What, M.E. Worry? Managing Editors May Be On The Way Out

By: Mark Fitzgerald South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editor Earl Maucker knew that Sharon Rosenhause always had his back. That was never more important than in the past year ? easily the most turbulent in the history of the Tribune Co. daily ? as Maucker, the current president of the Inter American Press Association, frequently left the newsroom on trips to Latin America. "The thing about Sharon was that being a managing editor was not just a job, it was her career, it was her life," he says. Maucker could remain confident that the newsroom was in very good hands during his absences.

But when Rosenhause decided to retire in August, Maucker permanently eliminated the managing editor position ? and added the Sun-Sentinel to the growing ranks of newspapers that are jettisoning the M.E. slot.

The Sun-Sentinel's decision is emblematic, too, of why managing editors are disappearing at newspapers around the country. The Sun-Sentinel job was eliminated for a number of reasons: the convenient attrition factor, big salary savings, a desire to "flatten" the newsroom leadership structure, and a belief that senior management should feel the pain of staff reductions, too.

Newspapers, though, are hardly making a clean break with their newsroom No. 2. Scott Bosley, executive director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, sums it up pretty well when he says: "Some of it is permanent [elimination], and some of it is, 'Well, let's just hold on and see what happens.'" But shedding management layers, at least for the moment, is an inevitable response to the industry's current crisis, he adds: "With less staff, you need fewer managers, right?"

In some ways the wonder is that the M.E. position has hung around so long. In the rest of corporate America, the middle manager has been an endangered species for the better part of three decades.

Yet newsroom management took a completely different direction during its boom years, creating entire new classes of middle managers. "Assistant," "deputy," and "associate" managing editor titles proliferated. Even now, the Chicago Tribune ? which, no matter what Sam Zell thinks, ran a lean newsroom for a paper of its size ? lists 13 variations on the A.M.E. title in E&P's International Year Book.

Many editors continue to believe that a good M.E. is indispensible ? not a luxury. "Every top editor needs a colleague to confide in, to work with, to be there when you're not there ? to keep the trains running on time," says David Ledford, executive editor of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. "You need someone to help you plot the vision and execute it, and managing editors have been absolutely critical in those roles."

Ironically, Ledford, who is this year's president of Associated Press Managing Editors, doesn't have an official M.E. The position is open, and though the paper is clearly in no rush to fill it, "I don't know that it's forever frozen," he says with a hopeful tone in his voice. For now, Ledford leans on the paper's capable A.M.E., he adds.

That's what Executive Editor Mike Connelly is doing at the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, too. The M.E. job has gone vacant for ? well, he's a little embarrassed to say exactly how long, but it's well over a year. At first, the position remained open because Connelly was just settling in as the new editor. But now, "I've essentially stopped looking," he says. "In this economic climate, I wouldn't say there's any point to it."

Like other editors, though, Connelly has discovered some positives to a newsroom without a managing editor. "You're forced to be involved more in the day-to-day of the newsroom and online operations, and, in our case, the television station (SNN News 6), too," he says. "And it forces others to step up. You get a flatter organization, and a more empowered staff."

On the other hand, he adds: "There are days when that doesn't feel like much of an advantage."

Having just one No. 2 is undoubtedly easier, agrees Sun-Sentinel Editor Maucker. But eliminating the M.E. post was the right thing to do, he argues. For one thing, Tribune was whacking his newsroom by almost 20%, and it didn't seem fair to eliminate reporters while not touching the senior editorial staff. And while meeting just with Rosenhause made life simpler, Maucker says his daily meetings now with four deputy managing editors gets him closer to the daily workings of the news-paper, and allow him to take advantage of their individual strengths.

But for better or worse, the industry's financial crunch will likely force more editors to cope without their right-hand men (or women). Perhaps the most fitting epitaph for the job are the final words Humphrey Bogart speaks in the movie Deadline U.S.A., in which he plays ? yes ? a managing editor on his last day on the job: "That's the press, baby, the press, and there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing."