Lost publisher mourned

By: Joe Strupp Those who spent more than a week searching for Ted Natt, former publisher of The Daily News in Longview, Wash., whose helicopter disappeared Aug. 7, say they did not lose hope that he would be found alive until all efforts were exhausted.
"We had about 6,000 acres we were looking at, and we did as much as we could," says Detective Gerry Simmons of the Columbia County, Ore., sheriff's office, which organized a ground search that was carried out by more than 100 volunteers and ended Aug. 17. "We searched where we thought we had the best shot of finding him, but we did not."
The Daily News, where Natt served as publisher until earlier this year, also chose to treat his missing status as a likely fatality by publishing a lengthy obituarylike story Aug. 18, even though no sign of him or his aircraft had been found by then.
"We discussed it with the family, and we thought, at this point, it looked unlikely that Ted survived," says city editor Andre Stepankowsky. "There was an internal discussion about it, but no real debate."
The obit included a history of Natt's career, high points of news coverage, and an ironic tale of Natt piloting a plane to Mount St. Helens to get photos of the erupting volcano in 1980 that helped win the paper a Pulitzer Prize.
The obit's Web version asked readers to e-mail in their favorite memories of Natt. The paper also ran a touching editorial that said the staff had to "make our peace and say goodbye with no definitive answer on what happened."
Natt, 58, had served as publisher of The Daily News since 1977, stepping down when the family-owned paper was sold to Indiana-based Howard Publications several months ago. Natt's family had owned a controlling interest in the 25,000-daily-circulation paper for 76 years before selling to the Midwestern chain.
Natt also served in key positions for New Directions for News and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Under new ownership, the News has seen several major changes in the works, including a switch to morning publication and a new Sunday edition.
(Editor & Publisher WebSite:http:www.mediainfo.com) [Caption]
(copyright: Editor & Publisher August 21, 1999) [Caption]