In Montgomery, watchdog reporting on a budget

The Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama's state capital might be the new poster child for the harm done to basic watchdog journalism by Gannett's newsroom cost cutting. As near as I can tell, the Advertiser has been relying more or less exclusively on the Associated Press to handle coverage of the state legislature since lawmakers started the current session in early February. Again, this is the state capital's daily newspaper.

One of my readers says the paper's legislative reporter left last fall, and was not replaced. I asked top Editor Wanda Lloyd in an e-mail whether this was true. She replied: "We've hired someone to cover state government and he's starting in two weeks.'' She declined to be more specific when I pressed for details.

The idea that a state capital paper would outsource all its legislative coverage to the AP would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. It would have been deemed an abdication of fundamental responsibility for watchdog reporting: Keeping an eye on government to make sure elected leaders do their job and don't abuse power. Gannett papers in the seats of power, state capitals, carry an extra responsibility in this regard. That means cities including Phoenix, Tallahassee, Indianapolis, Nashville -- and Montgomery.

But this is the new reality, one I'm not sure Corporate fully appreciates. Otherwise, management wouldn't whipsaw publishers and editors with demands for budget cuts -- while simultaneously urging them to bolster watchdog journalism, to save the print version of papers. "Our watchdog role is perceived as central to our responsibility as a local newspaper,'' the recent Gannett Newspaper Division Print Task Force's 14-page report says, in a series of recommendations. "As economic pressures persist, ensure that we maintain the expertise in our Information Centers to provide strong watchdog and in-depth reporting.''

There's nothing inherently wrong with AP stories about Alabama state lawmakers -- except that you can now get that stuff all over, courtesy of the Internet. What incentive do readers have to go to the Advertiser for state government coverage? What message is Gannett sending to Montgomery readers once accustomed to some of the nation's best journalism? When Gannett bought the Advertiser in 1995, the paper had won three Pulitzer Prizes. The second, in 1970, was for "reports that exposed a commercial scheme in using Alabama prisoners for drug experimentation." Sounds like state government watchdog reporting at its finest.

In staffing and circulation, the Advertiser is typical of many Gannett papers. Corporate says it employs 375. Daily circulation is 45,000; Sunday is 53,000. Montgomery, meanwhile, is a typical midsize American city, with about 200,000 residents.

Now, I've taken a couple shots at Lloyd over the Advertiser's 11th-hour decision last year to cancel three summer internships because of budget cuts. But you know what? I'm sympathetic to Lloyd. Corporate keeps putting the squeeze on its newsrooms to do more with less. And this is one of the results.

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[Image: this morning's Advertiser, Newseum. The front page carries an AP story about slowing state tax collections]