Demoted Wisconsin Editor Files Discrimination Charge

A Wisconsin newspaper editor demoted after writing a column that offended advertisers has started a legal campaign to get her job back, saying she is taking a stand for editorial independence.

Autumn Drussell filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Rights Division this week seeking to be reinstated as editor of the Stoughton Courier Hub. Drussell said she is standing up for journalism at a time when struggling small newspapers are especially susceptible to advertiser influence.

Months after being named editor, Drussell wrote in a July column that she was shopping more at low-cost big box stores because of the economy. She suggested that local businesses improve customer service, stop badmouthing their areas and appeal to frugal customers to stay competitive, advice offered at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon she attended.

The column upset some of the newspaper's advertisers in Stoughton, a city of around 13,000 people about 20 miles southeast of Madison, including hardware store owner Jim Gerber. He warned the paper he would not advertise again until the economy improves.

"I will stop short from calling for your job — Walmart and Target need your money," he wrote in an e-mail to the paper.

Days later, Drussell was called into a meeting with the general manager of Unified Newspaper Group, which owns the weekly and several other newspapers in the region. Drussell, 35, said she was removed as editor and asked to sign a document agreeing not to write opinion pieces and be on probation for 90 days.

Unified Newspaper Group is a division of Dubuque, Iowa-based Woodward Communications, Inc. Company officials did not respond to e-mail and phone messages from The Associated Press.

Drussell, who still works for the paper as a reporter and page designer, said she was baffled that her bosses did not support her and by their "knee-jerk reaction."

"I just don't want what they did to be precedent-setting," Drussell said. "It used to be that people at newspapers with an opinion were protected. Because of the constraints newspapers are under with the economy, it sounds like that's not the case anymore and that's starting to go away. That's scary to me."

A week after the column ran, the paper published an editorial urging readers to shop locally and acknowledging Drussell's opinion left "many of our best supporters feeling betrayed."

"While there were some legitimate points to be made ... we as a newspaper erred in allowing those ideas to be overshadowed by the implications that local businesses should simply ride it out while residents shop at big box chain stores," the editorial read.

Not everyone was upset with the column or Drussell, who had been the paper's associate editor since 2007 and editor since May. City, school district and hospital leaders sent a letter praising her work.

"We thought it was important for Unified Newspapers to know what a good job she has done for us," Mayor Donna Olson said Thursday.

Drussell's gender discrimination complaint notes she was demoted while a male superior, Jim Ferolie, who reviewed the column, wasn't disciplined. Ferolie declined comment when reached by e-mail.

Drussell is seeking back her old job, lost wages and attorney's fees. She insists the case is not about money.