A judge says the attorney general's office doesn't have to give records from a health care case to The Charleston Gazette, which is now The Charleston…
A judge says the attorney general’s office doesn’t have to give records from a health care case to The Charleston Gazette, which is now The Charleston Gazette-Mail.
In Kanawha County Circuit Court, Judge Charles King ruled the documents weren’t public either under a state Supreme Court decision on attorney-client privilege.
King wrote that the newspaper’s records request predated a June change to the state Freedom of Information Act.
The newspaper requested records in the attorney general’s case against a drug company that employs the Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s wife. The newspaper said he wouldn’t release them and sued in August 2014.
Morrisey’s office identified up to eight related documents, arguing they’re shielded by exemptions.
The case was first brought by ex-Attorney General Darrell McGraw, who sued Cardinal Health over prescription pill profits.
The West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care has given first responders in the state access to its online registry.
Center director Dr. Alvin Moss says the addition of emergency medical services provider to the system will ensure that patients’ end-of-life wishes are respected.
Moss tells The Charleston Gazette-Mail that EMS personnel can access the registry while transporting a patient to see if the person has an advance directive. Advance directives allow people to outline what medical decisions can be made on their behalf if they are unable to because of illness or incapacitation.
He says the West Virginia Offices of Emergency Medical Services hopes to have EMS units across the state trained to use the registry by the end of the month.
About 90 agencies including law enforcement, prosecutor’s offices and universities are affiliated with the task force, which is headed by the State Police and started in 2006.
State Police figures show 43 such arrests in 2010, 60 in 2011, 56 in 2012 and 215 in 2013. There were 123 arrests over the first half of 2015.
West Virginia Child Advocacy Network executive director Emily Chittenden-Laird says officers have become adept at handling Internet child sexual abuse crimes over the years.
Over the past century, Charleston’s two newspapers brought down corrupt politicians, exposed injustice, and served as West Virginia’s first draft of history.
And now, the Charleston Gazette and Charleston Daily Mail are joining into one newspaper. Why is this happening, and what does it mean for West Virginians?
Gazette-Mail Publisher Susan Shumate says the combination is necessary for financial reasons. A federal agency recently filed a $1.3 million lien against the newspaper for missing payments to its pension plan, according to the West Virginia Record.
But in an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Shumate says the new newspaper also will be more than the sum of its parts.
Hear our interview with Shumate on The Front Porch podcast on iTunes or however you listen. Here are five takeaways from our interview with Shumate:
1. Why the announcement was made on Sunday, July 19
Charleston was one of the last two-newspaper cities in the country, and one of the smallest. With declining print revenues, publishing two papers was unsustainable.
“Financially, for Charleston newspapers, it wasn’t an option any longer,” Shumate said.
Shumate confirmed that the announcement was timed to coincide with the expiration of a federal judge’s settlement of an anti-trust lawsuit. So July 19 was the first possible day they could combine the newspapers.
“There’s nothing positive about somebody losing their job. But the Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail really haven’t had the deep news cuts that other news organizations have had to have,” she said.
Credit e-wv, The West Virginia Encyclopedia online. / Ned Chilton, Charleston Gazette, Governor Arch Moore, WV House of Delegates
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Ned Chilton, Charleston Gazette, Governor Arch Moore, WV House of Delegates
Ned Chilton, father of Susan Shumate, was a former Gazette publisher, and coined the phrase “sustained outrage”
2. Why the announcement wasn’t shared with most staff in advance
With 77 journalists in both newsrooms, if they had known in advance, someone would have leaked it. And Shumate said she wanted readers to give the combined newspaper a chance, and not pre-judge it.
“People are passionate about their papers. They really are. By showing them the example of what we can do without letting people worry about it, and fret and say, ‘Oh, my news coverage is going to change in a month, my news coverage isn’t going to be the same…’
“There’s never an easy way to announce this.”
3. Why Shumate believes the combined newsroom will be better than two separate papers
Efficiency. In the past, each paper would have sent its own reporter to a meeting about the landslide at Yeager Airport.
This week, one reporter covered the meeting, and the other filed a story from the site of the landslide.
“It’s making the stories better, deeper, and for me, more fulfilling,” Shumate said.
In the past, the Gazette may have 7-8 local stories on a given day. One day this week, there were 19.
She said readers are telling her, “I used to be able to whip through my paper in the morning and go through my day, and now I’m having to carve out a chunk of time,” to read everything.
Shumate doesn’t think the loss of competition between newspaper reporters is an issue. In the digital age, there’s still plenty of other competition, she said.
Credit Andrew Brown via Twitter: @Andy_Ed_Brown
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The first weekday combined edition of the Gazette-Mail
4. Why the Gazette-Mail is requiring all newsroom staff to re-apply for their jobs
Right now, 77 people work in the Gazette-Mail newsroom, she said – 45 from the Gazette, and 32 from the Daily Mail (one DM position was vacant.)
The goal is a combined newsroom of 65.
There is no master plan for how many employees will be on each “beat” – sports, government, etc. Also, there’s a chance the new newspaper may have new and different beats than the old ones.
Shumate says the employees themselves are helping to shape the combined organization.
“We will have been able to dream up the super newsroom or the dream newsroom,” she said.
