Newsday Cuts Two Pulitzer-Winning Editors

By: E&P Staff Newsday eliminated two deputy managing editor positions -- the first cuts since the paper announced on Sept. 1 it was reducing 45 editorial jobs.

Lonnie Isabel and Steve Ruinsky -- two editors who oversaw Pulitzer Prize-winning stories -- will be leaving the company.

"Our decision to reduce staff requires reshaping the newsroom management structure, and we have made the difficult choice to eliminate the two deputy managing editor posts," Editor John Mancini wrote in a memo to staffers.

Isabel joined the paper in 1989 as a copy editor and rose to national editor in 1993. He was an assistant managing editor for national and foreign coverage before being named deputy managing editor. Isabel led Newsday's coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and edited Dele Olojede's Pulitzer-winning series on Rwanda.

Ruinsky came to Newsday as a copy editor in 1983. He was a key player on the New York Newsday copy desk, first as a news editor, and then as Sunday editor, before rising to executive news editor in 1988. Ruinsky was part of the team that edited the Pulitzer-winning Union Square subway crash coverage. He became assistant managing editor for sports in 1993 and later moved to deputy managing editor. Ruinsky also had oversight of Business and Part 2.

Later in the memo, Mancini told staffers that buyout packages would be distributed later this week. Management is meeting with City desk reporters and editors and photographers to discuss possible re-assignments.