Independent to fold, Avis to fly over
Wednesday's V.I. Independent is the last. After 30 months, the daily newspaper started by Rena Brodhurst to offer St. Thomas-St. John readers an alternative to a Jeffrey Prosser-owned product is calling it quits.
Ironically, the Daily News may be in for stiffer competition as a result.
In the Independent's place starting Thursday – at all the regular distribution outlets, Brodhurst pledges – will be a new territorial incarnation of the St. Croix Avis. It will be "The Avis," not the St. Croix Avis, she says.
Brodhurst and other family members inherited the St. Croix Avis, founded in 1844 and family owned since then, from her father, longtime publisher Canute Brodhurst. She founded the Independent in a separate partnership with "several people" who she said "aren't looking for exposure."
The Avis will continue to be printed on St. Croix and flown to St. Thomas in the predawn hours, just as the V.I. Daily News, printed on St. Thomas, is flown to St. Croix. It will have "basically the same design – we've gone through several changes in the last couple of years," Brodhurst says. The St. Thomas editorial staff of the Independent will become the St. Thomas bureau of the Avis, she says, and it will be beefed up "in the next couple of days" with "some people coming in from different news organizations – people who are familiar with the market."
Anyone hoping for two pages of comics, as has been the case in the Sunday-Monday editions of the Independent and Avis, which picked up each other's funnies, won't get their wish. However, they will get something new in the comics section – "a different layout, sort of a surprise," Brodhurst says.
Content-wise, the new St. Thomas option won't initially be much different from the old, except that it will have more pages, due to the larger volume of St. Croix advertising. The Inde and Avis have from the start carried the local reportage of each other's staffs, and editorials and columnists have overlapped. Overall, Brodhurst says, "I believe that The Avis is a very strong paper and will be a very interesting one. It's not the Avis that people remember from the old days."
The public gets to see for itself Thursday.
Whose news is it, anyway?
Everybody who routinely reads the local newspapers and listens to the local radio newscasts knows it: There's a lot of cross-referencing out there, mostly on the part of newscasters and on-air personalities who routinely read more or less verbatim from stories published in the papers. It's understandable, if not ethical – some papers have a dozen or more reporters out in the field gathering news each day, while the territory's radio news departments have at best two.
A couple of weeks ago, the word went out at one local radio station to stop the practice – ostensibly because of reports that the ownership of one of the newspapers was monitoring the airwaves and documenting who was rip-and-reading what. Media Watch conducted a quick poll of the top editorial authorities at the territory's six daily papers, posing the question, "How do you feel about the practice of broadcasters reading stories from your newspaper(s) on the air?" Here's what they had to say:
Rena Brodhurst, publisher/editor of the St. Croix Avis and the V.I. Independent: "I don't have a problem with it as soon long as they identify the source. Quite a few seem to do that."
Shaun Pennington, publisher of St. Thomas Source, St. Croix Source and St. John Source: "I think it's great that we can share information throughout the various media sources, providing, of course, that we give attribution – which we practice at the Source."
J. Lowe Davis, executive editor/chief executive officer, Virgin Islands Daily News, asked whether she had any thoughts on the subject, responded, "Yes, I do, but I don't wish to share them right now." Asked whether she might wish to share them later, she added, "I don't think so."
It's the people's news
Many Eastern Caribbean island states have government-owned and -operated radio and television stations. The news typically consists of the material also circulated to other media by government information offices, which may or may not be used in its entirety – or at all – by those enterprises. In the United States, the idea of government controlling public access to and/or content of broadcast news doesn't sit well with the idea of freedom of expression under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In colonial and totalitarian societies, it has often been the rule, in keeping with the philosophy that restricting forums for dissent from public policy is for the "greater good" of the society.
The Virgin Islands, as a part of the United States and a part of the Caribbean, forever finds itself in conflict when there are differences in style and substance between the two. Enter the administration of Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, which is about to embark on a news media undertaking that previous governors doubtless pondered but never put into practice: producing its own television news program.
