Scripps Changes Policy on Prez Endorsements: Anything Goes This Year

By: Joe Strupp For the first time since 1912, the Ventura (Calif.) County Star has been set free. So has the Abilene Reporter-News in Texas, The Cincinnati Post, and even The Gleaner of Henderson, Ky.

In fact, all 21 daily papers of The E.W. Scripps Company have been freed -- to make their own endorsements for president.

While it?s not exactly the Emancipation Proclamation, the decision to allow each Scripps newspaper to decide on its own presidential endorsements will have impact, both locally and nationally.

?We used to have a policy in which editors from all the papers would get together, take a vote, and majority would rule,? said Alan Horton, senior vice president/newspapers for Scripps. ?An editorial would then be written, and that would be the endorsement for all of the papers.?

But when the 21 editors met this past May, they voted to discontinue the practice and allow each paper to make its own endorsement. Only three editors voted to maintain the group approach, according to Sue Deans, editor of The Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., who wrote about the decision, endorsing it, in a column.

Tim Gallagher, publisher of the Ventura County Star, had participated in the last four Scripps presidential endorsement meetings, first as editor of the Albuquerque Tribune, then as editor at the Star. ?It was a throwback to days when you had king-makers,? said Gallagher, who became publisher in July. ?But it seemed to be forcing a position that didn?t take into account what the community thought.?

Horton stressed that editors were never directed by company executives to endorse a certain candidate. But the tradition had long maintained that a group decision by editors had been the preferred method.

?The theory was that you had a better chance of getting what was best for the whole country (with a group endorsement) and you would have more impact if everyone went the same way,? Horton said. ?I think it is great to have a tradition that is unique, but I also think it is good for readers to know that their editors are responsible for what goes in the paper.?

Since the tradition began 92 years ago, the Scripps editors endorsed mostly Republicans, with only four Democrats getting the nod: Woodrow Wilson in 1912, James M. Cox in 1920, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, according to company historians. They also managed to go for a third-party candidate, Robert M. LaFollette in 1924, who wound up winning no electoral votes.

?It created an opportunity to hear from editors around the country, a different perspective,? said John Temple, editor and publisher of The Denver Rocky Mountain News, who took part in the 2000 meeting that resulted in an endorsement of George W. Bush. ?It also raised the magnitude of the decision and you were not limited by your geography.?

But Temple acknowledged that the group endorsement made life difficult for some editors who had espoused a certain political belief on their editorial pages for months, then changed course with a presidential endorsement.

?If you have been writing for four years on a certain position and then you come out of left field in a different way, that does not come across as cohesive to readers,? Temple said. ?It can put papers in an awkward position.?

Mike Philipps, editor of The Cincinnati Post and The Kentucky Post, agreed. ?I hate to see the end to a long tradition, but I think it makes sense that each paper can reflect its own community, its own market,? he said. ?In the markets with a more liberal readership, the editors might have taken some flak.?

Jay Ambrose, Scripps director of editorial policy, wrote the group endorsement editorials of Bush in 2000 and Bob Dole in 1996. He also realized the change was imminent. ?A lot of people were eager to go their own way,? he said.