The News Business

It has been a busy seven months since Carolina Garcia was appointed the executive editor of the Daily News. Within weeks of taking the position, the newspaper published a database of the salaries of all city employees, and then followed it up with a database of teacher salaries. Then came the one-two punch of the Metrolink crash in Chatsworth that killed 25 passengers and the wildfires in Porter Ranch and Sylmar. All of this, Garcia said, keeps one on their toes. She does this with a shrinking news staff and a shrinking news hole and an economy that cuts into an already deteriorating advertising base. All things which make an editor even more aware of what it takes to operate a newspaper these days. “We never felt the impact of business decisions like we are feeling them now,” Garcia said. Garcia came to the Daily News after five years as executive editor of The Monterey County Herald. Both the Herald and the Daily News are part of the Media News Group owned by Dean Singleton. She has also worked at newspapers in San Antonio, Texas and Milwaukee. Question: When we spoke back in April after you were hired, you said you were going to immerse yourself in the Valley to familiarize yourself with the coverage area. How much of that have you done? Answer: Not nearly enough. I am trying to get to as many events as possible and participate in organizations like Leadership L.A. I managed to moderate a panel with them. I wish I were doing a whole lot more, going to a whole lot more events and becoming more immersed. I still need to get out. I have been out to Pierce College and other places but I need to do more. Q: What does the Daily News have to do to be more viable business revenue wise? A: That’s a hard question to answer right now given the state of the economy. As businesses go out of business, we feel the impact. As Mervyn’s closes, Circuit City closes, Linens and Things closes, when business goes out of business it affects our revenue base. We survive on advertising. When businesses are hurting they give up on advertising. Every time you read one of those stories, you go, Oh my God. Never in your life as a journalist did you think you would pay so much attention to that. I am fully attuned to it now in ways that worry me. Q: Hundreds of people lined up to get copies of the Times after the election of Barack Obama. What does that say to you about the viability of print newspapers? A: I thought it was super exciting. We also had put the paper for sale although we did not do the house ads and I wish we had. You can buy our front page now. People wanted to keep something and that was their newspaper. They wanted to frame it. I thought it was really exciting. I think every newspaper in the country including ours is planning a special inaugural section. It is wonderful to see people wanting the newspaper and wanting to read it. I hope they are reading it and not just the headlines. Q: How is morale considering the staffing cuts made at the paper? A: Morale I would have to say is probably low and probably low in the way I have had my colleagues across the country describe it. There have been layoffs and cutbacks to the paper. When you see your friends leave, your colleagues leave it is devastating. It is devastating to think about it, it is devastating to have to do it, and it is devastating to have to feel the aftermath. It is incredibly hard. Q: Where are the strengths of the Daily News editorially? A: I think the newspaper is scrappy and edgy, fearless and hardworking. We have a very strong sports staff. We have a really strong editorial voice on our editorial pages with Mariel (Garza) and Patrick O’Connor. On the news side we have really smart and aggressive reporting. We’re lucky to have people like Dennis McCarthy who is really plugged into the community. In features we have a real strong entertainment and Hollywood focus. We could always do more. Q: That leads to the next question. Where is the Daily News weak editorially? A: Sometimes I think we get caught up in the coverage of the institutions and not enough on the impact of the decisions those institutions have on individuals. We need to go back to having more voices, more local voices and less of the administration or of City Hall. We need to interpret more of what’s happening and getting more people talking and having more sense of place and more sense of people. I think you get caught up in the rush of covering the institution or the administration or the government and not enough of how it affects the individual. Q: How closely do you work with publisher Doug Hames? A: Given the changes we’ve had to make to the paper and the cutbacks and layoffs, a lot closer than I would have expected. He’s a good guy and he’s good to work with. He’s understanding and supportive. Q: What are your plans for business coverage in the paper given that there is no longer a stand alone business section. A: We are holding on. We’ve got Julia Scott who does the Bargain Hunter and Greg Wilcox who does real estate and Drive, and an editor. We are holding on with three people for our business coverage. I would like us to do more. The reality today is this is what we are doing; this is what we have right now. Boy, we need to get out and do more small business profiles. Q: What is the biggest challenge in covering the business community? A: I think the business community would like us to do more profiles on businesses and more stories about the success stories of businesses. Right now all of our space for business news goes to the debacle of the economy in this country. When, in a year, hopefully less, the economy begins to turn around I think we can go back to writing about the businesses that survived. Q: How would you respond to comments in the business community that it is not worth getting to know the top people at the Daily News because they are seen as caretakers and come and go too quickly? A: If it is a legitimate criticism I can hear that and we need to respond. If people don’t see you or hear from you then it is a legitimate criticism. I understand concerns we are not out enough. We need to refocus on community connections; we need to get out there. Q: Do you think that daily newspapers will cease their print publications and go online only? A: There have been some newspapers that have done that. In Madison, Wis. the paper went web only a few months ago. The Christian Science Monitor went web only a few weeks ago. Q: Do you foresee the Daily News going that direction? A: I wonder if one thing that would happen to us is we would have one sort of regional newspaper and then go to the web for your local news. Or you get the reverse. You become very local-centric, which seems to be the direction we are heading, and then the web is more regional and national. I think the future of newspapers is up for grabs. The cost of newsprint is going sky high. Newspapers face serious challenges of what should they look like and what we are going to be. You have to have the news. You have to gather and report the news, edit and present it. All that news you see on the website has to come from somewhere. It just doesn’t appear magically on the Web. Q: Will you share your thoughts on Media News owner Dean Singleton and his role in the newspaper industry and the idea he floated on outsourcing page design and copyediting functions? A: I think Dean is passionate about newspapers. I think he sees himself at heart as a newsman and he is enamored with editors and newspapers. He also is a businessman. Media News is the third largest media group in the country. Then you find yourself in a position where the newspapers are seriously challenged and are they going to survive. I think he is doing everything he can to ensure the survival of newspapers. I was recently at a corporate meeting in Denver, where he reiterated his position but he said you have to survive as a business model. The business model we have is not making it. So what is the right model? He, like everyone else, calls newspapers a cornerstone of democracy. What do you do to ensure the survival of a newspaper? What can you not give up? You can not give up your core reporting of the news. I think what he was trying to say is, if you have quality competency, does it matter where it gets laid out? If the core is pure, does it matter who draws it? … You have to ask yourself a lot of questions about what you would give up to survive. It’s a tough thing to think through. When I tried to think that through (outsourcing of copy editing functions) do you have another set of eyes back home that insures you are not confusing geographies, you are not confusing thing? Is there a way to set it up that makes it work? Maybe there is. It is a shifting of resources where you are not getting into the minutiae of it, like the grammar and the commas, and you are giving final approval versus diving in and doing everything yourself in the newsroom. There is a point where you still have to be last person, the last line of defense for accuracy and credibility. You cannot give that up to some other organization. That one is a problem for me. You’ve got to think that through. Q: Did he say that just as a trial balloon or is it really going to happen? A: I think we are nowhere near down that road. It would take some concerted effort to make that happen. I am not sure we are there yet.