nwasianweekly.com
Oct. 6, 2007

Northwest Weekly file photo

Publisher Assunta Ng (center) enjoys cultivating friendships with people from competing news organizations. She is seen here in 2000 with former Seattle Times reporters and Pulitzer Prize winners Alex Tizon (left) and Eric Nalder.

Rewriting rules in dealing with “enemies”

By Assunta Ng
Northwest Asian Weekly

Editor’s note: This is part 13 in a continuing series by the publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post. The newspapers are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year.

No one in their right mind would give awards to competitors. But I did...

In Chinese culture, those who are in the same business are considered your enemies. I don’t have killer instincts like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who knows how to play hardball in eliminating his competitors. The common rule is to crush and blast your rivals whenever there is a chance. Seize the moments to magnify their weaknesses and hide their merits 90 percent of the time.

Was I insane or stupid to recognize our rivals?

On the other hand, there are no rules that restrict us from congratulating others for doing a fine job, encouraging them to do good for the community or just treating them like human beings.

This is a free country, I often remind myself. Anybody can start a newspaper now that desktop publishing is so accessible, cheap and easy to master. You might not believe that I actually enjoy having competition. Some of my most satisfying moments were when our competitors copied what we did. During the last 25 years as publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post, I have recognized that my competitors have frequently used our ideas and even which day they chose to publish. Strange how most local Chinese newspapers print on Thursday like us. What a coincidence that other publications have columns and stories similar to ours! Need I ask for more when readers notice that we are the first in creating the content? That’s our payoff. Establishing ourselves in a leadership role in the community is good enough for us.

Only by comparison does a reader realize our hard work and capabilities. Few expressed appreciation when we began in 1982, though we labored day and night. Most criticized us for being a thin and small-sized newspaper. Ironically, we were bestowed with praises when the second Chinese paper, printed in Metro-size, arrived in the community five years later. By all means, the rival at the time, now defunct, was a better-looking paper. However, it lacked support and acceptance from the community.

Today, there are many Chinese newspapers in Seattle’s market and most are Metro-sized. But readers keep telling us that our content in both newspapers, though different, is not only “richer but unbiased and fairer” than other Asian and Chinese papers.

Mentoring competitors

What would you do if your people betrayed you and stole your customers? Would you tear them apart or get even? I did neither. I was nicer and much more generous than you probably think.
It is ironic that we groomed our own competitors during our first decade. Three of our staff left us at different times and started their own publications, all of which have since gone out of business. The one I was proud of was an English-language magazine for military families that our former editor started. Others, however, were Chinese publications aimed at our customers. I had to fire one of those employees; however, I granted him a free advertisement in our paper announcing his intent to start a printing business and, later, other publications, which folded after a while.

Was I foolish to help him? Years later, when his nephew won our essay contest and came to the award ceremony to receive the cash prize, his relatives thought I didn’t recognize them. Actually, I was happy for the refugee family for raising a fine writer.

The difference between now and then was, when we started, we were the first and only Chinese newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. Now, we have as many as eight Chinese publications on the market. Despite many of our competitors trying to confuse themselves with us to the readers, I still consider myself lucky compared to the rising number of Asian restaurants and grocery stores in the Greater Seattle area fighting neck and neck.

Among the many Asian papers, we are still unique—the only company which publishes a Pan-Asian weekly and a Chinese paper simultaneously, with a separate readership.

No hidden agenda

The Asian Weekly and Chinese Post are American newspapers despite our Asian American angles. We practice democracy and freedom of speech and follow the principles of American journalism. Our mission is to inspire, connect with our readers and, hopefully, advance them to another level.

If my staff and I are personally connected to a story, we disclose any conflict of interest. There are a lot of people whom I disagree with personally, but they are frequently seen in our papers. On the other hand, people I agree with don’t necessarily appear in the papers. As professionals, we make sure that we present people we disagree with fairly, which is just the opposite in some Asian papers.

A couple of Asian papers even over-credit their silent partners in stories or give them excessive photo opportunities in several issues, without acknowledging anywhere in the papers that they are actually major investors in the papers. Such inappropriate behavior would upset readers and violate their trust if they knew.

It is obvious some Asian papers not only print sources that they agree with, but boost them to the extreme, and sanction those who disagree with their views.

One writer for another Asian publication admitted to me that he didn’t know how he was supposed to handle a controversial issue because he knows where his publisher stands, and he wasn’t comfortable siding with him. For us, printing opposing views is just like taking our daily shower.

Since my sons were little, they were aware that they were not eligible to participate in the Asian Weekly Foundation’s art and essay contests for youth nor any of our youth scholarship programs. The only program I let them participate in was the Summer Youth Leadership Program, and they gave me valuable feedback for future improvement. Actually, I had to convince them hard to join the program.

Because they are my sons, I was uncomfortable featuring them in our newspapers even if they had received a major recognition in school. My relative had argued many times that I was being unfair to my own kids. I recall her words: “You would have printed the story if they were not your own children!”

