials would only get involved if the story concerned the parent company, but that, otherwise, publisher Ardoin had sole authority to review stories.

Hay confirmed in the memo that the Times also must notify Thomson about upcoming stories that could cause significant controversy and wrote that while it would be 'extremely unlikely' that a story would be pulled, Meyer was unreasonable to insist that Thomson give up that right.

'You must be aware that this is the norm for most newspapers in the United States,' the memo reads. '. . . It is not our policy to avoid publication of stories simply because they are potentially embarrassing or may cause financial hardship . . . We have no issues about The Times of Acadiana wanting to be 'sassy.' But you and your department do not have a monopoly on ethics, morals, nor judgment.'

Hay declined to comment on the memo or say if the policy applies to all Thomson papers. Editors at other Thomson papers say that while they generally have control of editorial content, they have involved the publisher if a story was particularly sensitive or was about the parent company.

In the industry generally, the publishers or owners always have final say over editorial content because liability ultimately rests with them, but they don't like to exercise the authority, says Edward Seaton, immediate past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and publisher of the Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury News.

Meyer says he pushed the issue because he didn't trust Thomson to exercise its authority judiciously.

Editor quits

The last straw for Meyer came two days after the memo, when he butted heads with Thomson again over the Acadian Ambulance cartoon. Meyer says he was forced to have the cartoon toned down and was disappointed that publisher Ardoin showed it to her boss. Ardoin, Meyer says, 'didn't act as the firewall that I hoped she would.' He quit two days later and was replaced by Judy Johnson.

The cartoon had little impact after it ran, believes Acadian Ambulance president Richard Zuschlag. Zuschlag says no one commented to him about it and that he didn't consider it libelous.

Maher and Robert Buckman, also a communication professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, say Meyer was legitimately upset about the cartoon incident.

But Ardoin sees it differently. 'He was here for a couple of weeks, Thomson just bought the paper, and he just pushed it too far,' she says. 'Everything to present has gone smoothly, and things are definitely better off with Judy Johnson.'

It wasn't the first time Meyer's editorial stance cost him his job. In 1995, he was fired for insubordination by the American Medical News, a Chicago-based weekly published by the American Medical Association. Meyer, a nine-year veteran of the weekly, says he refused to bow to pressure to stop writing stories that didn't conform to the association's political agenda; his former editor says he refused to follow direction and criticized her behind her back.

The Chicago Headline Club, citing the quality of Meyer's stories and his firing, awarded him its first Ethics in Journalism award in 1996.

Kevin Lumsdon, managing editor at Chicago-based Hospitals & Health Networks, a trade publication where Meyer was senior writer from 1996 until coming to the Times, says Meyer was a thorough researcher who was careful about libel issues. But he could also see how Meyer's passionate and strong-minded personality might not mix well with some editors.

New approach, new CEO

Less than two months after Meyer left, Thomson replaced Advertiser publisher Miller with Ed Moss, formerly a sales executive at The Tribune, a Thomson-owned daily in Mesa, Ariz. Moss seems to be less involved on the editorial side than his predecessor was, according to the Times' former owners and other observers.

Moss says the new organization is going 'extremely well,' because he's been respectful of the papers' differences, keeping meetings and budgeting interference to a minimum. He says the 'key to making the whole acquisition a success is allowing the weekly alternative to be what it has been.' And he admits that he and Ardoin have disagreed about editorial content, but that he hasn't told her not to run anything. 'We may debate about it, but it's going to be her call,' says Moss.

Conflicts haven't subsided altogether. Leslie Turk, who quit in early December as the Times' senior editor, says a story she was preparing was spiked because it contained speculation about why Miller, the Advertiser's former publisher, left the company. Hay says it would be an invasion of privacy to discuss Miller's departure. Miller couldn't be reached for comment.

Ardoin explains that she didn't want to open old wounds by printing possible reasons why Miller left. 'When John Miller left, we just decided to leave it at that,' she says. Without being able to recall details, she says, the story may have had some mistakes and that Turk would have preferred not to make changes.

Moss points out that Turk left unhappy and her claims should be viewed with that in mind. Turk, who continues to free-lance for the Times, counters that she had already announced her resignation when the article was killed. 'I'm not a disgruntled former employee,' she insists. 'I left the company mainly because the paper was sold.'

Sense of humor?

Another example that may demonstrate an extra sensitivity by Thomson is the Times' planned April Fool's Day issue. Staffers were disheartened when a joke issue they had been preparing -- a spoof of the Advertiser's front page -- was spiked.

Ardoin explains that she and Moss agreed that neither paper would pull an April Fool's prank on the other. It wasn't about censorship, but about moving the alternative forward, she says. 'We agreed when hard news needed to be reported about each other, we'll report it,' she says.

Editor Johnson says while she would have liked to have run the spoof, it also made her uncomfortable. She decided it wasn't a battle worth fighting. 'We're not talking about journalism; we're talking about a joke played on the dominant paper in town,' she says.

Bruce Schultz, a reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La., who has written on the Thomson changeover, says the incident 'just goes to show that Thomson really doesn't know what it's got on its hands.' Times senior editor Jeff Gremillion mentioned the incident in a column. 'We were hurt and confused because someone other than our editor in chief spiked the story,' Gremillion says.

Ardoin maintains she is committed to the Times' independence. The weekly continues to critique the Advertiser in its media column, she says, and is 'probably even more so ready to do it because we want to prove to people' that the Times will stay an alternative.

