Priorities: Watchdog Journalism, “Expand Digital Game”

Mark Russell was named editor of the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday, accepting the top newsroom job six years after arriving at the news operation from the Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

Russell, who was managing editor and then “print news manager” in a newsroom reorganization, succeeds Charlotte Hall, who retired on Oct. 1.

“I am honored and humbled to become editor of the Sentinel and the leader of such a talented and hard-working staff of journalists,” Russell said in an announcement. “I intend to drive hard to produce watchdog journalism and expand our digital game to make sure we’re delivering compelling content on mobile and the web as well as in print.”

Avido Khahaifa, the Sentinel’s general manager and director of content at Tribune Co.’s Florida papers, described Russell as having “high journalistic standards, strong leadership skills and a commitment to extending the Sentinel’s reach throughout the region to this top role. He is focused on serving readers and will be integral in continuing to help the Orlando Sentinel stay relevant and vital on all platforms as the newsroom seeks to build audience in an age of digital transformation.”

Khahaifa told Journal-isms he has “had a lot of time to work with Mark” and is confident Russell “has the journalism chops” and understands the newspaper’s imperatives. He refused to rule out further layoffs, but did note that the operation had been hiring in the newsroom.

According to survey results announced last month by the National Association of Black Journalists, Russell will join 17 other blacks heading newsrooms around the country, including, most recently, Hollis Towns in Asbury Park, N.J., Robin Washington in Duluth, Minn.; Africa Price in Shreveport, La.; Glenn Proctor in Richmond, Va.; and Martin Reynolds in Oakland, Calif.

A native of St. Louis, Russell, 48, became managing editor at the Sentinel in 2004, joining the paper from the Plain Dealer, where he was assistant managing editor/metro for five years.

He joined the Plain Dealer in 1987 as a business reporter after three years at the Wall Street Journal covering the Cleveland-Pittsburgh area. He later became the Plain Dealer’s City Hall reporter.

In 1993, he left the paper to become an assistant city editor at the Boston Globe but returned to the Plain Dealer two years later. He also served as the paper’s business editor for four years.

On his Facebook page, Russell describes himself as “husband, father of 21-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, Orlando Sentinel print news editor and frequent flyer on central Florida golf courses.”

Shortly after moving to Orlando, his alma mater, the Missouri School of Journalism, asked him what professional project he was most proud of.

“I would have to say that it is the three-story series we published in Cleveland on the health of northeast Ohio children, mentally and physically,” he said. “It helped focus conversation in the region. Children had no voice and this helped leaders hear and focus on them. It was watchdog journalism for those who had little voice.”

Asked the favorite part of his job, he said, “working with reporters, taking interest in them, watching them grow. Also breaking news stories is a favorite pastime.”

Spurned Columnists Question Selection Process for Obama Meeting

October 18, 2010

Did White House Decide Who Represents Trotter Group?

Editor & Publisher Staff Fired

Trotter Group members met Friday with President Obama and senior aide Valerie Jarrett, center, at the White House. Flanking them are Tonyaa Weathersbee, left, DeWayne Wickham and Joe Davidson. (Credit: Chuck Kennedy/White House)

Did White House Decide Who Represents Trotter Group?

An attempt by the White House to reach out to the nation’s organization of African American columnists has resulted in anger and resentment on the part of those in the group who were ignored or, worse, disinvited. Some lost money when they made travel arrangements to Washington and then were forced to cancel.

The role of the White House in selecting the interviewers, and whether group representatives were complicit in granting the White House such a role, has been called into question.

President Obama met Friday in the Roosevelt Room with 10 members of the Trotter Group as part of his effort to shore up his African American base for the midterm elections next month.

The meeting was fraught with symbolism. The Trotter Group was named after activist Boston editor William Monroe Trotter, a militant figure of the early 20th century. Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson explains on the Trotter Group site:

“On November 12, 1914, William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Guardian newspaper, went to the White House to confront President Woodrow Wilson. Trotter had supported Wilson’s election, but lynching was flaring up, and segregation was more rigid than ever. Trotter asked Wilson where he stood.

“Wilson replied: ‘Segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit. … Your manner offends me.’ A 45-minute argument ensued during which Trotter said: ‘Two years ago, you were regarded as a second Abraham Lincoln. … Now we colored leaders [who supported Wilson] are denounced in the colored churches as traitors to our race.

“The argument made the front page of The New York Times.”

