After five months, Register stops the presses

Severe funding shortfalls and mounting debt forced Craven County’s alternative biweekly newspaper to announce Wednesday, Jan. 25 that it will suspend publication for at least six months.

After printing the newspaper regularly since Sept. 27, 2005, Independent Register co-publishers Corey Friedman, William R. Toler and Eric Voliva said the gutsy newspaper with all-local content and few advertisements has become prohibitively expensive to produce.

"I don’t want to hear people say, ‘They ended this on their own terms,’" Friedman said. "That would be an insult, because this is a deplorable choice that I feel we have been forced to make. The money just isn’t there. We can’t afford to live or pay our electric bill, and we can’t afford to print the newspaper."

With publication of the twice-monthly broadsheet newspaper halted, the Independent Register will continue to operate a Web site, www.indieregister.com, and update the newspaper’s blog.

Co-publishers have tentatively scheduled an Independent Register summit for Aug. 22, after which they will announce whether the paper will resume publication in 2006.

Including the premiere issue, the Independent Register has published nine editions. In its pages, the newspaper tackled thorny and sometimes controversial local issues, including Craven Regional Medical Center’s lack of trauma center designation, a Bangert Elementary School student’s suspension on what her mother claims were religious grounds and radio self-censorship under threat of stiff Federal Communications Commission penalties.

"It has always been the mission of this newspaper to provide a voice to the voiceless citizen and to inspire honest and vigorous debate," Friedman, Toler and Voliva said in a joint statement. "We hope our departure will make residents see the dire need for an alternative publication in this community, and we hope we will have another opportunity to meet that need."

This edition speaks for itself

For Tony

I know it's not Oriental, but I figured you might like it anyway.

It was taken during the final minutes of sunset, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006.

The boats seen are in the Shereton Harbor on the Trent River in New Bern.

An Inside Look

[Note: Following entry can be seen with photos in the next issue of the Independent Register, which will begin to hit newsracks the afternoon Jan. 17 ]

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning.

There are three computers on.

Behind three desks littered with notebooks, miscellaneous papers and caffeinated beverages sit three sleep-deprived young men.

For the co-publishers of the Independent Register, this is a common occurrence.

Corey Friedman, editor, scratches his head and stares — sometimes shouting profanities — at his computer screen, trying to work out a lede for one of the "umpteen" news stories or editorials in his section. Two weeks worth of press releases and notes from various news events wait their turn to be compiled into their final form.

Sports Editor Eric Voliva, meanwhile, is in his room/office playing back coach quotes from a recent high school game on a microcassette recorder. Elated from a recent Carolina Panthers victory, he gathers national sports scores in a spreadsheet for his back page. Later, he will poll the other two for their picks on a sampling of upcoming games and to select players for their fantasy football teams.

Walking in from the cool night air after his hourly smoke break, self proclaimed "jack of all trades, master of jack" Features Editor William R. Toler sits down at his desk to prepare local band listings, transfer pictures and figure out ad placement.

The end result of two weeks of gathering, a weekend of writing and designing and a trip to Morehead City is a copy of the alternative newspaper you now hold in your hands.

The lads cut their teeth on various media outlets before coming together on their current venture. The tie that bound them together was the experience of working on the Campus Communicator (affectionately referred to as "the Commie") at Craven Community College. Their writing, photography and layout skills developed as they worked their way up becoming the top editors of the monthly publication.

Toler took over layout of the Campus Communicator — which had previously been done by a desktop publishing class — in November of 2002. During 2003, he also assisted in ad design for Dad’s Magazine and interned for the morning television show "A.M. Scuttlebutt." In addition, he served as historian for the state chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, a national collegiate business organization. His main duty was to design two issues of the chapter’s newsletter, the Heartbeat of PBL. With the stress of television and other school related activities, Toler resigned from the Commie, only to return as managing editor a year later.

Friedman served as editor of the Campus Communicator for one year after a year of reporting. In addition, he worked part-tme as a general assignment reporter for the Sun Journal. He began as a freelance columnist while in high school, moving on to become a freelance sportswriter, and was hired for part-time employment following a summer internship. He also worked for the local public access station C-TV 10 and freelanced for the short-lived publication Wheelhouse Magazine.

Following two months of sports writing for the Commie, Voliva took over as production manager after Toler’s departure. When CCC’s administration ceased the work-study payment of the position, he joined the Pamlico News as a sportswriter. During the summer, while high school sports were on hiatus, the aspiring novelist served as a journeyman reporter covering local government and writing features.

After the dishes are washed, the laundry is done and the bills are paid, Friedman, Voliva and Toler say that they strive to put out a publication that provides Craven County with accurate information and gives citizens an open forum for the free exchange of ideas.

FCC crackdown intimidates local broadcasters

George Carlin has his famous list of seven words you can't say on television. Strangely, the Federal Communications Commission, the agency responsible for regulating TV and radio broadcasts, has no such list.

Letting a four-letter word slip out over the airwaves isn't against the law, assistant program directors for local radio stations told the Independent Register. The FCC does ban "indecency," but the agency never elaborates on just what constitutes indecency.

The result is broadcasters grow ever more timid and lapse further into self-censorship. Two assistant program directors from Beasley Broadcast Group stations told us they've grown more cautious since the FCC announced its clampdown on media indecency.

It seems to us -- we wrote in a Jan. 4 editorial -- that if the FCC is going to enforce its anachronistic code of morality and censor citizens' speech, the least it could do is give folks a clear answer on what is and isn't allowed.

Read more about this fascinating and complex issue in "You can't say [CENSORED] on the radio," a front-page news feature in the Jan. 4 edition of the Independent Register.

The free broadsheet newspaper is available at more than 25 Craven County locations. For the distribution point nearest you, call (252) 633-2757.