Credible news Windspeaker's stock in trade

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Fifteen years marks a long life in the world of business. If a business is also a newspaper, and something other than a general circulation newspaper at that, 15 years and in the black is a real cause for celebration. Windspeaker has just marked its 15th birthday, though it's probably more appropriate to call it an anniversary. An anniversary for both Windspeaker and the organization responsible for its birth and development - the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA).Windspeaker, which also carried the name of AMMSA for the first couple of years of its life, is still AMMSA's flagship publication, but the organization has added one radio station and three more publications to its media family.

Since March 18, 1983, when the AMMSA idea was born and the first copy of the newspaper - then a weekly - was published, the family has grown. CFWE - The Native Perspective, an FM Aboriginal radio station was launched, then along came the Aboriginal newspaper for Alberta, Alberta Sweetgrass . Quite recently, Saskatchewan Sage and Raven's Eye (the Aboriginal newspapers of Saskatchewan and British Columbia, respectively) came on stream. As in any other successful family there's a lot more than luck involved. In order for all the elements to work requires good planning, commitment of time and resources, and just plain hard work.

Bert Crowfoot, who has been AMMSA CEO and publisher of Windspeaker since the society's inception, knows from earlier experience with papers which have not survived that success is far more than just chance. It's a sure thing that difficulties will arise, and Windspeaker has encountered its share, including the loss of government funding, turnover of staff and competition for the same audience from other newspapers. Crowfoot also believes that a newpaper must be operated in a business-like fashion. That's why he aims for a lean organization, he said. Everything at AMMSA is "run as efficiently as possible" and he feels that the newspapers all have "good staff."

Crowfoot also gives a lot of credit for Windspeaker's survival to the AMMSA Board of Directors.

"We've always had a good board," he said. "A strong board, which has remained independent, but also responsible. We have high standards, and that's another of the reasons we've been successful."

Noel McNaughton, on the Board of Directors for AMMSA since the summer of 1984, feels that a board development workshop held early in Windspeaker's career had a lot to do with the paper's continued success.

At that development workshop, board members developed a mission statement to which they continue to remain true:

The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society is an independent Aboriginal communications society established to facilitate the exchange of information reflecting Aboriginal people and their cultures to a growing and diverse audience with sensitivity and respect. AMMSA remains dedicated to providing a co-operative and supportive atmosphere which empowers its members, clients and staff to reach their full potential in the constant pursuit of excellence in all endeavors.

McNaughton puts particular importance on the part of the mission statement that identifies financial independence. This, they felt was "in order to be safe and in order to be an example to other Native organizations." The idea of being "safe" had to do with survival in the face of government cutbacks and changes in funding. Sure enough, within a few years, government funding was cut, and not just a portion, but 100 per cent. If the paper had not been prepared for such a situation, it would possibly not have survived.

"In my experience of business," he said, "if you don't have something other than the bottom line, it's difficult to succeed."

McNaughton said he's served on many boards, and AMMSA has been his "very favorite" board experience.

McNaughton and Crowfoot also have high standards and have worked hard to maintain a balanced perspective. For Crowfoot this means balanced reporting and a independent news and editorial policy. Inevitably, governments and advertisers have tried to control editorial content, but the paper has remained independent, as well as responsible.

An early editorial by former editor Laurent Roy puts some of this philosophy into words. He wrote on April 29, 1983, "To be fully responsible, we firmly believe that skepticism is the hallmark of journalism." He also wrote that it is the responsibility of the print media to "seek truth [as well as to] question established values and conventional wisdom."

Another conviction he proclaims in the same editorial is that the press "must have credibility . . . [must] make a painstaking effort to achieve accuracy in the reporting of factual material and must be worthy of public trust." This certainly demonstrates the "high standards" Crowfoot talks about

For McNaughton, the high standards come into play in the effort the board takes to have balanced representation. The requirements are established beforehand; when anyone leaves the board, the remaining board members decide what credentials they will need in a new member, considering such things as location and gender, as well as special abilities and experience, in order to keep that balance. Then they advertise very specifically. They also commit to being a "policy board, not a management board," expressing their confidence in Bert Crowfoot and the AMMSA staff.