Westchester | Former theater critic le Sourd dies

Jacques le Sourd, the longtime theater critic of The Journal News, has died after collapsing Feb. 5, outside the home of friends in Preston, Lancashire, England, where he had been living for more than a year. He was 64.

Le Sourd left the paper in June 2009 when the Journal News eliminated the Broadway critic’s position, the newspaper reported yesterday. But for 34 years, "le Sourd covered Broadway, Off-Broadway and local theater with a pen that flowed equally well whether crafting a pick or a pan."

Louisiana | Memo hints at creating regional dailies

This morning, the president of the five-newspaper Louisiana group offered the latest sign Corporate may be leaning toward creating single regional newspapers in place of individual ones serving specific markets.

Terzotis

In a memo, Judi Terzotis announced she'd hired Cindy McCurry-Ross from Corporate's News Department for the new position of regional editor.

"Cindy will work directly with the editors at each site to strengthen the news operations in the individual markets as well as build out a regional news network for the state," Terzotis wrote. (Full memo text, below.)

Costs should be substantially lower in a regional approach, where current newsrooms could be treated more like slimmed-down community-based news bureaus with fewer layers of highly paid editors and executive editors. 

Fewer reporters, too. For example, a reporter could be encouraged to write back-to-school features that touch on all five Louisiana markets rather than just one. Overnight, one reporter is doing the work of five. Bye-bye, four features writers. 

McCurry-Ross

In less dramatic fashion, this has already started under regional editors at three Central New York newspapers, another six in New Jersey, and 10 small dailies in Ohio. There, however, individual papers are still published under their historic flags. Other areas ripe for regionalizing are the 10 Wisconsin papers.

Gannett's most high-profile and longest-running regional is The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y. That experiment has been one of the company's messiest, however.

Westchester ranked No. 10 in weekday circulation losses among the company's 81 community dailies between 2005-2012. Sales fell 46% during the period, to barely 72,000 from 133,000.

Text of Terzotis memo
Good Morning,

I’m thrilled to announce the appointment of Cindy McCurry-Ross to Gannett Louisiana regional editor. Cindy will work directly with the editors at each site to strengthen the news operations in the individual markets as well as build out a regional news network for the state.

Cindy comes to us with a wealth of experience. For the past two years she has been on the corporate news staff working with Kate Marymont on key projects across USCP. Prior to her corporate stint, she was the assistant managing editor and senior managing editor in Fort Meyers. She’s a seasoned journalist that understands audiences and cares deeply about improving the communities we serve.

Cindy reports directly to me and will be based in Lafayette.

Please extend a warm Louisiana welcome to her! Please share this announcement with your staffs.

Judi

Judi Terzotis
President and publisher, The Times, The Daily Advertiser, The Daily World

Westchester | This N.Y. industry *really* steps in it

A reader of The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., says this hed bust appeared on Page A11 this morning over this story. It was caught at some point, but a lot of editions went out nonetheless, the reader says.

Got an example for my series about the downside of cutting copy editing jobs? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Westchester daily eliminates 26 jobs -- 11% of all, pushing Gannett-wide layoffs, other cuts near 300

[Updated at 6:53 a.m. ET with latest figures, East Group details.]

Gannett's newspaper layoffs and other job losses jumped yet higher late yesterday, to an estimated 280 across at least 45 sites, as The Journal News in Westchester officially confirmed it had imposed especially deep cuts.

Hasson

The N.Y. daily said it eliminated 26 jobs -- fully 11% of its workforce. Of those, 17 came from the newsroom, dropping total employment to 206 vs. 232. "The reduction in our payroll is necessary as we adjust to the changing marketplace,” Publisher Janet Hasson told the paper.

This latest round of layoffs is the largest since June 2011, when the company eliminated 700 newspaper jobs. The company had about 18,000 employees in its U.S. Community Publishing division at the end of last year.

The Journal News was one of the larger newspapers that hadn't previously been counted in this spreadsheet showing site-by-site totals. Its weekday circulation is 66,000, and Sunday is 86,000, according to the March 31 AAM report. Indeed, of 82 newspaper sites nationwide, we've heard from just over half. Many of those missing are in the East Group, and have relatively small circulations.

