As part of our ongoing series on the local media, we wanted to find out what's going on at the Daily Progress--what's their editorial direction; why is there so much reporter turnover; what's been the response to their recent design makeover; and just what kind of a place is it to work, anyway?

After all, it is the only daily newspaper in the area.

Since in each previous report in the series we spoke first with the editor (Ron Hasson, Cathy Harding, Hawes Spencer), we called Anita Shelburne, editorial page editor of the Daily Progress. And she said that, as a matter of policy, an interview would have to be cleared by the publisher, Lawrence McConnell.

So we called Mr. McConnell. And he said that, as a matter of policy, he did not favor such interviews, because he sees 'no point in media covering media.' In fact, he told us that in his opinion, most of this kind of coverage was only of interest to the media itself. 'The public isn't interested in this stuff."

Media covering the media

Jake Mooney was the 'hometown Charlottesville' reporter at the Progress for 2½ years, until July of 2002. He encountered this 'don't cover the media' attitude on at least one occasion.

"No one ever stopped anyone from writing about stuff. [But] the closest [I ever came to being blocked] … was back when Hawes Spencer was having his falling-out at C-Ville Weekly. I was following it and I wanted to report it, and was kept from doing it for a while. ... I finally did write it, but it was very late by that time, and severely truncated, and absolutely buried. Which I thought was a real shame, because people would have loved to read that story in the Progress.

"Hawes leaving C-Ville was all anyone in certain circles was talking about, and beyond that was simply a great yarn. … I'm still not sure why they don't care to write about other media. … they would say that the public doesn't care, but I think that's just untrue. After all, [Media Columnist] Howard Kurtz is one of the best-known reporters the Washington Post has.

"The real reason probably has to do with not wanting to promote any other media outlets, or even acknowledge that they exist. Either that, or … they don't want to offend another good corporate citizen."

As soon as they start to get it, they move on

Wayne Mogielnicki is the Director of Communications for Thos. Jefferson's Monticello. His office is in a renovated farmhouse up the road a bit from the mansion, with charming views of the hills and fields.

For ten years until three years ago, Wayne was at the Daily Progress. The Worrell family, who owned the paper at the time, hired him as managing editor, and he quickly became the editor. His tenure divides roughly in half with the purchase of the paper in 1996 by the Media General Corporation and the installation of Lawrence McConnell as publisher.

Mogielnicki acknowledges that neither the Worrells nor Media General made much of an effort at staff retention.

"[Young reporters] come in … with zero experience, and as soon as they really start to get it, they move on - 90 percent of them, anyway.

"Ten percent stay--really good people like Bob Gibson, Jerry Ratcliffe, Dave Maurer, Bryan McKenzie--because they simply like it here. [And these are clearly] people who have the talent to have bigger careers elsewhere.

"But another 10% move on who like it here and who would stay if there was just a little more in it for them--and it would help the paper and it would help the community. [In fact] it would be nice if [all the] media around here paid better so people would be [in a position] to make a decision.

We asked Wayne if C-ville Weekly and the Hook don't have people--John Borgmeyer, Lisa Provence--who might be considered to be part of a group of younger people with enough experience to give good coverage?

He smiles, saying, "Oh, they'll go, too.

"So you wind up with these 50 year olds, Anita and Bob and so forth, and these 22 year olds, and nobody in between. Very often the person covering the school board is closer in age--and interests--to the kids than they are to the board members, and that colors their understanding of the issues."

Bob Gibson is an institution within the institution. A number of the people with whom we spoke refer to him as the institutional memory of the paper. "He's someone you can always go to with a question," one former staffer told us. "Even if he's on deadline he'll be smiling and helpful."

Speaking of Gibson, long-time newspaperman Paul Saunier says, "[these] professionals are community assets, not simply replaceable young reporters, because they have earned the trust of political leaders of all stripes, which takes years of accomplishment, and the readers and publishers both benefit."

