By: Joe Strupp The San Diego Union-Tribune has reportedly ousted three of its top Internet executives, including those involved in the Web site's online radio efforts.
San Diego Reader reported on its Web site that Chris Jennewein, vice president of Internet operations; Ron James, daily manager of SignOnSanDiego: and Jim Drummond, another Internet executive, were laid off.
"Jennewein, who was a hot property from a big media company when he was brought in several years ago, never got along with Karin Winner, editor of the U-T," the Reader stated. It also claimed that Winner had held meetings with staffers and indicated the paper was set up as a "newsroom vs. Internet" operation.
Winner and U-T President Gene Bell were unavailable for comment Thursday morning.
Jennewein and James were key players in the Web site's SignOn Radio project, which began with a music component in 2006 and added a news and talk station just last fall. The Reader described it as "the disastrous online radio experiment that is now winding down."
Jennewein also was at the helm when the Union-Tribune Web site received accolades in October for pulling out all the stops to cover the local wildfires. He made the decision then to pull ads from the site's home page for two days, along with increasing informational offerings related to the fires.
The fire coverage resulted in a record 10 million page views during one of the busiest days of the tragedy.
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