The anchors alone guarantee at least initial interest: Lee Vanterpool and Lorna Nichols. Vanterpool, a government public information stalwart currently speaking for both the Health Department and Government House, shared the nightly news desk with Aquannette Chinnery on the old commercial Channel 10 (WBNB) until Hurricane Hugo blew it away. Nichols joined the staff of the new Channel 10, the government's cable channel, in the aftermath of Hurricane Marilyn. Greg Davila will contribute reporting and anchoring from St. Croix.
"We should be starting to film this week," Nichols reported. She said the half-hour show will consist of "bites of different departments, different commissioners, some light news." Plans call for the anchors to use "the Rotunda" as their studio set – the third-flood circular conference room in the Government Hill headquarters of the Office of Lieutenant Governor.
The program is expected to debut toward the end of August and will air "every two weeks to start," Nichols said. It will be pre-recorded and repeated several times throughout the two-week period. "We haven't figured out the schedule yet," she says.
There will even be "commercials" interspersed with the news and feature reports, Nichols says. They'll consist of promotional spots and public service announcements "within the different departments," addressing such topics as "women's health, fire safety tips and hospitals."
It's show time at Jubilation!
The Jubilation! Christian channel on St. Thomas-St. John Cable TV is on the verge of introducing three new locally produced weekly features – a gospel music showcase, a family togetherness program and a children's book show.
Some segments have already been recorded for all three offerings, as "we want to get a few shows in the can before we start," Channel 56 general manager Gloria Gumbs says. All will be half-hour programs that will be aired more than once within each week.
The children's book show makes its debut Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Its purpose is "to encourage young people to read positive books," Gumbs says. Her 13-year-old daughter, Eva, hosts the program, which will air weekly in that time slot, with a repeat Saturdays at 9 a.m. "She talks about the Book of the Week and favorite books of other teenagers, and has a storybook segment with a guest to do the reading," Gumbs says of her daughter.
The program came about after Eva got involved in a youth entrepreneurship program this summer and wanted start up her own business. Gumbs says the reaction from her husband, James, Jubilation! vic
e president for marketing and sales, was, "We have a TV channel. Maybe she should get a program and get it sponsored." Eva "helped design it and put it together," Mom adds.
The music show, "Caribbean Gospel Beat," will feature artists from the Virgin Islands and throughout the Caribbean. The family issues show will be co-hosted by Pastor Lennox Zamore of Ebenezer Memorial Baptist Church on St. Thomas and Brent Woodward, a member of the Ebenezer congregation. It will focus on "family-related issues – the first dealing with stress," Gumbs says.
According to Gumbs, the channel's recent telethon "was very successful." Although the funds raised were "far from our overall goal of $125,000," she says, "we know that we will get to that mark." More important, "People and congregations are more aware that we exist and are willing to help." The telethon "kind of morphed into a ‘faith in action' program in terms of how we've been raising funds and the new programs we're putting on," she says.
Channel 56 will also be picking up the "What's Coming Up" community calendar program that has been in abeyance since the telethon, she says, and it's already planning for another new "socio-economic" show, as well as "developing some other community programs."
An internal move devoid of details
Reports are circulating that Victoria Squires, sales and marketing manager at Vitel Cellular for the last few years, is moving into a new position with the cellular phone firm's parent company, Innovative Communication Corp. Asked whether the assignment had to do with the new TV-2 television channel being developed by ICC for its two local cable companies, Squires said, "It's not." As to what, in fact, it is, she said, "I can only refer you to Linda Vanterpool on St. Croix – or call Ed Crouch."
Vanterpool, asked about Squires' new position, placed the caller on hold for several minutes then returned to say she was "not familiar with that." A recent addition herself to the ICC organization, Vanterpool, a onetime on-camera personality on WTJX-TV, declined to give her own job title or description. "I have so many things going on that I don't have time to talk about them," she said. "And I hope you're not typing that, because I'm not responding to your question."
