Community Corner

West Word Paper Future Uncertain

Neighborhood publication could face loss of funding over article content.

The future of Easton's West Word newspaper is up in the air, due to a disagreement between its staff and its sponsor over the publication's direction.

Managing editor Ghen Zando-Dennis said she fears the paper could either lose its funding or have its leadership replaced next month.

Launched in 2010, The West Word is funded by the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership and its parent organization, the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley.

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Dennis said the aim of the paper is to tear down "the myth that the West Ward is only a drug addled and crime riddled neighborhood."

Earlier this month, the paper learned that CACLV wanted to begin editing its content. That led to an e-mail exchange—forwarded to Patch by the West Word—between the CACLV's Alan Jennings and West Word writer Julie Zando-Dennis that ended with her saying the CACLV had no right to control editorial content, and Jennings saying he'd recommend funding to the paper be cut.

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Speaking to the Express-Times, Jennings said it was up to the WWNP steering committee to decide whether The West Word would be defunded, or given new leadership.

It’s pretty neat, and I think they’ve done a nice job, but their reporting has not emphasized enough of the good about the West Ward and the services that are available and that kind of thing,” Jennings said.

In the same e-mail exchange, Jennings argued the mission of the paper is to bring businesses, homeowners and other investors into the West Ward.

Ghen Zando-Dennis said when the paper prepared to launch in 2009, its mission was somewhat different: "to advance the long-term goals of the West Ward, such as safety, community cohesion, and neighborhood pride."

She said she'd heard complaints about two stories: One dealt with Kathy Kulig, a West Ward resident and scientist who also writes erotic fiction.

The other was a detailed, and critical, look at Lafayette College's NEA-funded Art of Urban Environments festival, titled "The Art of Disaster."

Mayor Sal Panto was quoted in the Express-Times Saturday expressing his objection to both stories -- the former was too racy, the latter he said should have been labeled as opinon. He also said he doesn't want to see The West Word go away.

Zando-Dennis said that although the Kulig profile talked about her fiction, it also dealt with her ties to the West Ward, and her restoration of a historic home there.

"The paper’s always been focused on giving a portrait of the pepople who live here," she said.

As for the "Art of Disaster" story, she argued that the paper had given everyone involved the chance to tell their side of the story.

The WWNP's next steering committee meeting is scheduled for early next month. If the committee does decide to launch another paper, it won't be called The West Word, said Zando-Dennis.

"Someone can start another one," she said. "They can’t have this one."


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