|
Topics:
Civic Communication
The
Bremerton Sun
The Bremerton Sun has organized a series of civic journalism
projects on the issues of economic diversification, growth management,
and open space preservation. A theme running through all three
case studies is the newspaper's focus on facilitating and supporting
citizen and community involvement in public decision-making processes.
Case
studies plus.
Index
Economic
Diversification
Where Do We Grow From Here
Open Space
Contents
Economic
Diversification
Economic
Development, Economic Diversification
A
case study by Project
on Public Life and the Press
New York University
Department of Journalism
10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-3793
©
Project on Public Life and the Press,1994
The Project is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation.
After national
announcement of 1993 military base-closing recommendations prefigured
a bleak local economic future in the wake of Navy spending cuts,
Sun staffers teamed up with an unusually dynamic Chamber of Commerce
president and younger members of a lethargic economic development
commission to plan a community summit on economic diversification.
Cosponsored by the Sun and the local electric utility, the April
1993 summit drew about 300 invited participants. Background material
for the summit was drawn from the Sun, primarily from two series:
one analyzing the local economy, one looking at other communities'
diversification efforts. Since the summit, about 150 volunteers
have worked on 10 subcommittees of a community task force. The
paper tracks stories under the logo "The Cry to Diversify."
Bremerton
Sun (newspaper)
PO Box 259
Bremerton WA 98310
(206) 377-3711 (phone)
(206) 792-9201 (Phillips)
(206) 479-7681 (fax)
Ownership:
Scripps-Howard
No. newsroom employees: 41.5 FTE
Circulation:
40,000 (daily)
41,500 (Sunday)
Circulation area (pop.)
Western Puget Sound: Kitsap and part of Mason and Jefferson Cos.
(250,000)
Initiative
Economic Diversification
Dates:
Ongoing since February 1993
Lead
Editor:
Jeff Brody
Executive
Editor:
Mike Phillips
When
and how did this initiative get started?
Phillips became involved in summit planning after a related editorial
appeared. Phone calls from two Chamber of Commerce officials and
an educator alerted him to summit preparations already under way;
Phillips was invited to join and agreed to sign the paper on as
a cosponsor.
What
were the goals of the initiative?
- Minimize chances of any save-our-base movement or undue enthusiasm
for tourism as economic alternatives, both of which are regarded
as illusory - if superficially appealing - solutions.
- Raise
community expectations for the economic future to high-reward
competition on the Pacific Rim.
- Overcome
NIMBY problems and development-environment clashes by building
a broad coalition.
- Match
economic development efforts to areaŐs resources: miles of deep
salt water shoreline, high-tech skills in areas like computer
engineering, sonar, radar, ultra-precision milling, hazardous
materials handling, nuclear engineering, marine architecture.
- Raise
community awareness of needs required to support economic diversification:
public-private technology sharing, higher education enhancements,
communications infrastructure, better industrial zoning, more
aggressive marketing.
How
many people worked on it?
At the newspaper, a half-dozen reporters and editors and a half-dozen
business-side managers were involved in coverage and in the summit
itself. The Sun's general manager and advertising director served
on the 20-person summit planning committee. Phillips was a lead
speaker. The paper covered the event as it would others.
What
did it look like in the newspaper?
Phillips kicked off news coverage with a column arguing for economic
diversification and detailing actions that could make it happen.
The newsroom produced two five-part series in the weeks leading
up to the summit. Follow-up stories on economic development alternatives
continue.
Response
to the Initiative
In
the newsroom:
Some minor resentment that the newspaper coordinated news coverage
with the summit, but, Phillips said, generally pride in the quality
of the paper's work.
In
the community:
Some government and established business leaders were miffed that
they were bypassed. Great appreciation among women, minorities,
labor people, young people, social service folks and educators
that they were included. They remain the most energetic and creative
of the volunteers.
Among
political leaders:
Considerable defensiveness at the local level; local-level officials
have essentially been left behind. The local congressional and
legislative delegations have decided "this is a bandwagon they
want to be on," Phillips said.
Did
any outside group pick up the newspaper's initiative and carry
it further?
A local economic-development team has committed itself to recruiting
new business, local schools have agreed to work more closely with
business and the U.S. Navy has for the first time opened up a
top-secret base, sharing technology there with other firms. Contacts:
Kitsap County Economic Development Commission: Earle Smith, executive
director, Mike Hougan, chair. (206) 377-9499. Puget Power, the
local utility company, whose approach to community service includes
providing expert outside facilitators for town halls, summits,
etc. (206) 377-3931
Overall
lessons - successes and failures:
Successes:
The community's leadership structure has been broadened significantly,
Phillips said The community clearly is pointed now at a set of
high-standard economic goals and is less psychologically dependent
on the naval installations, he said.
Failures:
No failures, but not every task force coming out of the summit
is doing a good job, according to Phillips. At a community update
meeting in November 1993, only six of the ten had real progress
to report.
What's
next:
A serious and immediate hurdle to economic diversification is
a shortage of land pre-zoned for light industrial use. Such zoning
in the past has been handled case-by-case and always has been
controversial. Many businesses donŐt want to go through that.
So the community must make some decisions about business park
zoning. The Sun is considering leading a community discussion
and planning exercise on this issue that would be a scaled-down
version of the open space initiative.
Case study
written by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public
Life and the Press, October 1993. Lisa is also a member of the
CPN Journalism editorial team. Revision of March 1994 based on
written update by Mike Phillips.
More
Information
Project
on Public Life and the Press
New York University
Department of Journalism
10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-3793
Index
Economic
Diversification
Where Do We Grow From Here
Open Space
Back
to Communication Index |
