Three Editors Down, How Many More to Go?

By: Joe Strupp Does it always happen in threes? Some say so when it comes to bad news. If you are Dean Baquet, Amanda Bennett or Debra Adams Simmons, this past week was truly a tough one as all three top editors lost their jobs.

And in each case, they are leaving behind news staffs smaller than those they inherited, and likely to get even smaller in the future.

Simmons, the ousted editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, began the trend when she was forced out last week in what the paper's new owners called "corporate restructuring and expense reduction." Translated, it meant the newsroom would have one less editor as Publisher Ed Moss revealed her job would be left unfilled, with her managing editor handling newsroom demands.

Earlier this week, the hardest hit occurred when Baquet, in the Los Angeles Times editor's job for just over a year, was ousted after being unable to come to agreement with new Publisher David Hiller on acceptable cutbacks. Baquet had managed to survive the firing of his former boss, Publisher Jeff Johnson, weeks ago following the duo's protest of planned Tribune Company cuts. But Tribune leaders said he was not willing to cut as deep as they wanted.

Times staffers, who had in the past circulated petitions and offered outward support for Baquet and Johnson, described the mood around the newsroom Tuesday as "like a crypt," to quote one report. A longtime staffer who spoke to E&P Tuesday said it was "the single worst moment in my 28 years here." That spans a stretch of time that includes the Northridge earthquake, the Rodney King riots and the paper's Staples Center scandal.

Then, on Wednesday, with some in the industry still smarting from the Baquet firing, word from Philadelphia had Amanda Bennett, that paper's first women editor, on the outs. New owners Philadelphia Newspaper Holdings eased the hit somewhat by hiring former Inquirer staffer and Pulitzer Prize winner William Marimow to head the newsroom. But today, that hope received a bit of a deflation when Marimow revealed cuts are still likely, along with a reduction in the national and foreign coverage that won the paper some of its 18 Pulitzer Prizes.

So is this threesome the beginning of a trend or just a bad week? Editors come and go, but the fact that each of these editors was essentially forced out, and by owners concerned with and planning for more bottom line cuts, raises some worry.

In two cases, Philadelphia and Akron, those involved are former Knight Ridder papers recently sold to new owners. That kind of situation nearly always prompts a change in editorship. Still, that both see cutbacks on the horizon causes some concern, especially for newsrooms that had to endure Knight Ridder's own money-saving demands in recent years.

As for the Los Angeles Times, the esteemed daily with 39 Pulitzers to its credit -- including a newsroom best five at once in 2004 -- the marriage with Tribune Company has been in need of counseling almost since day one.

After drawing praise for hiring respected Publisher John Puerner and experienced Editor John S. Carroll shortly after its takeover in 2000, Tribune eventually slipped into a profit-induced news coma, letting its losses companywide spark a demand for reductions in L.A.

Eventually, Carroll saw the writing on the wall and fled after declining to make cuts he abhorred. Baquet, his managing editor since shortly after he arrived, took over and worked through the initial resource reduction. When the latest budget dispute arose, company officials made it clear that anyone in their way would get hurt.

The loss of Baquet, however, is not the routine forced-out editor who either did not live up to the job or had some sort of scandal and fireable mistake. This isn?t Howell Raines after the Jayson Blair fiasco. It is a sign that no editor who makes news first and big profits second is safe.

Seen by many as the quintessential untouchable editor in many ways -- a respected newsman whose resume spans The New York Times and Chicago Tribune and includes a Pulitzer Prize for digging up Windy City corruption -- Baquet became the paper's first black editor and drew praise during his short tenure for improving coverage and inspiring morale.

While staffers and colleagues found his gutsy opposition to cutbacks as a refreshing positive, bean counters at Tribune seemed to believe profit margins were more important than quality and public service. If someone like Baquet, who appeared to do everything right journalistically, can be canned In the name of profits, who is safe?

Without mentioning any names -- you know who you are -- let me just say that nearly all of the esteemed editors at the biggest papers are in their mid-50s to early '60s and have been around a long time, justifiably. They have relatively high salaries, face a new Web world and perceived needs to reach readers one-third to half their age, along with likely further cutbacks in the hard-charging news culture they grew up with, then managed for decades.

Ironically, one of the replacements for the unfortunate three, William Marimow, made news several years ago when he took his own stand against cuts at The Sun in Baltimore, where he was editor. Back then, it was also Tribune Company that forced him out after he opposed a cutback.

Now apparently willing to oversee resource reductions in Philadelphia, where he spent most of his early career, Marimow has either changed his view or been promised something that makes the task less distasteful than it was in Baltimore. His announcement that the paper would cut back much of the national and foreign coverage that helped it make its mark during two decades in the '70s and '80s has some staffers wondering what will be next.

But don't think I am blind to the business realties of newspapers. We all know that advertising and circulation drops, along with growing Web and other competition, are hitting the daily miracle hard. Still, it never ceases to amaze me that those who run the daily paper think that reducing its ability to provide customers with the best product will somehow improve sales and readership?

This is the same industry that has taken way too long to adapt to the Web, and still has a hard time using its growing Web traffic to draw in advertisers.

Hopefully, this week's mini-trend of editor firings is just a blip on the newspaper industry radar screen, and not some sign that top newsroom jobs will soon depend more on an editor's willingness to diminish the product than his or her ability to improve it.