VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, July 30, 2022
East Oregonian
A5
New media are filling Oregon news deserts
STEVE
FORRESTER
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
G
eorge Custer is a new player in
the struggle to keep Oregon news
deserts from happening.
Following closure of the Dead Moun-
tain Echo, an Oakridge newspaper of
some 50 years standing, a group led by
veteran newsman Doug Bates started the
Highway 58 Herald, an online newspa-
per. A former U.S. Marine Corps captain
and a businessman, Custer is working on
the newspaper’s business side, and he has
filled in as an interim editor.
Custer and I met at the City Club of
Eugene’s July 8 discussion of the topic,
“Can local newspapers survive?” In
response to that question, I had the easier
task, because I could speak about our
media company and its survival.
The Highway 58 Herald endeavor is
much like the Ashland News, which is
powered by retired journalists and busi-
ness people such as Paul Steinle, who
resides in Ashland, as well as on the Long
Beach Peninsula. Steinle is a retired exec-
utive of King Broadcasting of Seattle.
These two startups and another in
Yachats are emblematic of the drive to fill
community news voids.
EO Media Group, the parent company
of the East Oregonian, closed its books
on June 30, at the end of the fiscal year. I
am pleased to report it was a financially
healthy year. During that cycle, our news-
papers gained subscribers, to both our
print and digital editions.
Talent is the key to our company’s
financial health. Talent in the newsrooms
of our 15 newspapers, talent among our
designers and advertising sales staffs,
talent in our one printing site in Astoria
and in our call center.
News content is what drives readers to
late February that stretched nearly 2-miles
long. Nearly 20 patients were taken to
area hospitals and stranded motorists were
taken to the Pendleton Convention Center,
which served as a reunification hub for
people involved in the crash.
In the years ahead, our company’s
path and the paths of new Oregon news
outlets such as in Ashland and Oakridge
may intersect. During the fiscal year,
EO Media Group launched the Fund for
Oregon Rural Journalism. This nonprofit
“THE KEY TO RURAL AND REGIONAL
NEWSPAPERS’ SURVIVAL IS
RESILIENCE AND INNOVATION. AND
THAT IS WHERE YOU’LL FIND EO
MEDIA GROUP IN THE YEAR AHEAD.”
our print and digital editions.
In one of our highest profile news
initiatives, The Bulletin in Bend is in the
midst of a yearlong series that profiles
homeless persons in Deschutes County.
Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court deci-
sion on Roe v. Wade, Katie Frankowicz of
KMUN and Nicole Bales of The Asto-
rian took an extensive look at the lack of
access to abortion in rural areas of Oregon
like the North Coast. The East Oregonian
covered a 170-car crash on Interstate 84 in
venture is seeking philanthropic money
that is dedicated to helping newsrooms
thrive. FORJ aims to help rural news-
rooms around Oregon build sustainable
operations. Also we hope to build collab-
orations with other rural newspapers in
shared news initiatives on topics such as
water, housing and climate change.
What I like about FORJ is that it is a
countervailing force against the national
narrative that news deserts must be our
future. What America and Oregon need
is a new generation of news entrepre-
neurs. In other words, young people who
are equipped with reporting, editing and
business skills to start community news
organizations. These young talents can
emerge from our journalism schools. Our
company leaders have had that conver-
sation with the leaders of the Univer-
sity of Oregon School of Journalism and
Communication.
Journalism schools at the University of
West Virginia and University of Kentucky
are focusing on how to develop new
generations of entrepreneurial journalists.
Our conversations with UO are hearten-
ing.
By telling you that we’ve had a good
fiscal year, I do not mean to disguise the
challenges we’ve confronted and will
confront. The newspaper business has
never been easy for papers our size in
communities such as we represent.
If you’ve read “Grit and Ink,” the
history of our company and family, you
know that from the late 19th century into
the 21st century, impediments such as the
Great Depression, a massive fire in Asto-
ria, pandemics — as well as shifts in the
advertising industry — have come our
way regularly.
The key to rural and regional newspa-
pers’ survival is resilience and innovation.
And that is where you’ll find EO Media
Group in the year ahead.
———
Steve Forrester is the president and
CEO of EO Media Group.
ANDREW
CUTLER
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Newsroom
addresses
reader
feedback
F
eedback from readers is a key pillar
to the success of any newspaper or
news organization and in June we
identified five areas to improve at the East
Oregonian based on input from a reader
survey.
The survey showed readers wanted a
host of items to be addressed. Five key
categories stood out in terms of better
effort on our part — improving accuracy,
more follow-up stories, more personality
features and human-interest type tales,
shorter articles and better coverage of
Umatilla County government.
I want to outline to you, the reader, the
steps we’ve executed to address each cate-
gory.
In terms of improving accuracy, we’ve
given every reporter access to a compre-
hensive fact-checking protocol and
instructed each one on how to use this
valuable tool. By the end of this month, I
believe we will have a better understand-
ing of how well this step is working.
In terms of improving follow up
stories — especially with crimes — East
Oregonian news editor Phil Wright is
working through all of our crime report-
ing and court cases from the past few
years to build a spreadsheet to help track
cases and find ones we need to update.
