Word: gannett
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...been a loyal TIME reader since he was a student of American literature at Indiana University. As a naval officer based for three years in Asmara, Ethiopia, he usually went through each issue more than once. Before arriving here he had a successful 18-year career with the Gannett newspapers; he was a senior vice president of Gannett and publisher of a ten-newspaper group with headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., and, most recently, publisher and CEO of the Detroit News. "TIME," he says, "has always been an icon for me -- the source. It was a thrill to be asked...
...gamely defend such trips on journalistic grounds, but they are primarily promotional gimmicks meant to showcase the network's resident Bigfoot. "We're almost defining news in such a way as to say something's not important unless an anchor is there," says Everette Dennis, executive director of the Gannett Center for Media Studies. "That's regrettable. Sometimes the specialists on a particular subject ought to be the ones dominating the coverage, not the anchors, who are by definition generalists...
...Gannett editors are encouraged to include photographs of minorities and women on their front pages, and several Gannett papers have compiled handouts for reporters listing minority sources. Each year reporters are evaluated on their performance in a number of different categories, including "news of minorities." The company offers an annual All-American award to the paper that has done the best job of weaving minorities into its pages...
...Most Gannett reporters give their bosses high marks for sensitivity, but some are worried that such high-pressure incentives can lead to the worst type of tokenism. "To put a black face on the front page because you haven't had a black face on the front page for three weeks, that's insulting," says USA Today reporter Mike McQueen. Others say the push to represent minorities in mainstream stories too often replaces solid minority coverage. "Mainstreaming won't persuade minorities to buy the paper if we don't cover them and their issues," says one reporter...
...Gannett editors stress that mainstreaming should never conflict with sound news judgment. "You don't have to compromise to follow this policy," says USA Today editor Peter Prichard. "It's just a question of trying to broaden your vision." With a smaller percentage of white male readers in its future, Gannett has clearly seen the light...