Word count: 435 | Reading time: 2 min read
Hit and Run
It was Black Wednesday at the Ivory Tower of Truth.
First, the troops learned of a top-level shakeup. Then they learned that unless they accept the company’s request by the end of this weekend to delay raises, the newspaper will kill the Sunday magazine, eliminate the corps of suburban correspondents and force editorial staff working inside the Ivory Tower to cover suburban news.
Inky editor Max King broke the news of the top-level shakeup Wednesday at a full staff meeting.
Robert Rosenthal, a 16-year Inky veteran, becomes the executive editor, replacing James Naughton, an 18-year Inkster who has accepted a buyout.
Rosenthal, currently an associate managing editor overseeing the national and foreign desks, business news and sports, says the move is not a sea change at the paper, nor is it related to the call to increase profits.
“This is not a sea change,” the 47-year-old Rosenthal says. “My goal is to really push as hard as I can to make the paper newsier. I want to make sure that we really dominate the stories we should dominate. Not only in terms of coverage, but in terms of what it means to the readers.”
Naughton, reached before the 1 p.m. staff meeting, would not comment on his decision to leave the paper. “I do not want to tell you before I tell the staff.”
Efforts to reach Naughton after the meeting were unsuccessful. However, sources say that Naughton entered the meeting wearing a dinosaur costume, made a moving speech and received two standing ovations. Sources say he told the crowd that “I knew I was leaving when I received a call from Carol Horner.” Horner, now a Wall Street Journal editor, was famous during her days at the Inky for organizing going-away parties.
As for the future of the magazine and the correspondents, neither union officials nor King were available to comment on what sources say is King’s do-or-die order.
Charles Fancher, company spokesman, says he could not comment about the order.
However, he did say that at a recent managers’ meeting, publisher Bob Hall stated that if Local 10 of the Newspaper Guild does not accept the company’s request to delay $50-a-week raises, further cuts in content and people would be made.
The delayed raises are part of a package of cutbacks offered by the company to 10 unions in the wake of parent Knight Ridder ordering a 50 percent increase in profits. Nine of the unions made concessions to the company. Only the Guild has balked.
The $50-per-week raise would cost the company roughly $2.5 million per year.
— Howard Altman
