[Infowarrior] - New Pentagon Media Agency Seeks to Fill Top Job

[Richard Forno]

New Pentagon Media Agency Seeks to Fill Top Job

By Walter Pincus
Monday, August 25, 2008; A15

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401670_pf.html

The Defense Department is looking for an "energetic and imaginative  
executive" to run its newly formed Defense Media Activity, according  
to an advertisement on the agency's Web site.

The executive would earn as much as $172,200 a year overseeing DMA,  
which since its establishment in January combines formerly separate  
Pentagon media organizations, such as the Armed Forces Radio and  
Television Service, the Stars and Stripes newspaper, and the Pentagon  
Channel on television. It also includes the DefenseLink Web site and  
the military services' Web sites, the Bloggers Roundtable, and the  
Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine magazines.

All told, the new chief would oversee 2,400 military, government and  
contract employees around the world, and a budget of more than $225  
million.

The primary mission of DMA, according to the directive that set it up,  
is to "provide a wide variety of information products to the entire  
DoD family." That "family" includes active, National Guard and Reserve  
service members; their dependents; retirees; Defense civilian and  
contract employees; and "external audiences."

Along with communicating "messages and themes" from senior Defense  
officials, DMA will provide radio and television news and  
entertainment programming.

The directive, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England,  
lists another mission: to provide, "throughout the Department of  
Defense and to the American public, high quality visual information  
products, including Combat Camera imagery depicting U.S. military  
activities and operations."

No other department in government has so large an internal  
communications operation whose work is also designed for public  
consumption.

Although the directive includes "external audiences" as part of the  
Defense "family," the department and the separate military services  
have their own media operations that deal with civilian reporters and  
producers.

The directive also created a Defense Media Oversight Board, which is  
chaired by the assistant defense secretary for public affairs and  
includes the DMA director, the services' information chiefs and the  
public affairs assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The  
board's job is to ensure that DMA "policies, priorities, and programs  
properly reflect DoD-wide and Military Service-unique messages and  
strategic communications requirements," according to the directive.

A $68 million, 186,000-square-foot DMA headquarters is to be  
constructed by 2011 on the grounds of Fort Meade. It will house about  
650 employees, one-quarter of DMA's staff. Two of the larger DMA  
elements, Stars and Stripes and the Armed Forces Radio and Television  
Service, will remain at their current locations.