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THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER
WCOG recognizes Malheur publisher Page 3
June 2017
Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
Bills alter access rules for records Charges for electronic files adopted, new standards set Two bills that modify access to public records and include new charges for electronic copies were signed May 16 by Washington Governor Jay Inslee. The first bill, EHB 1595 permits agencies to charge for the cost of producing electronic documents, including costs of transmitting electronic records, the physical media device provided to the requester, and the costs of electronic file transfer or cloud-based data storage. Agencies can calculate their own costs, or charge default amounts set by the bill. The bill’s default amounts are 10 cents per page for scanning records; 5 cents for every four files delivered to the requester electronically; 10 cents per gigabyte for electronically transmitted records; or a flat fee
of up to two dollars as long as the agency reasonably estimates the cost will equal or exceed that amount. The bill also addresses certain records requests governments have viewed as burdensome. EHB 1595 provides that a request for “all or substantially all records” of a public agency is not a valid request for “identifiable” records under the PRA. Requesters may still request all records regarding a particular topic or keyword. The bill also provides that agencies may deny frequent, automatically-generated “bot requests” where responding would cause “excessive interference with other essential functions of the agency.” The second bill, ESHB 1594, makes a number of revisions to
See RULES, Page 2
Three students start internships funded by the WNPA Foundation Three students will receive $2,000 WNPA Foundation scholarships this summer and go to work at WNPA member newspapers. The three students are: • Ester Kim, a University of Washington student who will be interning at the Capitol Hill Times.
• Joseph Thompson, a Gonzaga University student who will work at the Snohomish County Tribune. • Dylan Greene, a sophomore at Washington State University majoring in Journalism and Media Production, will spend the summer at the
See INTERNS, Page 5
Columbia Gorge Press pressman Rick Ursprung of Hood River, Ore., gauges the distance as he prepares to load the last unit onto a flatbed trailer while Press manager Tony Methvin shouts encouragement. The moving of the Daily Sun News press marks the end of local printing operations in the Lower Yakima Valley after more than 100 years of continuous operations. Jennie McGhan/The Daily Sun
Daily Sun’s old Goss Community press shipped off to California By Julia Hart SUNNYSIDE -- The last newspaper printing plant in the Lower Yakima Valley is now a thing of the past. The Daily Sun News’ Goss Community press was sent last month to a new home in San Jose, Calif. No longer will area school children be able to experience the roar of the printing press while touring the hometown newspaper. No longer will late-breaking news cause editors to shout out “stop the presses.” The Daily Sun press was shuttered nearly two years ago due, in part, to the ease of electronic data transfer. For the last week as the press was disassembled,
the staff recalled the noise of the press rattling the building’s windows, the nose-burning smell of the solvents used to clean the press and the rush of pulling a paper “hot off the press.” “It’s the end of an era,” Publisher Roger Harnack said yesterday. “With digital news changing the industry, the press’ departure is a sign of the times.” The community has had its own printing press since the early 1900s, when the Sunnyside Sun was first published here. By the early 1970s, the old Vanguard unit was replaced by the shiny new Goss Community — giving The Sun its first opportunity for spot color printing. In the early 1960s, a second newspaper, The News Cast, later renamed The Daily News, was
See PRESS, Page 4
RULES: Legislature retools record laws
FROM THE PRESIDENT
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public records management. the PRA and Washington’s • Creating a grant program laws regarding preservation for local agencies to improve and destruction of public their information technology records. Some of these changes systems. The grant program, include: as well as the training and • Amending RCW consultation services refer42.56.520 to add a new option enced above, are to be funded for an agency’s initial response through a $1 surcharge on to a requester (also known as recorded documents. a “five-day letter”), allowing • Requiring public agenthe agency to request clarifica- cies to maintain a log of public tion of an unclear request, but records requests submitted to also requiring “to the greatest the agency, to include specific extent possible” a reasonable information about each request, estimate of the time it will take and imposing a detailed reportthe agency to respond if the ing requirement for agenrequest is not clarified. cies that have spent at least • Amending the definition $100,000 on staff and legal of “public record” to exclude costs associated with fulfilling records in the possession of records requests in the past certain volunteers when those fiscal year. records are not otherwise •Requiring, subject to availrequired to be retained by the able funding, the Secretary agency. of State’s office to study the • Adding a training require- feasibility of “implementing a ment for public records officers statewide open records portal to address retention and disclo- through which a user can request sure of electronic records. and receive a response through a • Requiring the state atsingle internet web site relating torney general and the state to public records information.” A archivist to provide training similar system has been impleand consultation services on mented in Utah.
