From the very beginning, Defense News knew how to deliver a good story, like the one involving Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, his charismatic yet combative Navy secretary and a carving knife.

It was January 1986 and the venue was a kickoff party to celebrate the debut issue of Defense News. Weinberger was invited, as was deputy defense secretary Paul Thayer. But up until the morning of the event, Navy Secretary John Lehman was the highest-ranking Pentagon official to confirm his attendance.

Founding Defense News Editor Rick Barnard, a former editor of Navy Times, had an ongoing relationship with Lehman, a naval aviator who valued opportunity to communicate regularly with the men and women in white. At the time, Lehman — co-author of the 1980 Republican Party platform calling for a 15-carrier, 600-ship Navy with powerful friends in the White House and on Capitol Hill — was publicly tussling with Weinberger and Thayer over internal funding plans for realizing that goal.

Someone had the bright idea to order a sheet cake emblazoned with Lehman's image. When the time came around to cut the cake, in walked Weinberger.

"We were delighted Weinberger came, and we asked him to cut the cake," Barnard recalled.

"He looked around the room, saw Sen. John Warner, John McCain and so many other familiar faces. As he took the knife, he said something to the effect: 'Everybody's watching to see if I'll cut Lehman's head off.' … In the end, he graciously carved out a corner piece."

Reflective of that initial gathering of lawmakers, executive branch officials and industry executives, Defense News was created to serve as a nexus for the business and politics of defense.

The brainchild of Barnard, who had already amassed experience in standing up Defense Week before joining Navy Times, Defense News aimed to offer up news and penetrating analysis of policy and budgetary issues driving the American and international defense agendas.

The operation was fortified by full backing from William Donnelly and Henry Belber, leaders of the family-owned Times Journal Co. whose military publishing line dated back to World War II; executive editor Jim Doyle, a veteran newsman who hailed from Newsweek and the Boston Globe; and Jack Kerrigan, a former Washington Post advertising manager and salesman par excellence.

Unlike other trade publications at the time, where a cover story could often be secured for the price of a full-page ad, Defense News was fiercely independent. Its reporters were instructed to cover the government and industry like a blanket, but never allow them to pull the wool over our eyes.

Follow the money chain, Barnard used to say when training new staff. Examine the threats and geopolitical rationale driving military requirements; delve deep into the procurement process; and cultivate those outside experts for the context that was lacking in other publications.

Probably the best example of the independent, special interest-free editorial policy was an editorial from February 1989 urging John Tower, President George HW Bush’s nominee for defense secretary, to withdraw his name from consideration.

At a time when Republican leaders were falling in lockstep behind the former senior senator from Texas, Defense News maintained he should be disqualified not for the drinking and womanizing that captured the headlines of the day, but for the apparent conflict of interest during his time as a high-priced consultant to defense contractors. That editorial resonated widely and was credited for helping to torpedo Tower’s path to the Pentagon.

In those early years, Barnard used to flag Aviation Week and Space Technology as a publication to emulate in terms of editorial independence, but also to steer clear of in terms of its emphasis on technical detail. He didn’t want reporters going out on test flights or interviewing engineers about handling performance and turning rates.

Rather, Defense News wanted to know whether a particular program would fly on Capitol Hill, and, if so, what were the political circumstances driving export potential and the ultimate effect on the industrial base.

Over the years, Defense News editorial boards hosted many of the most influential government, military and industry leaders for up close and personal — mostly on-record, but at times, background — accounts of the most pressing issues of the day.

Through its transition, in 1997, from family-owned Times Journal Company to a Gannett-owned subsidiary, Defense News stayed true to its mission of delivering independent, added-value stories relevant to the domestic and international defense community it was created to serve.

Barnard’s "Basics" governing editorial style and substance — vigorously enforced by longtime managing editor Greg Couteau — were passed on in one form or another to the editors that followed: Sharon Denny, Theresa Hitchens, Colin Clark and Vago Muradian.

As it heads into its fourth decade under the editorial direction of Jill Aitoro and new ownership by Regent Equity Group, we trust that the guiding principles that got us this far will continue to deliver the top-rate stories our readers have come to expect.

Twitter: @opallromeThis article is part of a larger Defense News 30-year anniversary project, showcasing the people, programs and innovations from the last three decades that most shaped the global security arena. Go to

defensenews.com/30th

to see all of our coverage.

About Barbara Opall-Rome

Opall-Rome is Israel bureau chief for Defense News. She has been covering U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, Mideast security and missile defense since May 1988. She lives north of Tel Aviv. Visit her website at www.opall-rome.com.

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