CHAPTER 17 HOME TOWN NEWS

Most of this TRAMAN covers your responsibilities associated with keeping the public informed about its Navy. This chapter progresses along the same lines but focuses on the methods you use to gather and release hometown news about the men and women of the U.S. Navy.

Navy people, not unlike their civilian counterparts, have a desire to be appreciated - to have their achievements and contributions noticed and praised The Navy's Fleet Home Town News Program provides the most effective and economical means for you to release information about individual sea service members to their hometown news media (fig. 17-1). Your participation in the program also produces the following ancillary benefits:

Improved command retention

Improved recruiting Navy-wide

Increased command readiness through the recognition of its people

Increased public awareness of the sea services through news stories about the services' education, training and operational missions

Increased individual and unit morale

The Fleet Home Town News Program is administered by the Fleet Home Town News Center (FHTNC). Further information about the FHTNC and the Fleet Home Town News Program is provided in the following text.

THE FLEET HOME TOWN NEWS CENTER

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Identify the responsibilities of the Fleet Home Town News Center (FHTNC).

Since 1945, the responsibility for processing and distributing hometown news releases has rested with the FHTNC. Located at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, the Center is a field activity of CHINFO. In effect, it acts as a clearinghouse for the sea services by editing, reproducing and mailing homeowners to the media in communities throughout the United States, American Samoa, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (In 1992, the Center stopped sending releases to the Republic of the Philippines upon the departure of U.S. forces.)

Through a mutual agreement with the Commandants of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard, the instructions and policies of the FHTNC apply to all Marine Corps and Coast Guard commands, organizations and activities participating in the Fleet Home Town News Program.

You should keep in mind that the Fleet Home Town News Program is not optional for your command - it is required by Instructions and Policy Concerning Fleet Home Town News Program, SECNAVINST 5724.3 series. Make sure you examine this instruction in its entirety.

CLIENTS

Hometown media are the "clients" of the FHTNC, including newspapers, radio and television stations and special interest publications. They neither pay for stories, nor are they obligated to use the material. However, since they must request the material in order to receive it, most of the clients do use it.

NOTE: You may not mail hometown news material directly to the media, unless interested media have

specifically requested it. SECNAVINST 5724.3 series emphasizes that all hometown news, other than specifically authorized exceptions, must be forwarded via the FHTNC.

The authorized exceptions are as follows:

l Material prepared by recruit training commands concerning special recruit units may be forwarded directly to the activity for placement in local media, when requested by the recruiting activity that enlisted the unit.

l Hometown news material concerning a member of a command whose hometown is in the immediate geographic area (generally within 50 miles) of the command may be placed directly with local media. This provision also may include media in communities where the

Figure 17-1. - Fleet Home Town News Program news clippings.

command maintains direct contact, such as USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) with Los Angeles, California. In the case of a namesake ship program, commands should receive guidance from the appropriate NAVINFO.

Hometown news feature material may be provided directly to any news media making requests for information on specific individuals, subject to the instructions of appropriate operational or other higher echelon commanders governing media relations. Normally, such requests will be coordinated with the appropriate service headquarters or NAVINFO before release.

SURVEYS

It is the policy of the FHTNC not to send unsolicited releases to the media. Therefore, the Center periodically surveys all potential media clients in the United States and its territories. Those news media editors who want to receive hometown news releases must indicate this on the FHINC survey form.

A recent media survey revealed the following statistics: l 96 percent always or sometimes use award releases; 84 percent always use them. l 96 percent always or sometimes use promotion releases; 77 percent always use them. l 93 percent always or sometimes use school graduation releases; 78 percent always use them. l 72 percent get feedback from their readers/audience about releases; 98 percent describe that feedback as positive.