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MiG Alley Flyer may go digital in '07

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brok McCarthy
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  An Air Force Smart Operations-21 initiative will result in changes in the tradition of the weekly base newspaper.

Osan's newspaper, The MiG Alley Flyer, is currently scheduled to be printed through March 2007. Wing leadership is considering options whether to continue to print the paper as it currently exits or to make the transition to bringing the base news through the base's home page.

"Transitioning to a completely online news source has a number of benefits for the Osan community," said Maj. Michael Shavers, 51st Fighter Wing public affairs chief. "Those include news in near real time, so when something happens, the base can know about it within hours rather than having to wait until Friday. It will also save the base more than $79,000 annually in printing costs."

However, being able to pick up a paper at many locations around the base has benefits, Shavers admits. There are people who don't have easy access to computers at home or work and would find it harder to get news if the print newspaper went away.

"With the new Web management system, we can post content to Air Force Web sites within eight minutes," said Chief Master Sgt. Janice Conner, the Air Force Public Affairs enlisted career field manager. "This decreases the time between when an article is complete and when it's released from three to 10 days to within minutes."

Air Force newspapers have been published at many bases for more than 50 years. Civilian publishers print many of them under contract, using Air Force-generated content and keeping the advertising revenue. Other, like Osan's, are paid for out of wing funds.

A civilian publisher can continue to produce a newspaper for a base, but no longer under contract with the Air Force. The publisher will pull content from the base's public Web site and other sources.

Air Force wide, fewer people are picking up their base newspaper each week; surveys have shown the number of people who read every issue fell from 57 percent in 1994 to 38 percent in 2004.

The online newspaper initiative was developed by a working group using Air Force Smart Operations-21 principles. The group was chartered by Air Force Public Affairs to determine the best way to deliver Air Force news in view of personnel reductions.

The group determined that each Air Force newspaper cost around 40 man-hours per week in page design and approval, making newspaper production a target for work savings. Eliminating the weekly product would allow a news staff to devote time to producing more and better news coverage, the group concluded.

"The beauty of base-level online news is the timeliness and worldwide accessibility of information," Chief Conner said. "Combine the ability to merge the multimedia capabilities of photographs, streaming video, audio news and features, plus graphics and links to other Air Force features, and we have a true multimedia experience all in one source -- the wing commander's No. 1 internal-information tool."

(Senior Master Sgt. Terry Somerville contributed to this article)