Stick With The Franchise p.15

By: M.L. STEIN "TOO OFTEN OUR best reporters want to move beyond their immediate backyards and explore more global issues, no matter how challenging the local story," lamented Sacramento Bee executive editor Gregory Favre.
"They are more tempted to sniff under the rock down the road, across the state line or, sometimes, around the world," he added.
This is a serious miscalculation that hurts both newspapers and their readers, he contended in a speech at the formal opening of the Freedom Forum's posh new Pacific Center in San Francisco.
Amid an expanding media mix and technological advances, "our franchise is local news ? good news, bad news, heroes and villains, disasters and everyday occurrences, little leagues and major leagues, big and small businesses and all of the elements that make up our communities and make them what they are," asserted Favre, past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. "It is depressing how many people in our own offices think otherwise."
The problem, he went on, is that many reporters believe their newspapers are parochial if they offer greater exposure to issues that affect readers' daily lives and anticipate trends and concerns that capture the mood of the community.
"The fact is, we may be the last and best hope to keep our communities together as the amazing wonders of today and tomorrow splinters them into small and smaller groups," Favre opined.
But to provide readers' needs, newspapers must first make sure their newsrooms and other departments reflect the nation's growing diversity, the speaker said. In hiring, he went on, applicants should not be judged only on their talent, creativity and promise but also on how they represent the area and society at large.
"We must make sure that the next generation of journalists will be willing to take risks, to be preachers of vision, to be ethical and open, to be inspiring and imaginative, to be gentle and patient and, yet, at the same time obsessed with the idea of seeing their ideas and concepts become reality," Favre said.
While covering the significant news in their communities, newspapers will still be able to serve up national and international news as well as entertainment, Favre argued. They also can do projects and continue to cover traditional and nontraditional beats, he said.
Favre urged the industry to "stop all this woe-is-me attitude that has surfaced in our newsrooms. Please spare me this language of fear and defeat."
Hardly a day passes that some young staffer asks if he or she has a future in the newspaper business, the editor observed.
"I tell them, yes, there is a future," Favre related. "So let's stop beating ourselves up and conjuring up visions of failure and feelings of despair."
He is convinced, he said, that newspapers are needed as never before as communities are shattering, public places becoming scarce and values disappearing. Being a journalist is a great gift and it should be used to perform public service and leave a legacy of commitment to future journalists, Favre said.
If the present generation of newsmen and women fail in this effort, communities will be without strong, dedicated news outlets that represent the "wholeness" of their cities, he warned.
"We need reporting that is courageous and aggressive, substantial and thoughtful, compassionate and passionate," Favre stated. "We need to help diverse people understand each other, understand their differences and also what they share ? understand the way to help build a real sense of community."
In a brief address, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown extended a welcome to the Freedom Forum while also getting in a couple of jabs at the press with which he has had a love-hate relationship for years.
Thousands upon thousands of the news racks in the city are in "disrepair," he complained, and suggested newspapers should do something about it.
Regarding newspaper coverage of him ? which at times has drawn his wrath ? he commented: "They think they are objective; I don't."
?("Our franchise is local news ? good news, bad news, heroes and villains, disasters and everyday occurrences, little leagues and major leagues, big and small businesses and all of the elements that make up our communities and make them what they are.") [Caption]
?(? Gregory Favre, executive editor, Sacramento Bee) [Photo & Caption]
March 1, 1997 n Editor & Publisher #