Already, Wright has completed follow ups
on several recent cases, including a man
facing kidnapping charges.
Our effort to enhance our personality
features and human-interest stories has
been, so far, the easiest to achieve. We’ve
printed several profiles already and the
latest is online now — and was printed
in a recent weekend edition — about an
Army National Guard pilot moving back
to Pendleton.
Our dedication to producing shorter
articles remains a work in progress. We
are working daily to encourage our report-
ers to write in a more clear, concise and
shorter way.
We also are still working to improve
our coverage of Umatilla County govern-
ment.
I hope to be able to report back within
the next few months regarding our success
with shorter articles and our coverage of
county government.
The main point is a simple one —
we care about you, the reader. We are
making key changes to how we do our
jobs because you, the reader, asked for it.
I remain confident that we can meet all of
the benchmarks outlined by our survey
and I am excited about the feedback we
received.
Feedback, critical or complimentary,
is essential for us to be able to guide our
pathway into the future.
———
Andrew Cutler is the publisher/editor of
the East Oregonian and the regional edito-
rial director for the EO Media Group, over-
seeing the East Oregonian and five more
newspapers in Eastern Oregon.
Parenting time plans and how to modify them
BLAINE
CLOOTEN
ASK AN ATTORNEY
Q: I am happily divorced with two chil-
dren ages six and eight, living in Hermiston. I
work a regular 8 a.m.-5 p.m, Monday through
Friday. I also tend to work overtime. My ex
works as an educator and her schedule tends
to coincide with my kid’s school schedule.
She also lives in Hermiston. She stays home
with them during the summer.
My time with them is currently the first,
third and when available, fifth weekend of
the month. I also get Thursday night (5:30)
until the next morning during the second
and fourth week. I get two weeks during
the summer, and we usually do a vacation.
Custody isn’t really an issue for me, and I’m
not complaining about child support, but I’d
really like more visitation. I didn’t have a
lawyer for the divorce, so I just agreed with
what she put in the judgment. Is there a way
for me to get more time with my kids?
A: You’ll either have to come to an agree-
ment with the mother or file a modification
and ask the court for more parenting time.
If you come up with an agreement with
the mother, it’s recommended that it be put
in writing, but you don’t necessarily have to
modify your judgment. About 75% of folks
that have a parenting time plan in place from
the court have deviated from the agreement in
some way by mutual agreement of the parties.
However, agreements outside of the
court are not enforceable by the court or law
enforcement.
If you file a modification to the parenting
time plan, the court only will consider what
is in the best interests of the children and the
safety of the parties.
Here, the safety of the parties doesn’t
appear to be at issue, so the court’s focus
will be on what is in the best interests of the
children.
You also are allowed to ask for equal
parenting time, which the court may order.
If the court denies equal parenting time, it
must do so by written findings that equal
parenting time is not in the best interests of
the children or endangers the safety of the
parties.
I have known judges to deny equal
parenting time where one parent works a
similar schedule to the kid’s school sched-
ule and the other parent works full time
with overtime. This is because even if the
full-time working parent had the children,
they wouldn’t be able to watch them during
work hours and would instead have to find
a sitter or family member to help until they
get home.
The standard plan you are following is
referred to as the “status quo.” To disturb
the status quo, the proposed change needs to
better serve the interests of the children.
There’s a couple of unknowns from
your hypothetical. I understand you want
more parenting time, but I’m not sure how
much more time you want, and when that
would occur. The judge is unlikely to give
you every weekend at the expense of the
mother’s weekends. At age 7, you would
be entitled to six continuous weeks of
summertime under the standard plan (you
currently exercise two weeks). I would
encourage you to review the standard
parenting time plan to maximize holiday
and other time that is available to you on
the Oregon Legal Firm website.
Q: I have a 16-year-old who doesn’t want
to visit her dad anymore. Can my child
write a letter to the court and tell the judge
she doesn’t want to do visits anymore?
A: I’m assuming that you must have
a parenting time plan in place. The court
cannot change a parenting time plan without
first filing a motion to modify the parenting
time. A letter alone will not be enough for
the judge to change the parenting time plan.
Let’s assume you file a motion to modify
the parenting time. The child cannot decide
where they want to live until age 18. During
a trial, a child may be allowed to testify to
the court. This is often done in chambers
in the presence of the judge and counsel
only (not the parents). This testimony is on
the record but being out of the presence of
the parents is intended to allow the child to
speak more freely.
Children also have the right to be repre-
sented by an attorney during a custody and
parenting time proceeding.
Another option is to reach out to the
other party to see if family counseling is
possible.
In closing, there is no substitute for
having a longer discussion of your situa-
tion(s) and goals with a competent attorney.
With a fuller discussion, an attorney can
provide you with a greater understanding
of what to expect during a modification and
your chances of success at a trial.
———
Blaine Clooten is an attorney serving
Umatilla County with a focus on family law,
estate planning and personal injury cases.
Questions answered do not create an attor-
ney-client relationship. Facts and law may
vary; talk to an attorney for more information.