Maj. David ‘‘Mal” Malakoff

Change occasionally means saying goodbye to something cherished and moving on to something new. It’s hard — as people settle into and become comfortable with a daily routine, the last thing they want is change. However, as the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘‘progress is impossible without change...”

Today marks a significant change in Bolling history as we say goodbye to an old friend. The Bolling newspaper, The BEAM, which has been published and disseminated to the Bolling population since March 1942, is being laid to rest. Today, Dec. 15, 2006, marks the last issue of The BEAM.

An Air Force base without a base newspaper just doesn’t sound right, but times have changed and this is the right way for the 11th Wing to move forward. A lot of thought and debate went into this decision — at our level and at higher headquarters.

As part of Air Force Smart Operations 21st Century, Air Force Public Affairs, facing manpower reductions of nearly 25 percent, recently recommended that base newspapers no longer be produced by wing public affairs offices. In a survey of base PA shops, an overwhelming majority reported that the layout and design of base newspapers takes about 40 man-hours per week. This doesn’t include the actual interviewing of subjects and writing and staffing of articles which can be an extremely involved process for just one article, let alone several each week.

The Air Force has decided to focus its news delivery to the World Wide Web. PA will continue to write articles and post them directly to Bolling’s internet page, www.bolling.af.mil. This allows us to post articles immediately — versus waiting for the usual print publication date, resulting in a more efficient and timely news delivery system to the local population. This is the way ahead for our future.

At the same time, we recognize that many people still would like the convenience and nostalgia of a base newspaper. We’re working with The BEAM’s publisher, Comprint Inc., to finalize the details of a future newspaper that can be delivered to Bolling after the New Year. Here’s how it will work: the newspaper will be produced entirely by Comprint, using information written and provided by our public affairs staff already posted on the 11th Wing’s internet home page. The major difference is that due to copyright law, the newspaper will no longer be named The BEAM. The name of the new newspaper is The Bolling Aviator. The final guidelines for its actual publication and base delivery are being worked, so the bottom-line is that the content of the base paper will be the same, but its name and format will change.

The wing director of public affairs, Maj. Dave Malakoff, has been associated with military newspapers for 24 years in his Air Force career, including nearly six years as a newspaper consultant in Strategic Air Command and Air Combat Command. He summed it up best when we discussed the future of the BEAM. He said he was saddened to see base newspapers disappear into history, but at the same time he realized it was the logical next step for improving communications within the Air Force and utilizing the Web.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ll miss seeing The BEAM first thing Friday morning — it’s become a welcome sight. But as Shaw said, progress is impossible without change. So we’ll innovate, adapt, and overcome this challenge — just like any other.

So long, BEAM. We’ll miss you.