Heavy Churn Hits Newspaper Mastheads

By: Joe Strupp When the Detroit Free Press named Carole Leigh Hutton its first woman executive editor last week, the paper joined an unusually long list of major dailies that have named new editors over the last year or so, including a string of appointments in just the past few months. "This is a lot more churning than usual at major newspapers," said Scott Bosley, executive director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He called it a "fairly significant" trend.

Since the beginning of this year alone, new editors have been named or started work at the Houston Chronicle, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The Denver Post, The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and The Des Moines (Iowa) Register -- with all but one coming from another newspaper.

In fact, one telling fact is the large number of newspapers hiring from outside their own walls. Of 17 major dailies that have hired new editors in the past 18 months, only six chose to promote from within.

The revolving editorial door also has produced new gains for women, who became top editors for the first time at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The News & Observer, in addition to the Free Press. The Saint Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press promoted Managing Editor Vicki Gowler to editor (replacing Walker Lundy, who went to The Philadelphia Inquirer), but she was not the first woman in that post.

"It's something to celebrate," Melanie Sill, The News & Observer's new executive editor, said about the growing number of women editors. "Those numbers will only continue to grow."

The papers cite various reasons for the changing newsroom leadership -- ranging from retirements to forced resignations to at least one death. Industry veterans blame the high turnover on several factors, including a growing control of newspapers by large corporations that want new faces in their newsrooms, a host of layoffs and buyouts at troubled papers, and pressure on editors to boost circulation.

"The editor's job is very different than it was 10 or 20 years ago -- readers are more demanding, and there is more [media] competition," said Orage Quarles III, publisher of The News & Observer.

Al Cross, president of the Society of Professional Journalists and a columnist at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., agreed that increased burdens on editors are driving the changes. "A lot of the change is due to that stress," he told E&P. "When that is going on, you're going to have a high turnover."

Sometimes, it is useful to have somebody come in "and show a different way to skin the cat," said Alberto Ibarg?en, publisher of The Miami Herald, which has gone through two changes in editor since 2000. "When you have a lot of habit established, it is very important to have someone come in and blow it up."

Ibarg?en used that theory when he hired Martin Baron away from The New York Times in January 2000 to replace longtime Executive Editor Douglas C. Clifton, who left after nine years to head The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. While Ibarg?en praised Clifton's work, he said such a long tenure sparked a need for an outsider's view. But when Baron left last year to head The Boston Globe newsroom, Ibarg?en believed enough change had occurred and promoted then-Editorial Page Editor Tom Fiedler to the top spot.

Deciding whether to promote from within or to seek an outsider is probably the hardest part of choosing a new editor, publishers admitted. Each said the needs of the paper, as well as the pool of applicants, determine that part of the process.

"Change sucks!" quipped Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the New York Times Co. and publisher of The New York Times, when asked about choosing a new top editor. "A lot of that [choosing between outsiders and insiders] is a question of timing and situation." Sulzberger, whose company owns 18 newspapers, including the Globe, broke a long-running practice of promoting from within at the Globe by hiring Baron. "No one [at the Globe] was quite ready to take the role, in our judgment," Sulzberger told E&P. "For a variety of reasons, it made sense to go outside."

William Dean Singleton, chairman of MediaNews Group Inc. and publisher of The Denver Post, took the same view last month when he hired Gregory L. Moore away from the Globe to be the Post's new editor. Moore becomes the Post's fourth editor since 1989 -- all four coming from another newspaper. "If you want change, you go outside," Singleton said about the choice. "I think we had become a bit stale and predictable."