Editor Quits Over Ethical Concern p.

By: Tony Case

Pennsylvania newspaper editor opposed to management policy allowing reporters to accept free trips from travel companies
LEONARD BROWN DOESN'T believe reporters should write about trips financed by the industry they cover. Period.
In fact, he feels so strongly about this "ethical concern," as he characterizes it, that he quit his job as executive editor of the Bucks County Courier Times in Pennsylvania after a run-in with the newspaper's management over the policy.
Specifically, Brown felt it was wrong for a free-lance writer for a Sunday travel section, produced jointly by his paper and the neighboring Burlington County Times and Doylestown Intelligencer, to accept free trips from travel companies.
Some news organizations, especially smaller ones, have participated in the practice. They may try to rid themselves of any moral quandary by mentioning, either in the text of a story or in a sidebar, that a trip was gratis. Explanations notwithstanding, accepting freebies of any kind is generally frowned upon by media businesses and journalism ethicists.
Brown, who has been associated with the Courier Times for four years, explained that he just got tired of debating the issue with the paper's financial managers.
"It's a concern that I felt we had addressed ? that use of the stories wasn't appropriate ? but I had to address the issue over and over."
Recently, it was recommended to Brown that he "let the person write and not worry about how the stories were financed," he related. "I took that as a suggestion that I should cave in on my ethics."
While the editor got a lot of support on his position from newsroom staffers, nobody on the business end agreed with him, he said.
The free travel debate was nothing new to Brown. He had to deal with the issue 10 years earlier when he was executive editor at the Beaver County Times, in western Pennsylvania.
When the Courier Times began planning its travel section more than a year ago, he said he felt it was time for the paper to "come clean" on the issue.
"There were a few who understood my concern but few that agreed," he recalled. "In the last month, I lost most of the support I felt I had.
"I never suggested that we should send people on international trips like the larger papers do. I think there was some feeling that the practice is acceptable at other newspapers, and it is. As you know, it's an issue that's been debated in our industry."
According to Brown, this was the only matter over which he had butted heads with the business side, and no other factor contributed to his leaving. The paper and its parent, Calkins Newspapers, "has an excellent reputation in these areas," he said, "but this was the one issue where we couldn't reach an agreement."
There were a number of editorial changes in the Courier Times under Brown, including a redesign, enhanced color, special sections and award-winning stories and photo coverage.
The paper also saw significant circulation increases, both daily and Sunday, in the last few years, the editor pointed out. He was quick to mention the efforts of a new circulation director and an aggressive promotion campaign, as well as the work of his news department.
The decision to leave, Brown related, was his and his alone. He lost sleep over the issue, he said, and he debated with himself about quitting.
Publisher Arthur Mayhew even encouraged Brown to reconsider, the editor said.
Mayhew would not discuss Brown's departure, saying only that it was a "personnel matter, and I do not discuss personnel matters."
Mayhew named Life editor Carl LaVo interim executive editor.
Brown has not landed another job, he said, but he has some interesting prospects.
Colleagues at the Courier Times and friends from other papers?including the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he held several editorial posts before going to work in Beaver County?have been "extremely supportive," Brown related. He has received several calls and letters from readers, as well, asking him to reconsider leaving.
Tom Zolper, a reporter who worked with Brown for three years, said he was surprised by the resignation; he supports his boss's action, however.
"I think that, as a newspaper person, I would applaud any principle upholding the separation between advertising and news," he remarked.
Zolper said there has been much debate in the newsroom over Brown's departure, adding that most staffers suspected Brown may have had another reason for leaving. "They couldn't conceive of this one issue warranting his exit," he said.
In regard to ethical matters such as free travel, Zolper believes, "It is important, especially at small papers, that these issues at least be debated?and certainly that there be conviction on the part of editors and corporate people."
Brown "was a stubborn mule type," he recalled. "He never backed down from a stance."