By: Joe Strupp In a column he says is set to run Friday, USA Today founder Al Neuharth blames the national newspaper's recent ethical troubles with former reporter Jack Kelley on the paper's editors, while also linking such problems to its decision to expand coverage beyond the United States and make it more "upscale."
"When big-time blunders occur in any workplace, the boss or bosses usually are at fault, not clerks or secretaries or salespeople," Neuharth writes in his weekly USA Today (
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His column appears just days after USA Today Publisher Craig Moon received a long-awaited, confidential report from three veteran journalists on the actions that led to Kelley's resignation in February. Those journalists, Bill Kovach, William Hilliard, and John Seigenthaler, spent weeks interviewing dozens of people both in and out of the paper about Kelley's actions.
Moon has said he plans to reveal elements of the report next week.
Neuharth's column also contends that USA Today's problems with Kelley can be linked back to the paper's decision years ago to beef up international coverage. "In the beginning, USA Today had a nationally oriented but down-home style," the column says. "A decade or so later, new bosses with more Tiffany-like tastes went upscale and global."
Neuharth adds that such expansion hurt the core audience and pressured editors to demand more from reporters such as Kelley. "Real or self-imposed pressure grew to grab new readers and prizes," the column claims. "Kelley's deceptions from faraway places followed, spanning more than 10 years."
Although the former publisher and Gannett Co. Inc. CEO stops short of demanding the resignation of Moon or Editor Karen Jurgenson, he makes clear his belief that the paper needs changes. "Moon has promised a new environment to guarantee that things won't go haywire again," the column states. "USA Today's journalists deserve that."
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