It's important to note that layoffs won't necessarily hit all sites across the USCP. Some have been able to hit cost-cutting targets from Corporate by eliminating travel, page counts and other expenses.

MIA: the East Group
A sampling of other papers still not included at the moment includes many in the East: The News-Press at Fort Myers, Fla.; the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, and The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.

Today's paper, Newseum

As well, I don't have any information about five of the six New Jersey dailies. And beyond Westchester, I haven't seen anything for the other five N.Y. papers. Conspicuously absent, for example, is the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. East President Michael Kane also is publisher of that paper, and his group is based in Rochester.

Officially, at any rate, USA Today isn't included in this round, nor are the 17 dailies in the U.K. Newsquest division. And for the most part, other company divisions have been spared, including the broadcasting division, Gannett Publishing Services and CareerBuilder.

However, Gannett Government Media, publisher of Army Times and other titles, laid off 17 in early July, after ordering third-quarter furloughs just two weeks before.

Gannett, the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher, employed just under 31,000 worldwide across all divisions at the end of last year, according to the latest published data.

Earlier: Gannett launches stealth round of layoffs; more than 100 expected in days ahead.

Related: Corporate's list of all national and international sites.

Is your site here?
Please check this read-only spreadsheet to see the latest figures for your site. Then post any new information in the comments section, below. Or write confidentially to jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

As director Harper exits, a less diverse board

After seven tumultuous years for Gannett, Arthur Harper is leaving the 10-member board of directors, effective with the annual shareholders’ meeting in May.

Harper

Corporate quietly disclosed his planned retirement last month, without giving a reason or saying whether he will be replaced. Harper, who is African-American, may well be Gannett's lone minority director at a time when corporate boards everywhere are pressed to diversify even more.

In a departure from recent practice, Corporate didn’t announce his retirement with a formal press release, as it did for Donna Shalala and Karen Hastie Williams, long-time directors who retired two years ago.

Instead, it reported Harper’s departure solely through a more under-the-radar 8-K filing on Feb. 26 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Word for word, it says:

“On February 25, 2013, Arthur H. Harper informed the Board of Directors of Gannett Co., Inc. (the “Company”) that he plans to retire from the Company's Board of Directors at the end of his current term and will not stand for re-election at the Company's 2013 Annual Meeting. Mr. Harper has served as a Gannett director since March 2006 and we are grateful for his dedication to Gannett and its shareholders.”

I can only remember one other time when Corporate disclosed the departure of a senior officer in an 8-K, without an accompanying press release. That was in 2010, when Chief Digital Officer Chris Saridakis quit the company, frustrated with top management. It was not a happy parting.

Why his exit matters
The departure of any director is significant, because the board governs the entire company and its 31,000 employees. Directors hire the CEO and review the appointments of other executives, including the chief financial officer. They sign off on the strategic plan, and major decisions such the stock dividend policy.

They serve one-year terms and run for re-election at the spring annual meeting. Directors are paid an annual retainer plus other fees that generally bring their compensation into the lower six figures. Last year, Harper got $123,521 -- not especially high for a corporate director nationwide. (Table shows fees paid last year to all directors.)

Gannett provided many more details when Shalala and Williams retired in spring 2011. Shalala was 70, the mandatory retirement age, Corporate said in a press release at the time, and Williams, then 66, planned to “devote more time to her personal and other professional interests."

Harper, 57, is managing partner of GenNx360 Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on business-to-business companies. Previously, he was president and CEO of General Electric’s Equipment Services division from 2001 to 2005.

He also is on the board of agricultural products giant Monsanto, where he was re-elected to another term on Jan. 31, indicating he's not leaving Corporate America entirely.

Cody elected immediately
The 8-K doesn’t say whether Harper's being replaced. In the Shalala and Williams press release, Corporate simultaneously announced John Cody had been elected to fill one of their seats. By that fall 2011, there would be two more new directors: Susan Ness and Gracia Martore, elected after she was promoted to CEO when Craig Dubow retired as chief executive and board chairman.

