Anxious times on Brambleton Avenue, The Virginian-Pilot

The Virginian-Pilot Editorials
© January 4, 2008

Journalists are not often surprised by our own front pages, but Thursday’s was a shock: “Landmark considers possible sale of Pilot, Weather Channel.”

Despite the qualification, those eight words mark the end of an era, and the beginning of tumultuous times on Brambleton Avenue.

For America, the story that followed was about the sale of The Weather Channel, which was born a curiosity and is now worth billions. In so many small towns, the story was about the fate of their local newspapers. In Norfolk, though, it was about the fate of one particular newspaper. This one.

Lehman Brothers has begun advising Landmark’s corporate chieftains about the sale of the company’s publications. For the first time in a century, we face the distinct possibility that The Virginian-Pilot will have new owners, out-of-town owners.

Since the days after the Civil War, this newspaper has been a champion for Hampton Roads. As a private company, it has been immune to the vagaries of Wall Street, to the constant demands for immediate results, an impatience often incompatible with what journalists do.

Our owners instead concentrated on providing space for journalism that changed Hampton Roads and Virginia, that held the guilty accountable and raised up heroes. It’s what we continue to do today.

Pilot publishers years ago put an elevator ride between the advertising and news operations, insulating journalists from the cause of commerce. Even so, The Virginian-Pilot isn’t a building, or a metaphor for independence. It’s the 1,200 people who produce and deliver this newspaper each day.

There’s no way to know what will happen to any of us. Media purchases have a recent history of ending sadly for employees, and changes in the industry have forced unpleasant truths on newspapers once immune to them.

Still, the principles that made this place so attractive to journalists, and a source of pride for its employees, now make it just as attractive to potential buyers.

The Pilot’s considerable value – economic and civic – arises entirely because it has served its community so faithfully for generations. That mission, that impulse, doesn’t reside solely in our owners, though they have been its voice and inspiration.

“Our news reports should never be influenced by the private interests of the owners or of any other group,” wrote Frank Batten Sr., the man who built Landmark. “Our editorials should exhibit vigor and courage, always respectful of contrary opinion, never tailored to the whims of the editor or publisher.”

That philosophy has guided this place across the decades. It is in the bones of the building, and in each page of what we publish. But, more important, it is in the people. And we’re not going anywhere.