For military readers, Times marches on

From the battlefields in Iraq to the corridors of power in Washington, Tobias Naegele, AS ’85, has seen his share of controversy in recent years.

Naegele, editor-in-chief of the Army Times Publishing Co., has led the military newspaper group’s detailed coverage of such events as the invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003 and the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in November 2006. Just before that resignation, the publishing company made headlines of its own with an editorial calling on Rumsfeld to step down.

Naegele, who earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies at UD, heads a staff of about 110 full-time employees, including editorial staff and photographers, with bureaus in San Diego, San Antonio, London and the Middle East. He joined the company in 1992 as editor of Navy Times and became editor-in-chief of the Army Times Publishing Co. in 2002.

The Gannett Co.-owned group based in Springfield, Va., includes print and online editions of Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times, known collectively as the Military Times Media Group, and five other publications.

“Our main focus is to serve active-duty military personnel,” Naegele says. “We also serve people who have grown up in a military family or served in the military and have a passion for military history and the things the military does.”

His blueprint for leading the newspapers’ coverage of the Iraq invasion earned him Gannett’s top honors for 2003, the President’s Ring and Editor-of-the-Year awards. In a press release announcing the awards, Naegele was cited for “exceptional editorial vision and leadership that resulted in distinguished print and online coverage of the war in Iraq by the Military Times staff.”

“We had the experience in covering the troops, including knowledge of the equipment and how the system works, so we coordinated our efforts with USA Today and the Gannett News Service,” Naegele says. “We pulled together as many thoughts on the matter as we could, and we ended up sending about 10 reporters and photographers, who became embedded with Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine units.”

From Iraq, reporters filed stories with a pair of editors based in the war theatre bureau in Qatar, who fed them to USA Today for print and online publication.

“Newspapers are automatically behind the curve, especially when the story is changing that fast,” Naegele says of today’s competitive news business, which includes 24-hour cable-television and online outlets. “Because of our coverage, we were able to feed real-time news to our news system. We maximized our audience and reached 1 million people. That made a difference. Our photographs were appearing on front-page stories in newspapers across the country. It was an exciting time for our staff, and the little Army Times was not so little anymore.”

Perhaps the most controversial decision made during Naegele’s watch as editor-in-chief was the publication of an editorial calling on President Bush to replace Rumsfeld as defense secretary. Published just a few days before the national election, the editorial said, in part, “This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go.”

“We were following coverage where an increasing voice of active-duty and retired military were saying that a fresh start was needed in Iraq,” Naegele says. “Rumsfeld was a polarizing figure. The time had come.”

The editorial was timed so that most readers wouldn’t see it in print until after the election, although it appeared online on Nov. 3, Naegele says. It attracted widespread attention but was not well-received by all readers of the military newspapers.

“The editorial generated a fair amount of anger and 127 subscription cancellations,” Naegele says. “On the other hand, we had a 74 percent spike in online orders, which more than made up for the cancellations.”

Naegele traces his news philosophy to his time at UD, where he initially was eyeing a career as a sportswriter. Instead, he says, he ended up covering student affairs before becoming news and editorial editor and eventually editor-in-chief of the student-run newspaper, The Review, in 1983.

“During my second semester, I heard all these people talking about how they wanted to cover sports,” Naegele says. “After class, I went over to some of the editors of The Review and found out that I would have more of an opportunity to write for the paper by covering other things like students affairs and news.”

Naegele also recalls the impact former journalism professor Chuck Stone had on his academic and professional careers.

It was Stone’s belief, Naegele says, that journalists should concentrate on the local angle in keeping readers informed about unfolding events.

“Chuck emphasized that you put the reader first and cover the news from the reader’s vantage point,” he says. “Focusing on what is important to the reader has been my guiding principle ever since. The mission of our news organization is looking out for the little guy. We can make a difference in people’s lives.”

—Jerry Rhodes, AS ’04