Williams

Williams is African-American. With her retirement, Harper looks like Gannett’s sole minority director. I’m basing that on the photographs accompanying the current directors’ bios -- a method that’s not foolproof. GCI doesn’t disclose the racial or ethnic background of individual directors.

There will be pressure inside and outside to replace Harper with another minority member, possibly before the May 7 annual meeting, amid fierce competition for qualified candidates.

For years, Corporate has made employment diversity a top goal -- including in the make-up of the board, where the Nominating and Public Responsibility Committee is responsible for finding new directors. Indeed, last week’s new proxy report to shareholders says Gannett’s charter “encourages the committee to work to maintain a board that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve.”

Harper, in addition to serving on the executive compensation committee, is chair of the Nominating and Public Responsibility Committee.

Boards mostly white
Across Corporate America, the average board has nine members, and they're overwhelmingly white. Last year, about 28% of boards of public companies had one racially or ethnically diverse director, according to a survey by the National Association of Corporate Directors. And only 13% had two.

Director searches are clubby affairs, the NACD said in a report last fall, relying on personal networking and word of mouth: "This strategy of recruiting within networks, while protecting the board from exposure to unfamiliar and seemingly riskier directors, has led to the unintentional exclusion of many viable director candidates. In short, corporate boards have failed to change with the times."

A review of Gannett’s directors going back to 1998 shows there have always been at least two minority board members. In several years, there were three, including in 2003, when there were only nine members overall.

Amid competition for candidates, some minority directors are stretched thin. At one point, Williams -- a GCI director since 1997 -- simultaneously sat on four other boards: Chubb Corp., Continental Airlines, SunTrust Banks, and WGL Holdings, the parent company of Washington Gas Light Co.

As Gannett's board has grown less diverse in recent years, so too has top management. Consider the 12 members of the Leadership Team led by Martore.

Home addresses revealed
Harper is leaving just as Gannett regains financial footing. But he’s also leaving after the directors received unusual and worrisome public scrutiny.

In early January, nearly two months before Harper’s retirement was disclosed, a website favoring gun ownership published what it claimed were the home addresses of all the board members, including Harper and Martore. The information was soon repeated on other websites -- all in retaliation for The Journal News’ publishing the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties in suburban New York City.

The newspaper's handgun permit database, published online in December, ignited a national debate on press freedom and privacy rights.

But it came at a cost. Amid threats to employees' safety, the paper hired armed guards to protect the homes of its publisher and others. One month later, still facing withering criticism, the paper removed the database from its site.

Westchester | I'm now watching these new videos

I'm talking about the ones being pumped out by the U.S. community dailies to satisfy new quotas set by Corporate.

Let me first acknowledge that it's very early in the effort, one designed to capitalize on higher rates paid for pre-roll advertisements.

Still, notwithstanding that amazing New Rochelle-Mount Vernon high school basketball video, Gannett has a long, long way to go to make this video strategy work.

Westchester | Hasson's letter to readers on pulling gun data didn't cross all the 'i's or dot all the 't's

As closely read as it would be, you'd expect Publisher Janet Hasson's letter would be very carefully reviewed before it appeared in The Journal News. Here's a screenshot of how it looks right now, more than 24 hours after first appearing online:

What's missing? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Urgent: Facing storm of criticism, Westchester paper removes gun permit database from Web

In a letter to readers late this afternoon, Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson disclosed the daily has removed from its website a database of handgun permit holder names and addresses in two New York counties after weeks of scorching pushback from gun rights advocates.

Hasson

Hasson said the decision wasn't a concession to critics or to those who had threatened harm to her and other Journal News employees -- threats that spurred her to post armed guards at the office of the suburban New York City paper and at her own home.

"But the database has been public for 27 days and we believe those who wanted to view it have done so already," she wrote. "As well, with the passage of time, the data will become outdated and inaccurate."

