Politics & Government

Haddonfield Sun Paid by Borough to Write Newsletter

The company that owns the Sun publishes several other SJ weekly papers.

The company that publishes the Haddonfield Sun newspaper has also been paid for the past 11 months by Haddonfield for media services, which include writing the biweekly borough newsletter.

Haddonfield Patch discovered the unusual arrangement today when it was listed as an agenda item in the borough commissioner’s meeting tonight.  The contract, renewed yearly, is up for review.

When asked for a comment on the arrangement, Alan Bauer, the general manager and editor of the Sun had this to say:

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“Yes, it absolutely is a conflict of interest,” said Bauer, whose company, Elauwit Media, also publishes weekly newspapers in Moorestown, Medford, Mount Laurel and Evesham. Bauer responded to questions in two e-mails and said the company did not have this arrangement in any other town.

“I’ve never seen an arrangement where a governing body would pay a private publication to write and/or disseminate general news information that media outlets publish for free as part of their general news coverage,” Bauer said. “We got involved because we don’t think borough taxpayers deserve to be stuck with this bill.

Find out what's happening in Haddonfield-Haddon Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“We submitted a low bid, by historic standards, of somewhere around $7,200–less if 'miscellaneous' items were not included. And we will be donating all of the money we bill under the contract back to residents. At the end of our contract, we will ask them how they want the money to be donated—presumably to a nonprofit/charitable group or groups—and we will follow their lead. It’s not exactly 'free' to taxpayers under this system, but at least some good will come from the money.”

Borough officials said Elauwit has been paid $3,821.50 to date. Bauer said his records show $2,180 in payments. Bauer did not indicate if any money has been given to a charity yet.

He said the Sun’s readers have been made aware of the arrangement and it has published letters from readers about it. Borough Administrator Sharon McCullough said local officials were also initially concerned about the arrangement.

“This is under Commissioner (Ed) Borden’s portfolio,” McCollough said. “He and I met with Alan several times to talk about distinguishing the difference between borough writings and the newspaper.”

 Bauer said he addressed the borough’s concern by building “a wall between our news coverage of the borough and this service.”

“I am the point person in dealing with the borough on these matters,” Bauer said. “The associate editor who is responsible for covering Haddonfield, determining what stories to write, what events to cover, etc., has nothing to do with performing the services under the contract.”

Bauer is listed as the Haddonfield Sun’s chief editorial officer and said the associate editor who covers Haddonfield reports to him. He had this to say about a new contract with the borough:

“We’ll look at the RFP and decide where we want to go from there,” he said, referring to a new Request For Proposal from the borough. “It’s just too early to say, and we need more information about what the borough will include in a new contract. That said, and I hope you will include at least some of this in your story, I’ve found the commissioners easy to work with, and I think we’ve made progress in some areas, such as the utilization of social media.”

 McCullough said Haddonfield does not have a media officer and has contracted news-writing services out for the past 15 years. The Gumnut Group, the publisher of monthly newspapers in Haddonfield and Collingswood, previously had the contract. McCullough said Gumnut describes its papers as "more of a calendar of events."


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