NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 6

Editor's Note by Scott Sutherland

Executive Editor, NFPA Journal

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

A New Reality for News?
efore arriving at NFPA
Journal, I was a newspaper
guy. I'd spent a good part
of my career working my
way through the ecology of
newsprint: community shopper, alt weekly,
business tab, big-city daily. In most ways,
I'm still a newspaper guy.
So it was with an added dose of shock and
dismay-the clichés with which I seem to
encounter so much news at the moment-
that I learned of a shooting at the Capital
Gazette, a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland,
as this issue of the magazine was going to
press. A local man named Jarrod Ramos, who
had unsuccessfully sued the paper for defamation after he was convicted of harrassment
in 2011, shot through the glass door to the
newspaper's offices and took aim at employees, killing five and wounding several others
before surrendering to police. Phil Davis, a
crime reporter for the paper, hid under his
desk, listening to the shots. "There is nothing
more terrifying than hearing multiple people
get shot while you're under your desk and
then hear the gunman reload," he wrote on
Twitter shortly after the incident.
For years, I've marveled that newspapers,
and media outlets in general around the
country, weren't targeted more often by this

ART DIRECTOR

kind of violence. Considering how angry
the news business can make people, for so
many reasons, and considering the almost
non-existent security surrounding the
offices and studios where the news media
conduct their work, it seemed miraculous to
me that aggrieved parties like Jarrod Ramos
weren't launching attacks on a weekly basis.
Much of the rest of the world hasn't been so
fortunate; in 2015, 12 people were killed by
gunmen at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a
satirical magazine in Paris.
This issue of Journal includes an overview ("Safe and Secure," page 18) of a recent
NFPA workshop where participants discussed how to balance security challenges in
buildings with fire and life safety concerns.
Sandy Hook Elementary School, for example, was considered secure, but all it took
for a gunman to breach that security was to
shoot out a glass wall. These are the kinds
of conversations that are occurring in the
context of the just-released NFPA 3000™
(PS), Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response
(ASHER) Program. They're also the kinds of
conversations media companies large and
small will need to have, to address what may
be a new security reality for the industry.
I hope that's not the case. But the news
guy in me is preparing for the worst.

THE NFPA JOURNAL MISSION It is the mission of NFPA Journal to provide
NFPA members and other stakeholders with important information on fire,
electrical, and life safety topics and on issues related to NFPA's codes and
standards development, education initiatives, and advocacy efforts. We will
do this by identifying stories that are relevant and timely for our readers; upholding the highest journalistic standards of thoroughness and accuracy; and
conveying that information in an attractive, well-designed publication across
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of the contributors and does not necessarily represent the official position of
NFPA; the meaning and intent of NFPA codes and standards can be obtained
only through NFPA's published procedures for requesting formal interpretations. The contents of this magazine may not be reprinted without the written
permission of NFPA. NFPA Journal is a registered trademark of NFPA.

6 | NFPA JOURNAL * J U L Y /A U G U S T 2 0 1 8

Scott Sutherland
ssutherland@nfpa.org

NFPA JOURNAL
An award-winning
member of Association
Media & Publishing

Doug Sternberg
dsternberg@nfpa.org
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jesse Roman
jroman@nfpa.org
STAFF WRITER

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averzoni@nfpa.org
PRODUCTION MANAGER

Adrienne M. Albrecht
PROOFREADER

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DIRECTOR OF SALES

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ONLINE ADVERTISING

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lygrant@nfpa.org
MARKETING/PERIODICALS
CIRCULATION MANAGER

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VICE PRESIDENT
OUTREACH AND ADVOCACY

Lorraine Carli

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