Hasson's reasoning simply doesn't hold water, however, and suggests instead that she's trying to appease critics. After all, virtually every news story eventually grows outdated, and most readers absorb information within the first 24-hour news cycle. Yet, newspapers rarely remove stories online; they simply move into digital archives.

Critics no doubt will claim victory, including especially a New York gun-rights group asking consumers to boycott businesses advertising in the Journal News and other Gannett media until the paper removed the database.

Ball

Indeed, in The Huffington Post, one of the paper's most high-profile opponents, N.Y. state Sen. Greg Ball, is quoted saying: "Thank God the Journal News has finally realized the error in their judgment and done the right thing."

Ball had promised to seek legislation that would exempt gun permit data from the state's open records laws used by the paper to obtain the names and addresses last month. Such privacy exemptions were included in gun control legislation Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed on Tuesday.

Writing in The Washington Post, media critic Erik Wemple was far more harsh: "The statement from Hasson is as cowardly as has been the newspaper’s handling of the crisis since just after Christmas."

Backs off earlier pledge
While Hasson promised to continue pursuing permit information for a third local community, Putnam County, she did not commit to publishing any names and addresses should they become available. That was a step the paper promised when it originally published searchable maps displaying the information for Westchester and Rockland counties.

Putnam officials, faced with a tide of opposition, denied the paper's open-records request, claiming the paper was threatening the safety of private citizens by guiding would-be burglars to homes with and without guns.

Also today, although Hasson said the paper would "continue to pursue our request for data from Putnam County," she did not indicate how strongly the paper would press forward.

Yet, immediately after Putnam denied the request, Hasson had said the paper would "aggressively" pursue the community’s "right of access to public record information."

It's not uncommon for papers to sue public officials for failing to comply with open-records laws, a legal step that can be very expensive -- as Gannett's New Jersey newspapers have recently demonstrated.

Late-Friday timing
Published at 5:20 p.m. ET, the timing of Hasson's letter is noteworthy. Many businesses disclose negative news about themselves late on Fridays, when it's less likely to get much attention from other media. In fact, at 7:48 p.m., only two readers had posted comments on her letter.

On Gannett Blog, Anonymous@8:07 p.m. just wrote: "This is late -- very late -- admission of a colossal failure in judgment. One of the worst we've ever seen in the print industry. The publisher's excuses will be proven to be distortions and mistruths when the Journal News does not continue to pursue getting the interactive map for Putnam."

In place of the original database, the newspaper is publishing static maps showing only thousands of red dots for the locations of the permit holders -- but so small as to make it impossible to see the actual addresses. Text accompanying those maps still says: "The map will be updated when that [Putnam] data is released."

The new maps still show the more than 2,800 comments readers posted originally -- many of them, ripping into the paper for what they said was a violation of the permit holders' privacy.

The original database and a related story, published after the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., ignited a nationwide firestorm of criticism pitting gun rights owners against advocates for press freedom.

Martore

Critics also posted Hasson's home address and phone numbers, plus those of other Journal News employees and of Gannett CEO Gracia Martore -- turning the tables on the paper and demonstrating the power of social media to empower so-called citizen journalists.

More recently, a well-known conservative activist posing as a gun opponent surreptitiously videotaped Hasson's husband and others in a bid to embarrass them.

Westchester | Conservative videographer O'Keefe ambushes Journal News exec for pro-gun project

[Video still shows purported exterior of Hasson's home]

Right-leaning activist James O'Keefe has turned his undercover camera on Publisher Janet Hasson and other Journal News employees in another rebuke of the paper's publication last month of names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two N.Y. counties.

He and and his supporters posed as an anti-gun group, Citizens Against Senseless Violence, that tried to persuade homeowners to place signs in front of their houses indicating their homes were gun-free. Watch the video on YouTube.

In addition to several people described as Journal News employees, they also caught on camera journalists with New Jersey's Star Ledger. And they attempted to reach U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at home in Washington before being rebuffed by a police officer.

In Hasson's case, a man identified as her husband at about minute 5:00 in the video turns aside O'Keefe's group.