“It’s great seeing the staff in the newsrooms putting their stamp on what they think the newsroom of the future will be.”
5. What the focus of the combined newspapers will be
“I see our future and our business model being able to really dig into the local stories,” Shumate said.
Some of their priorities, in no particular order, include:
Better multimedia presence, such as online video
More in-depth and investigative reporting
Local news
Government – state and local
Entertainment – what’s going on this weekend, what can you take your kids to do
Sports – high school, WVU, Marshall, etc.
6. Why they are keeping two separate opinion pages – one literally and figuratively on the left, the other on the right
“I think the Charleston Gazette readers and Charleston Daily Mail readers identify with those pages, and that was the core reason they subscribed to either one of those papers,” Shumate said. “By keeping those, we really want readers to feel we are embracing what they want.”
7. What the mission statement is for the combined newsroom
“Cover everything fairly and evenly,” Shumate said.
“I don’t think you’re necessarily doing a great job if you don’t get criticism from both sides. A newspaper’s job tends to be watching what’s going on in the community. And not everyone is going to like what you say.”
8. How the Gazette-Mail will monetize digital readers (web traffic) – or not
“That’s the question every news organization is asking right now. And it’s very difficult. It’s an industry-wide question, and one that nobody has a great answer for,” Shumate said.
“Every conference you go to is, (the question is) how are you going to monetize the web traffic?”
9. How the Gazette-Mail will continue the legacy of “Sustained Outrage” begun by her father, Ned Chilton, and continued by her mother, Elizabeth Chilton
“It makes me proud when I think of how my parents led with honesty,” Shumate said.
“Any great newspaper has that strong adversarial tone,” she said. The combined newsroom will allow all reporters more time to investigate stories.
“That is their dream job. They want to get to the bottom of the story. They want the whole truth,” she said.
An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above.
Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org
According to leaked tape obtained by West Virginia Focus, The Charleston Gazette-Mail publisher and other executives said the staff size of the merged paper will drop following the reapplication process.
In a Monday meeting, publisher Susan Chilton Shumate estimated the post-merger staff size to be between 65 and 68 (West Virginia Focus reports The Gazette currently has 45 newsroom staffers, while the Daily Mail budgets for 33 positions, with some currently unfilled).
As West Virginia Focus reports:
Everyone on staff will at the newly merged paper reapply for his or her job. Positions will be posted by July 31 and employees will have until August 7 to submit their resumes and cover letters.
“You’re basically reapplying for a position with the new Gazette-Mail,” said Crystal McIntyre, Charleston Newspapers’ human resources director. “Everything you’ve accomplished, put in these resumes. Don’t think we know everything.”
A hiring committee—consisting of Shumate, former Gazette executive editor Byers, and former Daily Mail editor and publisher Brad McElhinny—will review the applications and begin conducting interviews by August 10. Gazette-Mail officials say they hope the process will be completed by August 21, according to the leaked tape of the meeting.
Reports also indicate that staffers questioned the prompt announcement of the merger and were also told to not publicly speak to other media about the merger and reapplication process.
Also reportedly on the leaked tape, Shumate said the company is planning to send out a press release to “make a positive spin” about the merger.
Updated: July 20, 2015 at 3:15 p.m.
According to members of The Charleston Gazette-Mail staff, the new publisher says employees of the merged paper will have to reapply for their jobs.
Staffers are also reporting that those who aren’t rehired will be given a severance package that equates to one week’s pay for each year worked at either paper. That news was handed down during a 3 p.m. meeting at the offices of Charleston Newspapers.
Gazette-Mail employees will have to re-apply for their jobs.
— Erin Beck Won’t Be Satisfied Until There Are Nine (@3littleredbones) July 20, 2015
Original Post from July 20, 2015 at 12:05 a.m.:
Charleston, West Virginia is now a one newspaper town.
According to an announcement Sunday afternoon, The Charleston Gazette and The Charleston Daily Mail will become The Charleston Gazette-Mall effective Monday.
News of the merger comes on the expiration date of a final judgment from a settlement with the Department of Justice, stemming from anti-trust suit. In a document dated July 19, 2010, the final judgment was set to expire five years later.
“This is not one paper gobbling up the other,” read one sentence from a story on The Charleston Gazette’s website announcing the merger.
The announcement of the merger also states “the two newspapers are combining newsroom functions with the exception of editorial page content” and says the Gazette-Mail will be “committed to two completely independent editorial pages.”
The announcement also says The Gazette-Mail:
"will produce more local coverage than either newspaper could individually. We can dedicate increased resources to investigative reporting and bolster our online presence with more breaking news and multimedia. For West Virginia features, photography and sports, The Charleston Gazette-Mail will be second to none."
Various staff from the two papers say they were informed about the news of the merger Sunday afternoon, shortly before the announcement was made public.
Staff have also said a Monday meeting is scheduled to determine some of the steps forward as part of the merger. Potential layoffs are of concern to many, as questions remain to what degree a combined publication can sustain the staff of what was two different papers.
Editor’s Note: Dave Mistich freelances some arts reporting and a music column for The Charleston Daily Mail. He began that endeavor in November 2010 and has continued since.