Despite opportunities to move to larger markets, Bob just likes it here. "I got married and settled down. We had kids. This is just a great place to live."

A Stepping Stone for Beginners

"Home to Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville has an affluent, educated population that cares about local news, and WVIR/Channel 29 has a reputation as a stepping-stone for beginners." - (Jake Mooney, Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2003)

A striking aspect of the Daily Progress as an institution is the turnover at the reporter level. Like the revolving door at our network television channel. And it is for a similar reason: market size.

As we have previously pointed out, of the measured metropolitan statistical areas in the United States, this market area, with about 150,000 people, is number 198. Which means there are 197 places in this country with more consumers spending more money, generating more advertising revenue with which to pay talent.

Paul Saunier, an occasional contributor to this website, is a long-time observer of the journalistic scene. "I often say to people, before you get mad at the Progress, you have to look at other papers in markets this size. It really is pretty good."

Davide Dukcevich worked at the Progress for a little over a year, back at the turn of the century. "I went to Northwestern Journalism School in the mid '90s, and when I was graduating, the [general] job market was roaring -- but even so it was hard to get any jobs in journalism, and [especially] hard to get something that would get you the clips that will help your career - [a lot of] jobs were just rewriting press releases.

"And the Daily Progress was an opportunity to have a cool job, in a city, in the south-you know, it's warm, and there's nice scenery.

"And it's the only game in town, [the only daily newspaper] so you know you'll get read - it was a very attractive situation, even though the pay is bad-it was very exciting.

Kind of Like Casablanca …

"[I'd say that] most of the people I knew at the Progress also felt that working there was a really good thing [for them]," Dukcevich tells us. "[But the] lack of experience … did produce some coverage that was … like the inmates were running the asylum. People could have been reined in. It was laissez-faire, which is nice, but it would have been simple to give some guidance ….

"There was a pack [of young reporters] that was ambitious, paranoid - "I'm better than this place - why am I still here." And the energy (what energy there was) came from these younger kids, not from the top down ….

"It was, you know, kind of like Casablanca [in the movie], everybody nervous and looking to find a way to get out."

Says Jake Mooney, "I worked there for 2 ½ years, and maybe for the final year I made a little more than $20,000 - it actually dropped below that rate toward the end, when they stopped paying overtime.

"… You have to understand that while this is not much money, it's not abnormally low for a market this size -- they must not expect people to stay. For the salaries they pay, the only people they can get are young and relatively unattached. People with families simply can't afford to take a reporting job there. I mean, they're just not going to pay someone with a family in their thirties or forties what they need to live on when they can hire someone for [much less].

"And there's got to be an enormous difference between a reporter with zero years of experience and one with even a few years - I've been both.

"For example, [on all the local-government beats] budget stories are mandatory, and I reported the facts, but those numbers meant nothing to me. I knew how much was being spent on each line item and I knew what the Capital Improvements Plan was, etc. But I think it's almost impossible to really feel the impact a few cents' increase in the real estate tax has on people until you actually own property. I mean, I was paying $420 a month rent and buying a few extra beers on the weekend and keeping my car running.

"… I really believe that there isn't much intentional distortion of the news by the media, but we … risk running into trouble when we cover people whose lives are much, much different from our own. As hard as we try, it can be difficult to relate."

Jake Mooney now has his Masters degree in Journalism. He's looking for another job in the business, (and recently had a short feature published by the New York Times) and looks back on his time at the Daily Progress as time very well spent. "People in Charlottesville don't understand that for most of the reporters who pass through here, it is a good experience but it's a learning experience. And," says Jake, "they ought to."

The Worrell years

Rey Barry worked at the paper years ago, and runs a website of personal opinion and commentary that includes pungent views of the Progress:

"I can tell [you] . . . the date the Prog began the policy of hiring zero-experience reporters for coolie wages with the expectation they would learn and leave, and never become a burden to the newsroom budget. That date was January 2, 1971, the day the Worrell chain assumed ownership of the paper. Prior to that [it] had been locally owned, and followed the traditional newspaper values of rewarding skill and relying on experience."