It's unclear when the video was produced. It was uploaded today to O'Keefe's YouTube site, where it has now been viewed more than 300 times. Some of his other 68 videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times each, however.

O'Keefe targeted ACORN
O'Keefe, 28, gained national attention for his release of video recordings of workers at ACORN offices in 2009; his arrest in early 2010 at the office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu in a failed attempt to record staff conversations, and release of videos of NPR executives in 2011.

His video is just the latest response to the 69,000-circulation newspaper's mapping three weeks ago of the identities of gun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties in surburban New York City after the school shootings in Newtown, Conn. The map was accompanied by a story under the headline, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood."

Other critics have posted the home addresses and phone numbers of Hasson, Gannett CEO Gracia Martore and other Journal News employees.

Also, a group supporting gun owners has organized a boycott of companies advertising in Gannett publications. And a New York state senator is seeking an exemption for gun permit information from the open-records laws the newspaper used to obtain the names and addresses in the first place.

In response, the Journal News has hired private armed guards for the homes of Hasson and some other employees. In O'Keefe's video, the man described as her husband points to one such guard as evidence that she feels threatened.

Westchester | Burglary said driven by gun map

A suburban New York City residence pinpointed on a controversial handgun permit database published last month by The Journal News was burglarized Saturday, and the burglars' target was the homeowner's gun safe, according to a newspaper report.

The owner was not home when the burglary occurred, according to a law enforcement source cited by Newsday. The victim, who is in his 70s, told Newsday that he did not want to comment yesterday while the police investigation continues.

The Journal News published the names and addresses of gun permit holders in a map three weeks ago, after getting the information from public documents obtained through open-records laws. The map and accompanying story set off a nationwide debate that pit the rights of permit holders and journalists.

Westchester | Joining the gun permit fray: Gawker

The widely read site has just published a 446-page list of every licensed gun owner in New York City -- which, depending on the reaction, could relieve pressure on The Journal News, two weeks after it published a list of its own for Westchester and Rockland counties in suburban NYC.

Westchester | How much might Gannett spend to force release of more gun permit data: try $460K

When Putnam County last week refused The Journal News' request for handgun permit records, county officials almost certainly set up a legal showdown with the Gannett daily. And if the recent experience of GCI's New Jersey newspapers is a guide, those officials will lose the fight under open-records laws -- and at a taxpayer cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Asbury Park Press and two other dailies are demanding reimbursement of their huge legal costs from the small Raritan Borough over the papers' 2009 request for computerized payroll records. Citing the state's Open Public Records Act, the newspapers sued for the records in a format they could manipulate for analysis -- and not as a hard copy PDF or printout. A judge eventually sided with the papers.

"At first," reporter Sergio Bichao wrote in a story today, "Raritan Borough said it didn’t maintain the information electronically — although that proved to be untrue.

"Like other municipalities who responded to the OPRA request, the borough later said its third-party payroll provider could convert the data into an Excel spreadsheet at a cost of $1,100. It was an amount that the newspapers considered exorbitant, especially if an individual citizen were asked to pay it.

Pay them $460K -- plus
In a precedent-setting decision in August, state Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone ordered Raritan Borough to release the records in digital format. The borough finally turned over the data last month.

Now, GCI's attorneys want reimbursement of more than $459,500 of its actual legal costs -- plus a 50% "enhancement," citing "significant public interests” presented in the case. Judges may award such enhancements in OPRA cases that further the public’s interest.

In New York, Putnam County officials turned down the Journal News' request on the grounds of public safety -- but without citing an exemption under the state's open-records laws. By then, Westchester and Rockland counties had already complied with the paper's earlier request for names and addresses of the permit holders -- setting off an aggressive campaign against the paper from gun rights supporters.

Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson vowed to pursue the Putnam records, telling her paper: "We take seriously our obligation to serve the residents of Putnam County and will aggressively pursue the community’s right of access to public record information."

She wasn't more specific. More than likely, however, the paper will go to court.

Ethics | Are executives' minor kids ever fair game?