Officers: Don Nelson, President; Sandy Stokes, First Vice President; Michael Wagar, Second Vice President; Keven Graves, Past President. Trustees: Eric LaFontaine, Donna Etchey, Scott Hunter and Bill Shaw. THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER is the offical publication of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. It is published monthly by WNPA, PO Box 389, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Staff Fred Obee: Executive Director: 360-344-2938. Email: fredobee@wnpa.com Janay Collins, Advertising Director: 360-344-2938. Email: ads@wnpa.com 2 The Washington Newspaper June 2017
When blaming the messenger turns ugly - don’t give ground
By Don Nelson If you’ve been on the editorial side of this business long enough, you’ve likely been threatened or even physically accosted while simply doing your job. I’ve never had hands laid on me (some of my professional colleagues have), but I have received death threats, ominous warnings about Nelson my personal safely, promises of lawsuits and public censures from people in power. And that was before Donald Trump amped up his tacit endorsement of violence and hatred in American civil discourse, particularly toward his perceived enemies including the news media. Inevitably, that was going to have scary consequences. I hope every publisher and editor in the country, at news outlets of any size, was as alarmed as I was by the recent, widely reported attack on a news reporter in Montana. The reporter was trying to ask a legitimate question of Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate in a special election to fill the congressional seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Gianforte reportedly responded by choking and body-slamming the reporter while yelling angrily at him, after a question about Gianforte’s position on GOP plans
Lyons, Winjum tied for Pinnacle Award prize
for replacing Obamacare (there is an audio recording of the incident that went viral). No small irony that the reporter ended up in the hospital for a checkup after the assault. Gianforte later apologized about the incident, after winning the election. But that he thought it was OK to attack a reporter, and that so many of his supporters thought there was nothing wrong with such reprehensible behavior, and that his guy is actually going to be in Congress, are disturbing indicators that Trump’s condemnation of the news media as “the enemy” is being taken in a dangerously literal way. Criticism and intimidation are escalating to banana republic-style mayhem. Cynical observers might chide us with reminders that we’re lucky we’re not being murdered, like journalists in Mexico, Russia and elsewhere. But many of us remember the mob-style execution of Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles some 30 years ago. It can happen here. Trump wants to make his war on news outlets all about him. But the anti-media mood he is stirring up in the country goes beyond politics and partisanship. It’s a virulent threat to our democratic way of life, and all the institutions and principles we have valued for 240 years. I’ve said it before and will keep saying it because this bears repeating: dictators, autocrats and tyrants throughout modern history have attacked,
Kim Winjum, Whidbey News-Times, and Jonel Lyons, Sequim Gazette, are tied for first place in WNPA’s ad sales contest. The person with the most sales by the end of September
undermined and suppressed the news media on their way to establishing their brutal regimes. Trump is following that same strategy, and we dismiss that evidence at our peril. Intimidation, real or implied, may change the way some news outlets think about coverage, especially of controversial people or issues. Will being afraid for our lives become part of our job expectations? And if so, will that affect how we go about our mission? Do we need to be prepared to take a punch for asking a simple question? I don’t know any journalists who think of themselves as heroic or particularly brave. We’re devoted to upholding the roles of information providers, civic watchdogs, community connectors and celebrators of our common humanity. We’re not really dangerous, except to people obsessed with power, control, domination and personal hubris who don’t want to be exposed. It’s equally important for publishers and media executives to understand, embrace and articulate the same journalistic principles, and have their editors’ and reporters’ backs. If American journalism retreats or gives ground in the battle for democratic ideals, it won’t be the foot soldiers who make that decision. It will be the generals. Don Nelson is Publisher of the Methow Valley News and this year’s WNPA president.
