By: E&P Staff The U.S. Air Force is changing its policy on base newspapers. The military branch's public affairs staff members will no longer produce printed newspapers, but instead deliver news via the Internet, the Air Force announced Tuesday. Civilian publishers will now be responsible for the production of print editions.
The former 800-strong public affairs department is now a staff of only 200 positions, which was a motivating factor in moving the Air Force?s news to the Web, said an article from the Air Force Print News, the military branch's official Web site.
Previously, most Air Force newspapers were printed by civilians under contract with the Air Force. The papers printed Air Force-generated content, and kept the advertising revenue.
Under the new policy, civilian publishers may still print newspapers for the base, but will no longer be under contract with the Air Force. Now, any Air Force content will be gathered from the base?s public Web site.
The new policy will go into effect over the next month.
According to the article, the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado has already switched to the new policy. The base?s former public affairs-run paper, the Space Observer, was replaced with the Space Guardian, which is printed and produced by the same civilian company that printed the old paper.
The article said that the new policy mirrors that in the civilian media, in which most news consumers get their information from the Internet, rather than a print publication. It added that the new Web-focused system will be cost and work effective for the Air Force.
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