Here's an entry from a list of very rich Virginians: "T. Eugene Worrell ... bounced back from a failed GOP Congressional bid in 1948 by joining with investors to purchase liberal Bristol newspaper that skewered his campaign."

According to Bob Gibson, "There was grumbling from the [Daily Progress] staff [when Worrell bought the paper], that he was 'not a newspaper person.' He was--but not a newspaper person like the old-timers thought of. [In 1996] Media General bought the entire package. I will say, with them there's not as much squeezing of the bottom line."

Rey Barry's summarizes the position of the Daily Progress thusly: "Every community is made up of people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people bewildered at what happened. [In Charlottesville] we have publications to serve them all. The . . . Daily Progress serves the first two groups. . . . [It] swings erratically from very awful to very good, and is currently pretty good."

Who's view of Progress?

Liberals are heard sneeringly referring to the 'Daily Regress,' while, Rex Bowman tells us, Louisa County conservatives call it the 'Daily Pravda.' (Bowman worked for the Progress for 4 years in the '90s, covering part of the 'doughnut' - the outer ring of counties.)

We asked political writer and long-time staffer Bob Gibson if he has encountered any evidence of a political slant at the paper in its news coverage. He is convinced there is none. "Other countries have leading papers with a known political bias (Figaro and Le Monde, the Guardian, etc.)," Gibson says. "I think we're lucky to have a tradition that stresses fairness and balance-I've certainly known reporters who were liberals or conservatives but in my experience all of them tried to be fair in their reporting."

Jake Mooney strongly concurs. "Political direction? Quite the opposite - I don't think there's any particular direction given," he says.

"I think that [reporters]… are pretty much all over the map-in some cases [I worked closely with people for a while and even so] I don't know what their politics are.

"Bob Gibson is a prime example, and I think that's why Bob is such a good political reporter. He's very informed and plugged-in, but I have no idea how he votes, or even if he votes."

But Mooney offers a qualifier: "I don't think you can deny that the editorial page is pretty conservative by Charlottesville standards-though not, possibly, by Albemarle County standards. And if you look at the pattern of political endorsements, I think it's hard to deny that the page is conservative.

"Anita [Shelburne]'s editorials are usually well-reasoned, though, and she's very concerned with making sure she understands the issues. There were a lot of times when she called me into her office to talk about a situation in the news, just to make sure she had all the details right."

Wayne Mogielnicki, the former editor, offers one example clearly showing independence from advertisers: "Under the Worrells … we endorsed Sally Thomas as a write-in candidate for [Albemarle County] Supervisor even though she was running against Carter Meyers, who's the owner of Colonial Auto and one of their biggest advertisers. And it hasn't changed with Media General.

" 'Fair and impartial' was always our goal [in news coverage] and I always thought we did a pretty good job.

"When people talk about a paper being liberal or conservative, I think they're mainly talking about the editorial page-political endorsements and that kind of thing. When I was first there, we endorsed Bill Clinton in '92. After the sale, the endorsement committee was, me, Anita and Lawrence, and in '96 it was Dole - which tells you something - Lawrence has more votes than the others."

The real appeal and a shrinking 'news hole'

A recent design makeover has been the subject of much discussion. The overall feel is certainly brighter. There are more USA Today-like snippets, aligned in the left column of the front page and each split page, and there seems to be a more liberal use of editorial color.

Jake Mooney comments, "Since I left, they did the redesign - I have no visual sense, so I can't comment on the design as a design -- but I do think that since that was done, they emphasize local news more now. Which I think is a very good thing. Some of my favorite days at the Progress were days when the front page was loaded with local stories. I think that's where the real appeal of the paper lies - it carries local news that no one else has."

Bill Wood, who worked at the Progress some years ago and is now head of the Sorensen Institute, points out "There's so much retail business in this area. The [New York] Times has a presence, the RTD and the Washington Post have a huge presence -- but they don't take any of the advertising revenue from the Progress, [since] they don't carry local advertising."