gets a $1,000 prize at the annual convention in October. Winjum and Lyons have $1,700 in sales. They are followed by Laura Martin, Statesman Examiner with
$1,650, Louise Mugar, Northern Light, with $1,350, Cali Bagby, Journal of the San Juans, $850, and Nora Durand, Whidbey News-Tiimes, with $850.
Coalition confers Key Award on Malheur, Oregon publisher The Washington Coalition for Open Government reached across the state border into Oregon last month to recognize the Malheur Enterprise’s fight for state records. The Key Award is for the Enterprise’s “tenacity and persistence in procuring public records” related to the case of Anthony W. Montwheeler, a former state hospital patient now facing murder charges. The coalition announced the award last month in a news release. “We are proud to receive this recognition,” said Les Zaitz, Enterprise editor and publisher. “The need is more profound than ever to hold government accountable and allow citizens access to government information.” The Enterprise earlier this year sought records of the state Psychiatric Security Review Board after it released Montwheeler from state control last December. A month later, Montwheeler was accused of kidnapping and murdering one of his ex-wives and killing a Vale man and injuring his wife in a collision during a police pursuit. When it was revealed
Les Zaitz, publisher of the Malheur Enterprise, was given a Key Award by the Washington Coalition for Open Government. that Montwheeler had faked to those “who fight secrecy a mental illness to avoid and work to make governprison, the newspaper asked ment open and transparent.” for records, which previously The coalition typically honwere not available because ors individuals and organizamedical records are confitions in Washington state. dential. The state’s Security “Our board felt this case Review Board denied access was so extraordinary because to the records and took the the newspaper was sued by rare step of suing the Entera state agency for simply reprise to block the disclosure, questing information the pubbut dropped the case under lic had a right to know,” said pressure from Gov. Kate Juli Bunting of the coalition. Brown. “The board wanted to draw The Washington coalition, attention to this egregious which promotes open govern- case and honor the newspaper ment, issues the Key Award for standing up to secrecy.”
CAREER MOVES Andy Hobbs is the new publisher of the Federal Way Mirror beginning May 1, 2017. Hobbs graduated from journalism school at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, in 2000. He worked briefly in New York after college before moving to Arizona to help launch three weeklies in the Phoenix suburbs. Hobbs worked as the editor of the Federal Way Mirror
from June 2006 to November 2013, when he went to work for The Olympian as a city reporter. He said he is looking forward to returning to community journalism and the Federal Way Mirror. “Papers like the Mirror make life richer,” Hobbs said. Rudi Alcott, a nine-year Sound Publishing veteran and former publisher of the Federal Way Mirror, is the new Digital
Sales Director for Sound Publishing. Alcott joins a new media team of two who partner with a six-person IT team to maintain the websites and digital promotion for Sound Publishing’s 49 newspaper titles. Prior to joining Sound Publishing, Alcott spent several years in circulation marketing, first with the Greely (CO) Tribune and the seven years with Horvitz newspapers. The Washington Newspaper June 2017 3
PRESS: Daily Sun now prints at company press in Hood River founded. Its original press was a simple sheet-fed AB Dick system on which a pressman could run two pages at a time, said former publisher Tim Graff, one of the first pressman on the unit. In 1981, then-publisher Tom Lanctot, took his Daily News to the next level adding two Goss Community units, the standard in printing machinery. In the mid-1980s, the Sun was purchased by Eagle Newspapers, Inc., of Salem Ore. And in 1986, The Sun merged with The Daily News becoming Daily Sun News. Though all those changes, the press never stopped rolling. “It’s a really sad day,” Lanctot said. Lanctot grew the press operation from that small AB Dick 385 sheet-fed press housed in the basement at 420 South St. into the five-unit Goss Community at 600 S. Sixth St. in 1996. “But it’s the way of today’s business,” Lanctot said. “Newspapers can now send their data electronically to a press anywhere, at much cheaper rates.” The Daily Sun now prints at a sister-property, Columbia Gorge Press in Hood River, Ore. At one time, all of the Lower Yakima Valley newspapers were printed on Sunnyside Sun and later The Daily Sun presses. In the mid1970s, the publishers of The Sun, Prosser Bulletin, Grandview Herald, Toppenish Review and Wapato Independent were all printed in Sunnyside. After the merger, he took
