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Changing of the Guard

The arrival of a new editor shakes things up at the Denver Post.

A A A Comments By Michael Roberts Thursday, May 9 2002

To Russia, with love: As if Dean Singleton doesn't have enough on his plate, consider that his extracurricular activities include serving as an envoy of sorts for President George W. Bush.

Singleton, a Texan by birth who's a friend and supporter of Bush's, says his current assignment has its roots in a meeting late last year at the President's Crawford, Texas, ranch between W. and Russian frontman Vladimir Putin. At that time, Putin asked for U.S. help in analyzing Russia's radio, television and newspaper infrastructure.

Stop the presses: Greg Moore is the new Denver Post editor.

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"They wanted us to guide them to making their press economically viable, which by and large it isn't today," Singleton maintains. "The press is largely propped up by government subsidies, and President Putin acknowledges that's not a good situation long-term for a real democracy."

To attack this issue, the Newspaper Association of America, under the leadership of Singleton -- who was elected the organization's chairman last month -- teamed up with the National Association of Broadcasters to devise a strategy under the supervision of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"We began our due diligence in January, and I spent a week in Moscow in March," Singleton says. "We met with the cabinet minister in charge of communications. And a group of volunteers from newspaper, TV and radio will go back later this month when President Bush is there, and we'll have a dialogue about how to go to the next phase. We've identified the problems, and now we're putting together a plan to identify the solutions -- to decide how we help them transform a press that is free in one sense but is not standing on its own economically."

To Singleton, this mission is as fascinating as it is unexpected. "I remember as a child having to climb under desks for bomb alerts because we thought the Russians were going to drop nuclear bombs on us. And here we were at the Kremlin talking to a Russian cabinet minister. It sends chills down your spine to think about."

Today, Denver. Tomorrow, the world.