Have your say...

Paper losing its touch

I am writing on behalf of the sailors in the Fleet in my position as Command Warrant Officer-Maritime Command.
In this position I am constantly touring the country and sea riding talking to sailors and officers of all ranks. I took up this position in August 2004 and since then, concerns have been raised to me over the content of Navy News.


The major areas of concern are:

• the diminishing representation of short good-news stories about sailors;
  
• the difficulty in getting an article published;
  
• the Gangway page montage being reduced to only five pictures per edition;
  
• the amount of civilian advertisements the paper contains that have no relevance to the readers occupations; and
  
• the Reserves are concerned that the Reserve News was incorporated into Navy News thereby not reaching Reserves unless they are currently serving.
  
  Because of the above concerns a number of sailors and officers have stopped reading the paper. I see Navy News as a direct conduit of information that can be used by all Navy people to pass relevant information to the coalface.
  If the content is not representing sailors or relevant to their needs then the front page claim of being “the sailors’ paper” is incorrect.
  
  Sailors and officers used to look forward to the paper’s delivery, particularly when deployed because it kept them up to date with what’s happening in the Navy and they either saw pictures of their ship, mates or themselves in it.
  Navy News is a tool that was used by divisional staff at their monthly meetings to disseminate information. Its content has direct bearing on morale and ultimately through morale, capability.
  
  I recommend you poll the Navy about the content of the paper, it would be a shame to see its relevance to the service diminish to a state where it is not read.
  
  Peter Whitehead
  Command Warrant Officer
  Maritime Command.
  
  
  Editor’s response:
  
• Rather than a decrease in good news stories about sailors, the emphasis over the past 12 months has been to get more good news stories into the paper.
  
  
• Each story submitted must be judged on its merits and whether the information is timely, whether it is well written or needs work, whether it has the proper attributions, whether it is relevant to the readership (ie the average sailor below deck), whether it has a photo attached to the story or not, whether it’s more or less important than the other news gathered in that cycle, what clearances may be needed before going to print and whether the subject matter is tasteful and therefore fit to print.
  
  
• Steps have been taken to increase the number of photos in the Gangway section since we received WO Whitehead’s letter.
  
  
• Advertisements in the newspaper are a means by which the paper subsidises the cost to taxpayers. Members can take them or leave them depending on their preferences.
  
  
• The distribution of Reserve News is funded by DGRES-N. Originally Reserve News was a separate publication, but it was then thought that value could be added by combining both Navy News and Reserve News. This was done with the combined publication sent to all Reserves. At a later date DGRES-N decided to ask Reserves whether they would like to continue to receive the hard copy edition or would be happy with the online edition. Personnel who indicated they would like to continue to receive the hard copy edition continue to do so.
  
  
  

How to contact us

Navy News would like to encourage its readers to write in and express their views. Preference will be given to typed letters or e-mails of up to 250 words. Letters will only be published when they include the author’s name, ship or unit (where applicable), location and contact number. Note that the authors details can be witheld from print if requested. Send letters to: The Editor, Navy News, R8-LG-039, Russell Offices, Dept of Defence, Canberra, ACT 2600. Phone (02) 6266 7707, fax (02) 6265 6690 or e-mail: navynews@defencenews.gov.au (please note that this is not an internal e-mail address and therefore requires Sec: Unclassified in the subject line when sending from a DRN terminal.

 

 

.