over the operation of the Central Washington Press, as it was called. In 1996, the two print houses were consolidated into one location — the site of the former C. Speck Motors showroom and auto shop at 600 S. Sixth St. Longtime pressman Lynn Emery remembers working on The Sun’s first Goss community press in 1975. “It was my baby,” Emery said. Emery who got his start working on the New Cast sheet-fed press, retired as Central Washington Press plant foreman in late 1980s. After The Daily Sun merger occurred in 1986, The Sun’s press continued to print the valley’s newspapers. The daily was printed at the 520 S. Seventh Street operation, under the management of head pressman Jim Easterly, said Lanctot. “There is a lot of history in that old press,” he said. The press will be revived for King Consolidated Printing of San Jose, Calif., Columbia Gorge Press plant manager Tony Methvin said. His Hood River, Ore. plant now prints The Daily Sun, Goldendale Sentinel the (Bingen/White Salmon) Enterprise, Hood River News, Kiona-Benton Sentinel, Yakama Nation and The Dalles Chronicle, among others. It also prints special publications for newspapers as far away as Omak. “We are running the press six days a week, including two dailies, plus each paper’s shoppers and special publications,” he said. Methvin and pressman Rick Ursprung spent the
last several days taking apart The Daily Sun’s Goss in preparation for its trip south. “She was a pretty expensive model when it was first installed here,” Methvin said. “It is still a great machine. “It’s just that we can put color on every page, and that is the trend these days.” That’s a sentiment Lanctot echoed, noting the world of printing is Daily Sun mailroom worker Ashael “Ozzie” Medina and Publisher Roger now driven by advertisers’ Harnack discuss removal of ink lines last Thursday before beginning desire and readers’ demand press disassembly. Alexis “Lulu” Taylor/Special to The Daily Sun for more color in the paper. “I remember the first color ad I sold was a spot color ad to the Bieber Bros. Carpeting,” he said. “It was just one color and that was in 1982. Harnack has mixed feelings about the press’ departure. “I grew up with a newspaper at home every day,” he said. “But I have a 15-year-old daughter who sees news only in terms of digital media. So while print isn’t dead, we have to adapt to changing readership.” That change means new digital products, optimization for mobile devices, eeditions and social media. “Last year, we launched our subscription-based e-edition here, and it’s been a large circulation success,” he said. During his career, Harnack, too, has had to operate a press “once or twice.” But the time has come to keep up with technology. “We’ll continue to provide a daily newspaper to serve the Lower Yakima Valley,” he said. “At the same time, look for us to move more aggressively into the digital media world.” The Washington Newspaper June 2017 4
WNPA JOB BOARD REPORTER The Daily Record in Ellensburg, Washington, has an opening for a full-time reporter. The position will focus on city and school district coverage in Kittitas County. Plenty of good stories await — the Ellensburg School District is working on the best way address crowded schools, and population growth is a hot topic right now. The job also will involve feature and enterprise reporting. Experience with photography, video and social media would be a plus, but we ultimately need someone with solid reporting skills and a strong writing background. The Daily Record is an awardwinning, a six-day-a-week newspaper in Central Washington. Ellensburg, population 18,000, is a lively community on the edge of the Cascade Mountains with lots of outdoor opportunities.e to Central Washington University. A bachelor’s degree in journalism or equivalent reporting experience is preferred. Send a cover letter, resume, references and 5 clips to: Joanna Markell, managing editor, jmarkell@kvnews.com. www. dailyrecordnews.com. OFFICE MANAGER The Whidbey Island Newspapers need an Office Manager in our Coupeville, WA office. Will answer phones, handle petty cash and make deposits, enter advertising orders into our front-end business system and assist all departments as needed. Must possess strong customer service skills, excellent phone skills, excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills. Must be team-oriented and computer literate. This is a full-time, 40 hours per
INTERNS: $2,000 stipend awarded
week, position. We offer a great work environment, competitive wages, excellent health benefits, 401K, paid vacations and holidays. Please e-mail resume with cover letter to careers@ soundpublishing.com. Learn more about the largest community news organization in Washington State. Visit us at www.soundpublishing.com.
