New transitions, awkward moments for staffers

Over the past year and a half, Tom Holden's byline appeared on more than 200 stories in The Virginian-Pilot, most of which focused on transportation. On June 1, Holden became a voice for Hampton Roads Transit, a public agency he'd covered closely as the newspaper's transportation writer.

Richard Quinn, The Pilot's Virginia Beach City Hall reporter, used to sit a few feet away from reporter Marc Davis in the newspaper's Beach office. But since April, when Davis became that city's media and communications manager, these former colleagues have operated on opposite sides of the information divide.

With the departure of Holden, Davis and Marian Anderfuren, The Pilot has lost nearly 75 years of institutional memory and more than 80 years of journalism experience in just three months. Anderfuren turned in her press badge days after marking her 30th anniversary as a Pilot staffer, and on Monday she becomes the University of Virginia's director of media relations.

Meanwhile, several other longtime journalists left The Pilot to pursue various career opportunities. For the time that it takes to rebound from those losses, the quality of our journalism will likely be weakened.

The job security that public information positions with government agencies provide makes them attractive alternatives to veteran journalists like Holden, Davis and Anderfuren. That's especially true at a time when the newspaper industry in general and The Pilot in particular - given its probable sale - face unknown futures. But for the uncertainties created by the impending sale, it's unlikely any of the three veterans would have left The Pilot anytime soon.

"It was a matter of keeping control of my career," Anderfuren said, "and not leaving it to a new owner to decide what my role (if any) would be."

The impact of these departures on the quality of The Pilot and its coverage of Hampton Roads is difficult to judge. An abundance of young reporters are eager to fill those coveted jobs. Yet, the experience Holden, for example, accumulated during his 22 years as a Pilot reporter is tough to replace on any immediate timetable.

With a search under way for a new transportation writer, the beat is being covered on a temporary basis by two reporters - one based in Norfolk and the other in Richmond. Is our current transportation coverage driven by the level of expertise Holden brought to the job? No. Can he be replaced? Certainly. But it will likely take many months for his successor to master the intricacies of the beat.

In becoming spokesmen for the public agencies they once covered, Holden and Davis, both prize-winning reporters, made career moves that are familiar in journalism circles. Years after leaving his job as managing editor of The Pilot, James Raper became a science writer and editor in the university relations office at Old Dominion University. In a similar move, reporter Greg Raver-Lampman, who wrote books after he left The Pilot, last year became public relations manager at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.

Such moves are often logical progressions because reporters with specific expertise usually make highly qualified public information officers. Moreover, their knowledge of journalism's routines adds an important dimension to any PR operation.

Interacting with a journalist-turned-public-spokesman, especially when it's the fellow who worked at a nearby desk, can make for awkward moments. However, as Quinn notes, "Once you get past the initial shock of dealing with someone who has been a colleague and is now a city official, it is all about being professionals who do our jobs. You put your personal relationship aside."

Maria Carrillo, The Pilot's managing editor, and Nelson Brown, Beach bureau chief, have so few reservations about the ability of their present and former staffers to handle this new dynamic that they've felt no need to address the issue.

Brown, however, acknowledges the possibility that "someone on the outside could see this and think that the city and the newspaper are in bed together and will be doing each other favors. But that's just not the case." No one thinks that Davis will do any special favors for The Pilot, for example.

Quinn is similarly dismissive of suspicions that Davis might become his own personal "Deep Throat," one who leaks him inside scoops about Virginia Beach city government. "I expect him to treat me the way he would treat any other reporter," Quinn said.

Although Holden maintains his friendships with his former colleagues, he understands he might face some uncomfortable moments the next time The Pilot holds HRT up to scrutiny. "Just because I once worked there doesn't mean that I have a free pass," he said.

Still, there have been rare moments when an outsider could wonder. For Holden, who had spent all his working life in a newsroom, the old habits still stick. Every now and then, when he picks up the phone in HRT's Norfolk office, he slips and answers, "The Virginian-Pilot."

Joyce Hoffmann, the public editor, is an associate professor in the English Department at Old Dominion University. Reach her at (757) 446-2475 or public.editor@pilotonline.com.