Three Top Editors Fired at Michigan Daily

By: E&P Staff Three top editors at the Oakland Press in Michigan, a daily with a weekday circulation of about 65,000, were suddenly fired on Monday.

An article in the Detroit News today relates that two of those dismissed said it came without warning and without explanation. Editor Neil Munro, Managing Editor Susan Belniak Hood and Dolly Moiseeff, assistant managing editor for features and entertainment, lost their jobs.

"I was encouraged to leave the building right away," Munro, 68, told the News. "Turn in my door card and leave the building."

The paper's owner, the Journal Register Co. of Yardley, Pa., has been hit by plunging ad revenue for its dozens of dailies and weeklies in the state. The same day of the Oakland dismissals, the company announced plans to sell five New England dailies.

"I'm sure it [the Oakland firings] will save them some money," Munro said in the article. "I assume it was cost-cutting. There was no mention of performance one way or another. I don't think it was anything personal."

Hood told the News: "We made a big emphasis on local news. That was the direction we were trying to go in, that was the Journal Register philosophy. They like heavy local, and I didn't disagree with that direction."