ter with three references to careers@ soundpublishing.com. No phone calls, please. The Peninsula Daily News is part of the largest community news organization in Washington State. Check us out at www.soundpublishing.com.
SALES CONSULTANT Seattle Weekly, a division of Sound Publishing, Inc. is looking for a seaCREATIVE ARTIST soned, self-motivated, results-driven The Whidbey Island Newspapers, salesperson. Successful candidates with offices in Coupeville on beautiful will be engaging and goal-oriented, Whidbey Island, WA, is seeking a full- with good organizational skills. time Creative Artist. Duties include: Must be able to seek out, grow, and ad building; designing promotional maintain strong business relationmaterials; internal/external customer ships through consultative sales and service, and meeting all deadlines. excellent customer service. Media Requires strong communication skills experience desired, but not required. and an ability to work in a fast-paced, Compensation commensurate with deadline-oriented environment. experience. We offer health insurance, Experience with Adobe Creative paid time off, and 401k with employer Suite, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator match. and Acrobat strongly preferred, as is Interested candidates should media experience. You will work inemail a cover letter, including salary dependently as well as part of a team. requirement and resume to: careers@ We offer a great work environment, soundpublishing.com and be sure to health benefits, 401k, paid holidays, include ATTN: SEASALES in the vacation and sick time. Please esubject line. mail resume, cover letter, and a few samples of your work to: careers@ CIRCULATION SALES MANAGER soundpublishing.com. Do you have strong leadership skills? Are you looking for a good INSIDE SALES job with stability and opportunity for If you have an outgoing personalgrowth? If so you need to apply! ity, a sense of humor, can multi-task, This is a full-time position with and handle the pressure of deadlines, the Peninsula Daily News in Port this is the job for you! Angeles. This full-time job is with the PenMust be well organized, detail insula Daily News in Port Angeles, oriented, dependable and able to work and includes an hourly wage plus independently. Reliable automobile commission, medical benefits, life required plus proof of insurance and insurance, paid vacation, sick pay and good driving record. a 401k with a company match. This position includes excellent You will work in a team oriented, benefits: medical, dental, life insurfast paced environment. The right can- ance, 401K, paid time-off and mileage didate should have excellent telephone reimbursement. EOE. Please send manners and sales skills, and great resume and cover letter to careers@ spelling, grammar and writing skills. soundpublishing.com for immediate Please email resume and cover let- consideration.
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Stanwood-Camano News. Interns are free to accept a paid internship (that is, the scholarship would be in addition to any other salary they might receive from their host newspaper).
5 The Washington Newspaper June 2017
The $2,000 stipend is paid as follows: $1,000 at the beginning of the internship and $1,000 at the end, after a written report summarizing the experience is submitted to WNPA. Money for the internships
is raised each year at WNPA’s annual convention with a silent and live auction. For more information on internships offered by WNPA, click on the Foundation link in the navigation bar at wnpa.com.
Have a legal question? WNPA is ready to help If you have a question about access to public meetings or records, the WNPA staff can help. Call 360-344-2938 For questions beyond government access -- if an attorney has served you with a demand letter, or if Earl Hubbard you need emergency review of a story, letter or ad -- call or email our WNPA attorney, Michele Earl Hubbard. (206) 801-7510 or email
michele@alliedlawgroup.com