Dark day: Arizona loses the Tribune

It's a question that politicians and government officials have ignored at their peril as the East Valley Tribune does what newspapers do best: hold those in power accountable and shout at the highest possible decibels when journalists turn up wrongdoing, injustice or inequity.

It's a question that often had me, as a sleep-challenged East Valley resident, scurrying out the front door at 3:30 a.m. when I heard that telltale "thud" from the driveway.

What a dark day it was at my house when the Tribune pulled its circulation footprint east of Loop 101 and I couldn't look at competing newspapers side by side. And what a dark day it will be when Arizona loses the Tribune's still-powerful voice.

Monday's announcement certainly is no surprise. Newspapers are businesses, not public institutions, and the economic woes facing the news industry have fallen hardest so far on smaller papers in competitive markets. Regardless of how unfortunate the circumstances may be and how consistently good the Tribune's journalism has been, businesses that don't create enough value to turn profits go out of business.

After massive layoffs, pulling out of Scottsdale, Tempe and much of Chandler, adopting a free-circulation model, cutting its print editions to four and then three per week and, finally, seeing parent company Freedom Communications Inc. file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it was clear the Tribune's days were numbered.

But those of us who love what newspapers do best couldn't help but hope for some kind of surprise. Perhaps a rich resident would buy the Tribune and operate it as a public trust. Perhaps the Powerball would come through and I could do it.

Alas, neither was to be.

There's no greater metaphor than the recent Pulitzer Prize for the Tribune's withering assessment of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts against illegal immigration. Co-recipient Paul Giblin, a veteran reporter, had already been laid off and helped found a local Web journalism startup, the Arizona Guardian. Ryan Gabrielson, a supremely gifted young reporter, has since left for a journalism fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, and another state likely will benefit from his talents.

Despite its limited resources, the Tribune regularly took on ambitious investigations such as these, committing months of staff time and lots of newsprint to projects in the public interest.

But many other people who made this kind of journalism possible are now gone from the Tribune.

Reporters Mary K. Reinhart and Dennis Welch and enterprise editor Patti Epler, who was instrumental in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series, now are partners with Giblin at the Arizona Guardian, for example.

Mark Flatten, an investigative reporter who for decades struck fear into public officials, turning out detailed and devastating reports for the Tribune, survived the layoffs but left to become a reporter for the Goldwater Institute, a conservative advocacy and watchdog group.

Despite these losses, the Tribune maintained a strong editorial voice not just in the East Valley but, through its Web site and enterprising journalism, across Arizona. The paper recently won Arizona Newspaper of the Year in its circulation division in the 2009 Better Newspapers Contest presented by the Arizona Newspapers Association and The Associated Press.

But now the Tribune is going away, and I'm left to ponder and fret about the future of watchdog journalism.

Most other journalism organizations also are struggling from fragmented audience and advertising competition from the Web, but I remain optimistic that they ultimately will survive, probably as smaller versions. KPHO-TV's breathtaking investigation of Arpaio recently and The Arizona Republic's investigative achievements are examples of a continuing commitment to watchdog journalism that requires time and money.

I'm also optimistic that new forms of journalism will complement these efforts. ProPublica.org, a nonprofit experiment in national investigative reporting, is just one example of where journalism could be going. If there's a market for watchdog journalism, and every citizen should hope that there will be, journalism opportunities should follow.

But I also watch with worry. There just isn't a clear alternative to newspapers as watchdogs at the local level, and, as the Tribune's fate shows, newspapers face profound challenges. No other model has been able to so thoroughly commit resources to monitoring and informing the public about the workings of government.

With the Tribune going away, the only winners are the unbending laws of free enterprise and unscrupulous public officials - not all of them, but far too many - who won't have the Tribune's dozens of professionals keeping an eye on them on the public's behalf.

Steve Elliott is a professor of practice at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and directs print and digital operations for the school's Cronkite News Service.