News Organizations Cut Back on Bureaus in Nation’s Capital

As his retirement approached, Seth Kantor, Washington correspondent of the Austin American-Statesman, suggested that it was time for the Texas newspaper to double its staff in the capital to two people.

He got back an answer he didn’t expect. Instead of expanding its bureau, the American-Statesman closed it, effective with Kantor’s retirement in December.

Faced with recession, more and more newspapers and other news organizations are at least temporarily eliminating or reducing their coverage of the nation’s capital.

“If I had the same budget in 1991 that I had in 1988 or ‘89, I wouldn’t have closed that bureau,” said David Lowery, the American-Statesman’s managing editor. “But that’s not what I’m facing. Reality is a lot starker.”

The Salt Lake Tribune and Philadelphia Daily News also have dropped their Washington bureaus, the San Francisco Chronicle bureau is unstaffed and the Denver Post is cutting its staff of reporters here from two to one. The Georgia-based Morris newspapers closed their bureau last year.

Several broadcast news bureaus also have scaled down or closed.

“I feel that the money can better be spent at home, particularly in times when newspapers are in a financial bind,” said James E. Shelledy, editor of the Tribune, Salt Lake City’s morning newspaper.

“My basic philosophy is that Washington bureaus are prestige things that tend to give the congressional delegation undue coverage,” said Shelledy. “You are covering your congressional delegation live instead of by press release, and it ends up the same thing unfortunately.”

Don Campbell, director of the Washington Journalism Center, which conducts Washington-oriented seminars for journalists from around the country, said on the other hand, “I think any sizable newspaper can justify having somebody in Washington if they can justify having somebody in City Hall.

“The problem lies partly with editors that they don’t use the reporters they have here very well,” Campbell said. “There is a tendency in Washington, by the time you get three people in a bureau, to start edging one into the White House.”

At the Des Moines Register’s Washington bureau, which has won half a dozen Pulitzer Prizes since it was established in 1933, Bureau Chief George Anthan said the formula is to largely skip the White House and cover what is of special interest to their readers.

“We cover agricultural policy very intensively,” Anthan said. “If the President is going to announce agricultural credits for the Soviet Union, for example, we will go over there and cover that, but in the meantime we will have covered that story pretty well even before he makes the announcement.”

He said the Iowa newspaper has no plans to reduce its four-person Washington staff.

Several other newspapers use their Washington-based reporters to track regional issues. And the Associated Press Washington staff includes 12 reporters who cover specific state delegations and issues of interest to their regions.

Brian Toolan, assistant managing editor at the Philadelphia Daily News, said the paper chose not to replace its Washington correspondent when he moved to another job recently, “but I would think that in time we will.”

“We are more careful to make sure we are staffed properly in Philadelphia than in Washington, because we have an extra emphasis placed on covering the city,” Toolan said. The evening tabloid still has a Washington-based columnist.

In his memo urging the American-Statesman to double its staff, Kantor said demands on coverage would increase, in part because a Texan, George Bush, is in the White House.

Lowery agreed that coverage of the capital is important to Texas and noted that the newspaper will be able to rely on the Washington bureau of Cox Newspapers “so we are not without resources in Washington.”

“If I saw budget growth, that probably would not be the first place I would add a person, but it would be one that I would consider at some point,” Lowery said.

Gay Cook, managing editor of the Denver Post, said the newspaper laid off an editorial assistant in its Washington bureau, offered one reporter a job in Denver and is keeping the bureau chief on. “We are doing it, as you might suspect, largely as a cost-cutting measure,” she said.

Reporter Leonard Curry said the San Francisco Chronicle, which had a staff of four, is down to none. He went off the payroll at the end of April. Tony Newhall, assistant to the publisher, said the newspaper plans to staff the bureau again.

Shelledy said the Salt Lake Tribune can get Washington coverage from its 17 wire services and its own reporters in Utah.

“Most everything that happens to the state of Utah in Washington started out in the state of Utah,” he said. “It wasn’t something that was cooked up back in Washington. It was cooked up here and bounced back to Washington, where a final decision was made.”

Lee Davidson, Washington bureau chief for Salt Lake City’s afternoon newspaper, the Deseret News, however, wrote in a recent column: “Without a few watchdogs, Washington could become like the old joke line: A meeting is being held to decide your future, and you’re not invited.”