Even at this blog's most contentious, I always believed children of Gannett executives shouldn't be dragged into discussions about the company's management. My reasoning: They shouldn't suffer because of the (sometimes) bad decisions made by their parents.

But now a new blog is testing that idea. Expose Gannett was launched after The Journal News published names and addresses of handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties in suburban New York. That ignited a firestorm of criticism by supporters of gun owners.

Expose has published names and home addresses (with maps) of five of Gannett's top executives, starting with CEO Gracia Martore. In two cases, the blog -- whose author is anonymous -- has identified two minor children by name, and attempted to link to their Facebook pages.

Other critics also have posted home addresses and sometimes phone numbers. But Expose is taking a far more aggressive stance in the service of payback for what happened at the Journal News.

What are the ethical implications in Expose's methods? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

DealChicken | Concealed handgun classes just $39

That's less than half the $100 regular price, according to Desert Valley Firearms of Chandler, Ariz., near Phoenix.

The deal notes: "Students must bring a revolver or pistol, 50 rounds of ammunition and two or more magazines or speed loaders if they own their own; rentals available for an additional fee."

The offer after a man killed 20 young school children and six adults on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn. Adam Lanza, 20, carried two handguns and a rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Westchester | Facing threats, paper hires armed guards; county pol defies open-records request; hackers reportedly strike site, steal customer data

Fallout is growing from The Journal News' publishing names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two N.Y. counties a week ago. The newspaper in White Plains, N.Y., got the information from public documents obtained under open-records laws. Here are the latest developments:

The 69,000-circulation daily has hired armed security guards to defend its offices after being flooded with angry telephone calls and e-mails opposing the paper's decision.

New York-based RGA Investigations & Security "is doing private security on location at the Journal News as a result of the negative response," according to a police report obtained by the Rockland County Times of Nanuet, N.Y. The guards "are armed and will be on site during business hours through at least Jan. 2, 2013," the Times says.

Journal News Rockland Editor Caryn McBride was alarmed by the volume of “negative correspondence,” related to the paper's publishing a map of all pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester counties, according to the police report cited by the Times.

More permit data nixed
Also yesterday, Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant said he would defy the paper's pending request under open-records laws for information about permit holders in his jurisdiction.

Sant

"There is the rule of law, and there is right and wrong, and the Journal News is clearly wrong," Sant said in a statement, according to Reuters. "I could not live with myself if one Putnam pistol permit holder was put in harm's way, for the sole purpose of selling newspapers."

Sant will join County Executive MaryEllen Odell and other elected officials at a Thursday news conference to discuss their decision.

The Reuters story did not say whether county officials had found an exemption to open-records laws that would allow them to withhold the information. Absent that, their decision could set up a legal battle between the county and the paper, the Journal News is reporting.

Hackers said hitting site
Published reports said a group of unidentified hackers had breached the Journal News' site -- lohud.com -- and stolen as many as 10,000 subscriber names and other identifying information.

It appears some of this data may have been uploaded to the file-sharing site Pirate Bay here. (More about that Swedish site.)

A sample of the data may also appear on this Paste Bin page.

Earlier, other websites published the home addresses and phone numbers of some Journal News and Gannett employees, including Publisher Janet Hasson and GCI CEO Gracia Martore.

Also, a N.Y. group supporting gun owners called for a boycott of national and local advertisers in the Journal News and other Gannet titles. And a N.Y. state senator said he would pursue legislation that would exempt handgun permit holders' names, addresses and other personal information from open-records law.

Westchester | N.Y. gun group urges ad boycott

The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association is calling for a nationwide boycott of companies advertising in The Journal News and other Gannett titles after the White Plains, N.Y., daily published online maps revealing names and addresses of people with pistol permits.

The association urged people to stop patronizing businesses advertising in any GCI media until the map is removed. The group's move got a lift today when it was reported by the widely read Politico.

In a press release on Saturday, the association said: "The Journal News has put in harm's way tens of thousands of lawful license holders. This action by the Journal News can only be viewed as an attempt to intimidate and bully lawful gun-owning citizens. The data posted also includes active and retired police, judges, battered and stalked individuals, FBI agents, and more."

