By: Joe Strupp Mercury News Editors Thought Presentation Was One-Sided
San Jose Mercury News writer David Early was "surprised and shocked"
that editors chose to scrap some 350,000 copies of the paper's Sunday magazine
last weekend, claiming a cover essay he wrote about his liberal political beliefs
provided an unbalanced presentation.
Early, a six-year veteran of SV Magazine, said editors had planned the
piece for several months and had put the final version to bed three weeks ago. He
said any concerns should have been raised before the last-minute removal of
hundreds of thousands of copies. "In a Johnny-come-lately way, the timing got by
them," Early said of his editors. "This is a pretty bad call because [the piece] was on the budget for months."
The essay, which the Mercury News has declined to release, is described
by editors as a lifelong Democrat's pondering how friends and people he admires
could join the Republican Party. "I told everyone what I was doing and what the
slant was," Early said.
David Yarnold, executive editor of the Mercury News, said he made the
decision Friday to remove 200,000 copies of the Sunday magazine that had
already been placed in pre-printed packages. He said 150 full- and part-time
employees were dispatched to different locations to make sure the copies were not
distributed.
"The overall presentation of the magazine was one-sided," Yarnold told E&P
Online. "We should have caught it sooner, but we didn't. It's better to make a good
decision late than let a bad decision stand."
Editors informed staff about the decision to pull copies of the magazine in a
memo distributed Friday, while readers learned of the move in an editor's note in
Saturday's paper.
Yarnold declined to reveal the cost of the scrapped copies or the overtime
involved. He said the action was no reflection on Early, whom he described as a
"dedicated Mercury News writer who has built a deservedly strong
reputation."
Tim Graham, president of the Northern California chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists, also was surprised that the newspaper would go to such
lengths to remove one writer's essay. "I have a hard time believing a personal
essay in a Sunday magazine would contain anything that would fall into the
category of a hit piece in need of opposing viewpoint," he said. "There must have
been a breakdown in their decision-making process."
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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