Edwin Crouch, an ICC vice president who was corporate media liaison until Janette Millin took over the spokesperson job as ICC director of corporate affairs a couple of months ago, promptly referred the caller to Millin at ICC headquarters on St. Thomas. Millin, asked if she could provide enlightenment, said "not right now." But she cheerfully pledged to let Media Watch know "as soon as I can."
Now why should the news media be interested in an executive at an ICC-owned company moving into a new position within the parent firm? One reason, insiders say, is the fact that her husband, Brian Squires, owns the territory's largest advertising production and media buying agency, Austin Advertising. The concern is that such interrelationships could impact on how advertising is directed and placed, to the detriment of non-ICC media.
Victoria Squires and Brian Squires are professionals respected in their fields. The Austin agency has year after year walked off with more Advertising Club of the V.I. awards than any other member. But Austin's largest client base collectively consists of Prosser holdings: the Daily News, Vitelco, Vitelcom, Vitel Cellular, VIPowerNet and both cable TV companies. It appears that Prosser's V.I. Community Bank will proceed with plans to acquire the territory's assets of Chase Bank, another long-standing Austin client. ICC has a commercial cable television channel coming on line in a few months.
As you read the local papers, make mental note of how many of the ICC companies advertise in the Daily News and not in its competitors. Giving support to "family" and withholding support from competitors, of course, is only good business practice. But an agency is in a position to recommend certain media to all of its clients to the exclusion of other media. As the old caveat puts it, concern arises over the potential for not only "a conflict of interest but the appearance of a conflict of interest."
Who's left and who's writing (continued)
And speaking of Janette Millin, the Daily News removed her name and the accompanying title of "senior editorial writer" from its list of editorial board members effective with the newspaper's July 20 issue. At most newspapers, the editorial board identifies those persons who write the publications' editorials – the opinion commentaries representing the views of the owners and/or publishers. Millin had not been a regular editorial writer since January. No one has replaced her in the listing, although there is word that another ICC executive has assumed a significant amount of the writing. The other two still listed as board members are publisher Ariel Melchior Jr. and Edwin Crouch.
Just for the record
Local history and newspaper buffs should get a copy of Tuesday's Daily News. In observance of the paper's 70th anniversary, the issue carries reproductions of the four pages of the first issue – printed on Aug. 1, 1930. The ads alone are worth the price of acquisition.
On its front page, the paper opted to showcase a reproduction of a far more recent historic front page – the one in April 1995 celebrating the Daily News, then under the editorial direction of executive editor Penny Feuerzeig, winning a Pulitzer Prize for public service. Investigative reporter Melvin Claxton researched and wrote the 10-part series on the criminal justice system in the Virgin Islands; then-special projects editor and now executive editor J. Lowe Davis edited it.
Claxton, inundated with offers from some the nation's top newspapers, said yes to The Chicago Tribune, then moved on a year or so ago to the Detroit News. Last month, he shared with a fellow investigative reporter the second-place award for Journalist of the Year given by the Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Their recognition was for an investigation exposing widespread waste, incompetence, mismanagement and cronyism in a $1.5 billion bond program to repair Detroit's decaying public schools.
Questions with answers – elsewhere
And speaking of quoting from other media, ask yourself the following: What common laundry product prevents mildew in stored luggage, attracts cat hair and prevents thread through a needle from tangling? And what popular drink can clean toilet bowls, loosen rusty bolts and remove grease from dirty laundry? For the answers, you'll have to buy the July issue of the St. John Times and check out the "Hot Lips & Cheryl Miller" column.
Distribution is to numerous outlets on St. John, to Tri-Island Car Rental in Red Hook on St. Thomas, and (sorry!) to nowhere on St. Croix. Don't panic just because July is over already. The August issue won't be out for another week or so. It's the St. John Times.