But there has been an increase in the number of 'furnished inserts.' These are the advertising flyers and cards that are printed elsewhere and loosely included with the paper.

Newspapers and magazines allocate space according to an ad/edit ratio. The more ads, the more space there will be for the stories. But even though the inserts represent increased advertising, these materials earn the paper less revenue than they would were they printed in the broadsheet sections-and as advertising revenue from the special inserts increases, the Progress will have less space in the broad-sheet sections for news and the advertising which finances it. Bob Gibson admits that down the road, there will be less local coverage as the news hole shrinks.

The sole daily, but not the only source of news

Paul Saunier is retired from the administration of UVa that included about ten years supervising its relations with the media.. Before his tenure there, he was a reporter and editor at the Richmond Times Dispatch. "The fact that you have two [weekly] tabloids in a market this size is remarkable. It is a wealthy area, and in greater Charlottesville there's a lot going on, and you have people who read.

"I don't think the impact on the Progress is from the weeklies as much as it's from the other dailies, the [New York] Times and the [Washington] Post and so forth. So many people read two or even three papers. I check about five papers every day, starting at 7:30 in the morning."

Bob Gibson feels that the Daily Progress and the area are fortunate to have all the publications - "competition is good, in politics and newspapers."

Says Wayne Mogielnicki, "We never viewed C-Ville or the Observer as competition. [They supplement the Progress] … they have the luxury as [free] weeklies to do special coverage, to [sometimes] put all their eggs in one basket. And they do good guides-- entertainment, restaurants.

"What Albemarle County needs is a traditional weekly, an un-hip weekly-- you know, the guy who caught the big fish or the high school honor rolls or the Little League results. Fluvanna, Orange, Greene, Madison have weeklies like that.

"People complained that we didn't have enough world and national coverage, and they complained we didn't have the Little League coverage - I'd get a phone call saying we weren't as good as the Washington Post, and then a phone call that we weren't as good as the Green County Record. It kind of balances out.

"We've got to be one of the few places in the world where you can be compared to the Washington Post and the Greene County Record in the same day."

It's a Burden and a Gift

Wayne Mogielnicki muses on the unique nature of the region that the paper serves.

"Charlottesville and nearby Albemarle County is kind of an island. It's the market town for a very large region. And it's incredibly diverse and interesting.

"Politically, you have a liberal city surrounded by Republicans. And Republicans around here are [themselves] such an incredibly diverse group of people, the fox hunters and the deer hunters.

"You've got extremes of wealth, education, industry, topography -- even the terrain is so varied, the hills to the west and kind of rolling around Charlottesville and then flat to the east.

" 'Industry?' … it means something different now--you've got all these small businesses, [many in new] technologies … and it takes a while to understand what they're doing.

"Where can you find a place--maybe State Farm? Not many others--where someone can start out in the mailroom and rise over the years to be the head of some department? It just isn't like that any more. And certainly not at the university. A guy is not emptying the trash bins and going on to be the head of an academic department.

"… [So] with all this diversity, it makes it very difficult for a newspaper to cover. It's a burden and a gift.

"It is very unlike other similar-size markets, which are much more uniform. They'll likely have people who are more alike, maybe a single basis for their economy.

"[And] for some issues [around here] you have these incredible coalitions that form, people who would otherwise have nothing to do with each other--ultra-green environmentalists joining the gentleman farmers to oppose the western bypass--it's just fascinating, but complex."

"People care deeply about the paper," says Mogielnicki. "They view it as their paper. 'The Daily Regress.' The fact that it has a nickname is an indication, even if it is disparaging.

"When [WINA morning radio host] Dick Mountjoy says, you know, 'did you see the article about thus-and-such in the paper this morning.' He doesn't have to say, the Daily Progress. Everybody knows what he's talking about…although I used to wish he would say, the Daily Progress." (Dave Sagarin, December 15, 2003)