No Slow News Season This Summer

By: Joe Strupp Ah, the summer doldrums. Many industries look forward to slower work schedules and lots of vacation days, but what about newspapers?

Is summer really the slow news season that journalists like to think it is? Or is that just a hopeful myth for weary scribes who would rather spend hot days at the pool or beach?

With summer officially starting next week, this year is already promising a busy news cycle. In just the past week alone, newspapers have had to cover the deaths of both a president and an icon of music, the G-8 summit, revelations about a reported memo authorizing torture in military-run prisons overseas, and the UN Security Council vote on Iraq.

Still to come: both political conventions, the ongoing Iraq war, the pending Sept. 11 commission report, the release of Bill Clinton's long-awaited memoir, the Summer Olympics in Athens, and the continuing battle against terrorism.

"It is a sign of busy times, much of which extends back to 9/11," observes Helen Donovan, executive editor of The Boston Globe, which will have its hands full with the Democratic National Convention there late next month. "News is really good to have."

At the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., Managing Editor Mary Fran Gleason says this summer's news calendar is among the busiest ever, forcing her newsroom to re-arrange the usual approach. "It is a challenge when you have all of these things converging at once," Gleason says. "This summer it feels more so and we have really limited who can be off in August."

In addition, the Times Union is using paid interns for the first time in years, with five lined up for eight- to 10-week stints, hiring a temporary copy editor for July and August, putting eight editorial assistants to use more on writing and pagination, and assigning an intern to each news department.

"There is going to be no relaxing," Gleason vows. "There is going to be no break."

But is this summer all that different from any other? Some news leaders, such as Robert Rivard, executive editor of the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News, contend that the lazy summer days have been gone for awhile. "When I was a young reporter, things would slow down," he says. "But there is no more down time anymore in the newsroom. There is no leisurely pace. All news is local now and there is a security component to most stories."

David Shribman, editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, says, "It surprises me that people still think that summer is a downtime. News doesn't take a vacation. There is as much news in the summer as anytime."

Shribman points to numerous news events that occurred in the sweltering months, from the beginning of World War I (in August 1914) to George W. Bush's announcement opposing stem cell research (August 2001).

In between, stepped-up newspaper coverage has often been called for between Memorial Day and Labor Day. A few: Iraq's invasion of Kuwait (August 1990), Bill Clinton's deposition in which he admitted his affair with "that woman, Ms. Lewinsky," and his later resulting impeachment. Both the Watergate break-in (June 1972) and Richard Nixon's resignation (August 1974) also took place in Washington's warmest months.

The German invasion of Russia came in June 1941, North Korea's entry into South Korea in June 1950, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968.

The first man landing on the moon occurred in June 1969, while Prince Charles and Lady Diana were wed in July 1981 and Diana's surprise death occurred in August 1997. John F. Kennedy Jr. also lost his life in the summer (July 1999), while Elvis Presley passed on in August 1977.

The U.S. dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945, while World War II's D-Day occurred in June 1944 and the Falkland Islands War ended in June 1982.

Finally, two major New York City blackouts -- 1977 and 2003 -- occurred in the summer, as did Hurricane Andrew (1992), China's deadliest earthquake (1976) that killed 240,000, and the explosion of TWA Flight 800 over Long Island, N.Y. (1996).

Perhaps the most famous news event in American history, the signing of the Declaration of Independence took place, of course, in July 1776.

"There is as much news in the summer as any time," Shribman declares. "People think it's slow because they are on vacation. But news doesn't take a vacation."