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Findings and recommendations

May 5, 2007

While Chris Peck was still editor in 2001, he conducted a “Credibility Roundtable” discussion with about two dozen selected members of the public and Spokesman-Review reporters. He also has been a national leader in “civic” or “community” journalism as that concept has evolved nationally. He put theory into action in Spokane by assigning top-level journalists to work with sectors of the community that might be under-reported or under-represented in letters and commentaries published in the newspaper.

Peck’s successor, Steve Smith, has promoted the “transparent” newspaper, opening up the Spokesman-Review newsroom to public scrutiny by a variety of means – including online webcasting of daily news meetings, to which members of the public are regularly invited. The newspaper’s online interaction with readers and links to local bloggers has attracted favorable national attention. Smith also has spoken at local service clubs and at public forums regarding the newspaper’s coverage of major issues, including the River Park Square development.

These are laudable steps that have put the newspaper on a path to valuable and sustained interaction with the community. But they have not been enough.

There is a tension in most news organizations between the demands of aggressive journalism and the owners’ needs to make a profit. During the research for this report, it became clear that this tension was even more significant in a city such as Spokane with a single daily newspaper owned by a family with deep business, philanthropic, and social roots in the community. That conflict manifested itself in The Spokesman-Review’s coverage of the River Park Square project.

Where publishers have extensive business interests, as does the Cowles family, readers’ interests may be secondary at times. At that point, readers depend on editors to have their interests uppermost in mind. An editor must provide the push-back against pressures from the publisher, publisher’s relatives, or other business people in their organization to compromise the pursuit of quality journalism.

The risks in fulfilling that editorial obligation go with the territory. Fortunately, while most people who own newspapers may push the editor as far as they can when their other interests are at stake, they also will give the editor the freedom to do the job for which he or she was hired.

If there is a moral to this RPS story, it is that the publisher-editor relationship got in the way of the public interest in the reporting of a sequence of events of great importance to Spokane’s citizens.

FINDING 1

● The newspaper did not investigate thoroughly in a timely manner and report promptly and forthrightly the financial structure of RPS.

● The newspaper suppressed financial information of importance to decision-makers and the public at-large, but potentially unfavorable to developers.

RECOMMENDATION 1: The Spokesman-Review has a well-deserved reputation for careful and aggressive reporting. That should be the same standard in its reporting of news concerning the Cowles Co. Newsroom management should consider emphasizing its intent in that regard by creating a “Cowles Co.” beat. It should staff that beat with an experienced reporter assigned to look routinely at all aspects of the Cowles Co. operations – journalistic, political, environmental, financial (including development of land it owns). Alternatively, the paper should consider retaining a knowledgeable, but independent, outside editor – not an after-the-fact ombudsman – to press for and oversee continuing coverage of Cowles Co. enterprises. The existence and function of either job should be well publicized so the community knows the paper is watching itself and its ownership. Citizens of Spokane were well served during the River Park Square developments by other publications, both inside and outside Spokane, as noted in this report. The public would benefit even more if The Spokesman-Review were to apply the same kind of scrutiny to itself and its Cowles Co. affiliates that it routinely applies to other aspects of the community’s life.

FINDING 2

● Ownership’s involvement in news stories it deemed sensitive was inappropriate.

RECOMMENDATION 2: Although the “no surprises” policy was eliminated in 2001, situations will continue to occur where informing the newspaper’s owners of pending stories is appropriate. There is no question that the newspaper’s owners should know what’s being published about them before the paper hits the newsstand. However, Cowles Co. representatives should be given the same opportunity to influence the choice and content of news articles prior to publication as any other source or subject, no more and no less.

FINDING 3

● A news editor overseeing the reporting of a controversial issue involving the owners of the newspaper should not advocate a particular outcome.

RECOMMENDATION 3: Departures such as these from customary newsroom policies and practices are not now, and have not been, the norm at The Spokesman-Review. That they come into question now is, again, a result of the tension between the ownership’s other business interests and sound newsroom practices. An editor involved in supervising news coverage should avoid even a perception of conflict by not taking a public position on an issue in these circumstances. News reporting and editorial opinions should remain separate.

FINDING 4

● The Spokesman-Review suffers from the potential for self-censorship of the news product by reporters and editors.

RECOMMENDATION 4: The mere fact that the Cowles family owns The Spokesman-Review and other companies that will be newsworthy on occasion sets up a perceived conflict of interest. That should be recognized, not ignored, and openly discussed within the staff as a whole as well as with the Spokane community at-large. Issues such as this are the grist of many a newsroom conversation; they will better serve The Spokesman-Review if they are made more visible in and outside the newsroom. As noted earlier, Spokesman-Review editors have reached out to their readers boldly and in innovative ways that invite their scrutiny of newsroom processes and decisions. To give greater momentum to measures such as these, the Cowles Co. should consider even more significant approaches to negating the realities and perceptions of conflict of interest. It should explore possible ways of separating the newspaper from other business interests. Members of the Cowles family – including the publisher – should vest the editor of the newspaper with the authority to make any and all decisions about news coverage of Cowles business interests. He or she should be instructed to direct the staff to cover those interests and issues with the same energy and aggressiveness that they do other significant news stories in the community.

FINDING 5

● The same attorney simultaneously influenced decisions on related business and newsroom matters.

RECOMMENDATION 5: The Spokesman-Review should find a separate law firm from the one used by the Cowles Co. generally. No matter how they might try to avoid conflicts, Duane Swinton and the firm of Witherspoon, Kelley project the perception of a conflict of interest, particularly with respect to stories involving the Cowles Co.’s interests. Newspaper employees may lack confidence in advice given by the same lawyers who represent the subject of their stories. In a city the size of Spokane with a company whose reach is as long and varied as that of the Cowles Co., the public may have a similar impression. With the technology now available, lawyers expert in news-media law can efficiently provide advice from other cities. Avoiding the perception of a conflict outweighs the advantage of having the newspaper’s lawyer standing by the editor’s desk.

Conclusion

These findings and recommendations conclude our report. We offer them as the basis for engaged discussions within the newspaper and the community, and hope that they will lead to a Spokesman-Review that earns renewed and sustainable trust from the public.

We also hope this report will be a cautionary tale to The Spokesman-Review and to other similarly situated publications around the country. Editors should not feel stifled by competitive pressures, but rather their publishers should embolden them to fulfill their journalistic obligations to their readers. Publishers must recognize that their publications, as businesses, bring a special obligation to the marketplace. That obligation is to the communities they serve.

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