It is interesting that both Democratic and Republican Asians have courted my son to their partisan events. They figured that if they could not have my endorsement, at least they could have my son’s. After he turned 21, I never dictated him to do or not do certain things such as politics. Yet, when they asked him casually to sign and endorse a candidate, the last thing I expected from him was, “I think I better check with my mom.” And he did. Since we are politically neutral and independent newspapers, my son was concerned about the implications of his endorsement for the Asian Weekly.  

Complex relationship with mainstream media

We are usually friendly towards the mainstream media except one time…

In 1997, the Asian Weekly became the story because the rooftop of our building, the Kokusai Theater, which housed two restaurants, collapsed after an earthquake. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The roaring fall aroused the attention of the media.

A few minutes later, KIRO Chopper 7 was circling over the disaster site. A KIRO reporter and cameraman knocked on our door for an interview upon learning that we were the owners of the building.

A crisis had hit us, and these guys just barged in. What lousy timing as we were trying to grapple with what happened! Never in my life had I shoved visitors out of our office. This time, I had to do the unthinkable.

“I helped you people many times before, leave us alone this time,” I demanded. They left quietly without any objection.
Since then, I have learned not to force my way in to talk to victims. I might not have the first scoop, as in the story about an Asian accused of stabbing a white guy to death at Ocean Shores. But I was the only reporter who interviewed the father of the accused in-depth. It was gratifying that he trusted us and could talk freely to us after his son was found innocent, and that he had a chance to express gratitude for the support of the Asian community. We remain competitive when fighting for stories. A satisfying moment was when a Seattle Times reporter told me that she found an Asian Weekly story in the Seattle P-I. You can call it luck that the Asian Weekly was the first to break news and other papers followed.

What is chocolate to us is when community members decide to give us the scoop! Some of those people were Dolores Sibonga, when she announced she was not running for re-election for Seattle City Council; Christine Chen, when she resigned from KCPQ; Mary Yu, when she was selected as Washington State Trial Judge of the Year; and Bob Santos, when he retired. Some deliberately waited until Wednesday to break the news to the mainstream, like Mona Locke when she announced her new career, and Ron Chew, who resigned as executive director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum, so that the Asian Weekly’s story could come out the same day as the mainstream presses’ on Thursday. We thank you for trusting the Asian Weekly, and forever, we are grateful.

Honoring competitors

For sure, there are no rules written that say I cannot honor my counterparts. In 1991, the Northwest Asian Weekly picked Bob Shimabukuro, editor of the International Examiner, as one of the Top Contributors for his work in AIDS. In 1994, the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation honored Seattle Post-Intelligencer executive editor Ken Bunting, an African American, for breaking the glass ceiling. In 2003, Women of Color Empowered, a group that the Asian Weekly founded, honored Carolyn Kelly, president of the Seattle Times, and Mae Numata, its chief financial officer at the time. In 2005, the Asian Weekly honored Frank Irigon, who was a board member of the Examiner, and Alma Kern, publisher of the Filipino American Herald, last year.

Of all people, why honor our rivals? Over the years, many of these individuals have become our friends.

Although these honorees were connected with other newspapers, many of them Asian papers, we were able to see them in a different light. Journalists depict themselves as being objective. To me, this has to do with a sense of detachment. In many circumstances, I am able to step back and break away from the baggage of reacting as their competitor. In my eyes, they are activists carrying strong convictions and performing righteous actions.

The mainstream papers have even invited me as an equal to their table for community dialogues. Puget Sound Business Journal gave me an award and profiled me as a Woman of Influence in the Puget Sound area. Thanks for the honor and memory.

“I am sorry”

When I apologized in the newspapers a few weeks ago, one reader was shocked. “I made several mistakes in life, but I have never apologized,” he said.

Does it give our foes the excuse to hold mistakes against us? It might, but it is more important to think big than to be petty.

Being in the newspaper business, it is essential to admit mistakes. To err is human. Willing to run corrections is not going to hurt us, though some Asian newspapers have resisted doing so. One of the most respected newspapers in America, the New York Times, has courageously displayed corrections on its front page. Corrections actually enhance a paper’s relationship with its community. It projects that the newspaper is fair, values accuracy and wants to do the right thing.

“I am sorry” are three very powerful words. They can melt arguments, defuse anger and tensions, and restore goodwill. I learn that it works not only in dealing with clients, but between husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, and among friends. Don’t be afraid to use those words when you have done someone wrong. Never think in terms of losing face or pride when you utter them. Just remember that the closure you can achieve in conflicts can save so much heartache, time and energy, revive relationships and the ability to help both parties heal, move on and focus on better things.

At this point, you might think that a newspaper can play the role of a mediator. This is not the case. We should just report and not be a judge. We are politically neutral. We should report and not take sides. Mediators would demand the conflicting parties to give and take. And whoever is giving and taking in the negotiation might gain more than the other party. What we can do is to witness the mediation or vote count in an election so as to ensure that procedures and processes are done fairly. Our mission is to cover the event so that the public can find out what really happens.

Assunta Ng can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

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