It urged people to write to advertisers, and provided an extensive list of them, including mailing addresses and phone numbers. The list of national marketers ranged from Ace Hardware to Macy's and Walmart, plus local advertisers Brewster Honda and Varmax Liquor Pantry.

The Journal News' gun permit maps a week ago, plus an accompanying story, have led to widespread criticism and a move by a New York state senator to make such information exempt from state open-records laws, which the paper used to obtain the names and addresses.

Westchester | Where the gun story went wrong: 'paper was not aggressive enough in its reporting'

In a post today, the Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins says the problem with The Journal News' disclosing names and addresses of gun permit holders wasn't that the paper was too aggressive.

"The problem is that the paper was not aggressive enough in its reporting to justify invading the privacy of people who legally own handguns in two counties it serves,'' he says.

The paper published the information on Saturday in a searchable map and accompanying story for Westchester and Rockland counties in suburban New York City. Since then, the paper has been mostly criticized for invading the privacy of private citizens and putting them at risk. The paper obtained the information under state open-records laws.

Tompkins offered examples of better ways to make use of gun permit information, including:

• If journalists could show flaws in the gun permitting system, that would be newsworthy. Or, for example, if gun owners were exempted from permits because of political connections, then journalists could better justify the privacy invasion.
• If the data showed the relationship between the number of permits issued and the crime rates, that serves a public purpose. You would have to also look at income, population density, housing patterns, policing policies and more to really understand what is going on and why.

Since the information was published, a New York state senator has said he will introduce legislation to make gun permit data exempt from state open-records laws.

Westchester | N.Y. state senator vows to press legislation to make gun permit information private

Calling Journal News editors "asinine" for publishing names and addresses of handgun permit owners, a New York state senator says he will introduce legislation that would make such information exempt from public disclosure.

Ball

In a statement, Greg Ball said: "The asinine editors at the Journal News, have once again gone out of their way to place a virtual scarlet letter on law abiding firearm owners throughout the region. The immediate elimination of the information posted on the Journal News website is the only way we can ensure the safety and liberty of these New Yorkers. This is clearly a violation of privacy, and needs to be corrected immediately. The same elitist egg heads who use their editorial page to coddle terrorists and criminals are now treating law abiding citizens like level three sexual predators."

The newspaper obtained the information from public records under state freedom of information laws. Similar laws at the federal level and in every state make a range of government records public, from real estate transactions to state employee salaries.

Ball vowed to introduce a bill in the State Senate that would ban disclosure of information in pistol license applications except to law enforcement officials involved in active investigations. Similar legislation has already been proposed in the State Assembly, he said.

A Republican, Ball represents the state's 40th district, which covers an area immediately north of White Plains, where the Journal News is based. The permit holders' names and addresses, published in the form of a searchable map on Saturday, were for Westchester and Rockland counties in suburban New York City. The paper has sought similar information for Putnam County, where Ball lives, and says it will post that information once it becomes available.

Since publishing the information after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, the newspaper has been slammed by critics who say it endangered the lives of handgun permit owners. But Publisher Janet Hasson defended the decision, saying the public had an interest in knowing whether handguns were in their neighborhoods.

Westchester | Weighing 1st vs. 2nd amendments

"When the sacred Second Amendment is in question, with its implied right to own an assault rifle, the gun owners get all up in arms (no pun intended), but when a newspaper exercises its First Amendment rights by publishing public record, they want these rights restricted."

-- reader "RN" of New York City, in the most-recommended of more than 500 comments on a New York Times story today about The Journal News' publishing names and addresses of handgun permit owners.

Westchester | A publisher walks a narrow line

"New York residents have the right to own guns with a permit and they also have a right to access public information."

-- Publisher Janet Hasson, quoted in a Journal News story published late yesterday about largely negative reaction to the paper's publishing names and addresses of handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties outside New York City. Retaliating, one blogger posted what he says is Hasson's home address and phone number.