University of Virginia Library

Criticism Rains Down On New Daily Progress

Commentary

By HOLLY SMITH

The Daily Progress, Charlottesville's
only daily newspaper, changed hands last
January when Worrell Newspapers, Inc.
of Bristol Va. purchased the Progress
from the Lindsay family, its owner since
the paper began in 1892.

During the year the paper has
undergone a sizeable turnover in the
upper echelon positions, including the
loss of a state editor, a city editor, a
sports editor, two assistant editors on the
city and state desk, the advertising
manager and a supervisor in the
circulation department, all of whom were
either fired or quit.

The upshot of these changes has been an
often obvious, sometimes subtle change in the
kind of product the Progress has become. It's a
change which has caused many readers to think
that the paper's "Daily Regress" label applies
more now than ever before.

Over the summer, as the direction the paper
was taking began to be more evident, many of
the Progress' readers, including professional
newsmen and professors at the University,
became displeased with the heavy local slant
the paper was developing-an orientation which
emphasized club meetings and the "freak
vegetable" - type of story rather than state and
national news.

Recently the Progress has taken this adverse
reaction into account and reworked its play and
positioning of local as opposed to more
cosmopolitan news, but many professional
reporters and news personnel, both those who
have and those how have not worked for the
Progress, feel that the backbone of the paper
has been broken.

Experience Lost

Two professional journalists (who are not
connected with the Progress) had strong words
for the new management. One newsman, who
asked to remain anonymous described the
Progress as "almost an advertising throw-away."
The second, who also wished to remain
unnamed, observed, "The paper has degraded,
there's no doubt about it-except in the
publisher's mind. I've never seen a paper go
downhill so fast" he continued, "a lot of talent
and experience was lost."

Karl Runser, former Daily Progress city
editor and among those who quit their position,
summed up the situation: "The staff has
disintegrated and I think the paper has lost an
awful lot of good will in the community. And I
don't think that Rooker can bring it back any
time soon." Dan Rooker is the co-publisher of
the Daily Progress.

Most of the newsmen interviewed felt that
the Worrell company, which owns a chain of 24
daily and 8 weekly newspapers, was trying to
apply what amounted to a "formula" to make
the Progress more of a local paper, and a more
lucrative business. They speculate that the
thinking of the company is that since it has
worked for other papers they own, it should
work here.

Inaccurate Saboteurs

Lindsay B. Mount, the other half of the
Progress co-publishing management, conceded
that "Basically they [Worrell] believe in a

heavy play on local news" but emphatically
denies that economy underlies the changes in
the composition of the staff. He explained that
some of the people who were "discharged"
were talented but were sabotaging the paper, or
were not particularly concerned with accuracy
in the stories they wrote.

When asked why, if the Worrell company
was not substantially reorganizing the paper, so
many changes had come about since January,
Mr. Mount replied that it was mostly due to the
fact that during that time he had become
publisher of the Progress, replacing General
Manager J.W. Gentry.

Concerning the quality of the present staff,
specifically the new heads of the
advertising, circulation and sports departments,
Mr. Mount claimed, "I don't think the people
we had before could hold a candle to the
people we've got now.

Mr. Runser paints an entirely different
picture when he chronicles the changes that
took place when the Worrell company bought
the Progress.

Veterans Fired

Among the first reporters to be fired were
Jerry Simpson and Alan Bruns, associate state
editor and state editor respectively. Mr. Runser
characterizes Mr. Simpson as "Just about the
best writer we had, one of the most interesting
to read. He had been with the Progress close to
20 years." Mr. Bruns has been described as "a
very good political analyst" by a University
administrator. As Mr. Runser understood the
course of events both men were let go in June
when they were called into the managing
editor's office and told it was their last day.
"There was no warning as far as I know."

The head of the Progress sports department,
Chris Cramer, left the paper when he was
informed that his job as a radio announcer
constituted a conflict of interest and that he
would have to decide between one job or
another. Some consider Mr. Cramer to be a
sports writer of national renown.

Other key personnel were let go or not
rehired after they had been on leave.

"The staff was told they were almost at a
dead end." Mr. Runser explained. "There were
no raises in sight and very little chance to move
up."

Early in July, Ben Kent was appointed to
the newly-created position of editor, and
Assistant City Editor Bill Acres was made the
managing editor to fill the position Mr. Kent
had vacated. Mr. Acres is described by Mr.
Runser as a Worrell yes-man: "The management
knew that he was the kind of guy who would
do what they wanted done since he had worked
for them before."

Mr. Acres came to the Progress from a job as
news director of Radio Station WAYB in
Waynesboro; prior to that he had worked as
new editor on the Worrell-owned Pulki
Southwest Times, where, according to Mr.
Runser, he worked under, and became good
friends with, Mr. Rooker.

Thus arose a situation where a man who had
worked for the Progress for only two years was
made responsible for the daily production of
the news and the supervision of the reporting
and photography staff. In September of this
year Mr. Rooker was named co-publisher of the
Progress. At the same time as the
announcement of his new position as
co-publisher, it was announced that he had also
been named to the vice-presidency of Worrell
Newspapers.