Editorial content strong

The Times has continued to do investigative and sensitive stories since joining the Thomson fold. It broke a story on a local law enforcement officer accused of being a serial rapist, reported on a prominent local citizen accused of raping boys, exposed a local con man, and took heat over a story about a sexual harassment lawsuit against a local hospital that reprinted obscenities contained in the lawsuit.

Johnson says while the publisher has changed a word here and there -- once substituting 'crap' for 'sewage' in a cover headline for a story about a sewage problem -- the quality of journalism at the weekly hasn't suffered. 'I haven't seen us turn away from a story yet,' she says.

Johnson says she published underground alternatives in the 1960s and '70s before working for dailies and considers herself a 'troublemaker.' She says being locally owned doesn't necessarily make a paper better. The biggest difference under Thomson is the adjustment to the corporate culture, she says. 'To me, there's not a big difference between alternatives and dailies.'

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, however, makes a distinction.

AAN bars alternatives that are owned by dailies. The Times' membership in AAN expired when it didn't pay its dues this year, and the members would have to vote to let the Times rejoin because of the ownership change, says Richard Karpel, AAN executive director. Ardoin wants to prove to the AAN that the Times is still a true alternative.

'Simply because we're owned by Thomson, they might not want to keep us in the group,' she protests.

Climate change

While past and present employees and observers allege editorial meddling, five former and current employees describe a changed climate at the Times that has left staffers uneasy. When the paper was sold, along with two successful classified papers and an events publication, several staffers felt shocked and betrayed by the owners and founders, Stephen and Cherry May.

Stephen May says they weren't looking to sell, but Thomson made an offer he couldn't refuse, reportedly for $15 million.

Shala Carlson quit as assistant editor at the Times in November and is now news editor at the alternative Gambit-New Orleans Weekly. 'What was already a destabilized situation at that point became untenable,' she says. 'I was worried that it was going to be a long struggle to try to maintain even a shred of what we were before.'

The longtime adversarial relationship between the two papers also didn't help pave the way for a smooth beginning. The Times has frequently accused the Advertiser of avoiding important stories, and while former staffers concede that the Advertiser's editorial quality has improved in recent years, they view Thomson as tightfisted.

Readers divided

Some readers see a watering down of the Times under the new ownership, while others are withholding judgment.

Glenn Armentor, a Lafayette lawyer, says while he didn't always agree with the Times and even thinks it has portrayed him unfairly, he thought it provided a healthy contrast to the Advertiser. He says that lately he hasn't seen the same level of hard-hitting stories. 'It's milquetoast now,' he says. 'The weekly has become the same as the daily. There aren't any issues where the two papers disagree.'

P.J. Naomi, a jewelry store owner and longtime reader, says he's taking a wait-and-see approach. The fall elections, a topic on which the Times and Advertiser have disagreed in the past, will be a good barometer of whether the Times will stay independent, he says.

Zuschlag, who runs the ambulance company, which has been an occasional Times target and pulled its advertising about 10 years ago over a story suggesting the company manipulates the media, says the weekly seems less aggressive since Thomson bought it, a change he views as positive. The Times used to print one-sided reports, but is more balanced now, he says.

Editor Gremillion says that while he's pleased with some of the hard-hitting stories in the Times lately, the paper is getting over a rough patch. 'I think it's new, the publisher's new, pretty much the whole editorial staff is new,' he says. 'I'm not sure we're the model of progressive journalism we'd like to be, but it's early yet.'

Advertisers happy

Thomson has much to lose if it waters down the Times, observers and advertisers say. In addition to local entertainment and retail advertising, the bread and butter of alternatives, the Times, because of its popularity with young to middle-aged, high-income, highly educated readers, gets advertising that traditionally appears less in weeklies.

Fair Hyams, marketing manager for Bank One Louisiana, says that while Bank One primarily advertises in dailies, it considers the Times one of its 'primary buys,' even after the bank recently cut back the number of newspapers in its print campaign.

'We felt the editorial content and quality made it special, and it went beyond entertainment,' Hyams says. 'We believe the readership is a little more affluent, a little higher-educated, and that its editorial content is related to financial services.' The Times also has a broad geographic reach and has a high passaround rate.

Birmingham, Ala.-based media buyer Nancy DePippo also doesn't usually buy ads in weeklies, but places cellular ads and used to place bank ads in the Times. 'I think people looked to it to see some controversial editorial opinion, probably stuff they didn't read in the Advertiser,' she says.

If the weekly loses its editorial edge, wireless companies may pull some of their targeted ads, DePippo says. 'I'm still holding out to see if they're going to maintain their editorial superiority,' she says.

The University of Southwestern Louisiana's Buckman says that although he thinks the Times has run fewer in-depth stories in the past several months, he hasn't heard of any editorial interference under Ed Moss. 'Having said that, I'd still feel better if the Times was owned by someone other than Thomson, because whenever you have a local monopoly, there's always potential for collusion between the two,' Buckman says.

History repeats itself?

While Thomson, like The Hartford Courant with its new group of alternatives, sees its purchase as a business decision, it will have to overcome a good deal of skepticism before it can convince people that editorial independence will be upheld.

In Hartford, Geoff Robinson, former co-owner of the Courant's new weeklies, argues that not all dailies are alike. He says he sold to the Courant because it's local and has a reputation for good journalism. The Courant is owned by Times Mirror, publisher of the Los Angeles Times: Both newspapers won Pulitzer Prizes this year.

Another view says that alternative chain ownership is a lesser evil than mainstream ownership. One thing is for sure: with dailies looking for ways to expand their marketing clout, the questions raised by Hartford and Lafayette aren't likely to go away.

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Lucia Moses (luciam@mediainfo.com) is associate editor for Editor & Publisher magazine.