On Oct. 8, Trotter Group co-founder DeWayne Wickham, a columnist for USA Today and Gannett News Service, told Trotter members that Obama wanted to meet with the group on Oct. 15.

The group has 40 members, and Wickham, who negotiated the meeting with the White House, told members later in the day, “The White House has just asked me to limit the number of Trotter members taking part in the meeting with President Obama to 16. So I sent to the White House the names of the first 16 Trotter members who responded.”

The Journal-isms author, who is in Washington, was among those on the list of 16 and had planned to invite readers to suggest questions. Other columnists on the list made preparations for a trip. On Monday afternoon, however, Wickham messaged, “Unfortunately, the White House has asked us to reduce the number of Trotter members who will attend Friday’s meeting with President Obama from 18 to 10 — and to limit it to the founders and newspaper columnists.” There was no explanation of how the number had risen to 18.

Wickham and another co-founder, retired Newsday columnist and editor Les Payne, pared the list, Wickham said.

It was unclear how much the White House participated in vetoing or approving certain members. Kevin S. Lewis, who started as White House director of African American media only a week ago, did not respond Monday to questions from Journal-isms.

What was clear, however, was that not all members were involved in the decision and that those who were suddenly cut were disappointed, embarrassed and inconvenienced.

An e-mail from George E. Curry, a veteran journalist who opines for the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, which serves black newspapers, and for the Philadelphia Inquirer, indicated that the White House did play a role in shaping which members were invited.

In an electronic discussion among those who were not invited, Curry said:

“I am also deeply dismayed over how an announced selection process was abandoned in mid-stream, evidently because the names of certain people were not included on the list.

“When DeWayne initially announced that participation would be limited to 18 people and they were selected in the order in which they replied to the invite, I thought it would be unfortunate if all of us could not attend, but that was a fair way of deciding who should attend.

“However, fairness was quickly thrown out of the window when DeWayne said he and Les decided on a list of names that he sent to the White House before even letting us know of their decision. As one of the first to reply, I was pleased that I was on the first list. However, it was no fun learning that I had been deleted from the list because, according to DeWayne, he and Les wanted to make sure the founders were included in the group.

“Like Richard, I did not know there [were] two separate but unequal membership levels in the Trotter Group,” Curry continued, referring to this columnist.

“DeWayne first told me I was being eliminated because the White House asked him to ‘limit it to the founders and newspaper columnists.’ I doubly qualify as a newspaper columnist: 1) As a regular columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and 2) As a columnist for the NNPA, a federation of more than 100 Black newspapers. When I questioned the decision, I received a different explanation: The White House ‘expressed a lack of interest in having an NNPA person in our reconstituted group since the president is planning to meet soon with the NNPA and other units of the black press.’ It stretches the imagination that a White House that is finally reaching out the Black community would specifically ask that the person whose column is syndicated to more Black newspapers than anyone else in the country should be specifically excluded from participation.

“Furthermore, I do not work for the NNPA and therefore will not be included in any meeting Obama has with the publishers. If in fact that were the case, I still would qualify by virtue of my writing a column for the Inquirer and being among the first to respond.”

Others weighed in who agreed to put their e-mailed comments on the record:

Monroe Anderson, another veteran journalist who blogs from Chicago, said:

“I was surprised to discover that the meeting had taken place after the fact since I’ve known Michelle and Barack longer than any other member of the Trotter [Group] and I would think my long term perspective could have contributed to the meeting. . . . I’ve known Axelrod since he was an intern at the Tribune in the 70s and Valerie’s first TV appearance was on my show, Common Ground, in the early 90s.” Anderson referred to White House advisers David Alexrod and Valerie Jarrett, and to the first couple.

David Squires, a columnist at the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., wrote:

“I and my editors were certainly disappointed in the process and the result, after gearing up for me to represent all of Tribune newspapers in the meeting. I am certainly a newspaper columnist. The final list included no Tribune rep but at least four from Gannett. It was also particularly disappointing to me because of my trying for several years to join this group and having been tripped up by not getting invited to the Washington meetings — the only way to join, as I was told. I was pleased to finally join the group prior to the Louisville meeting [this year]. I would hope that in future high-end meetings, more of us will get the opportunity to participate. . . . none of us want to be relegated to the second-rung wing of the Trotter Group. (I also had to eat the cost of my accommodations for Thursday night, which could not be canceled.)”

Robin Washington, editor of the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune:

“I too would have represented my entire chain, as well as distribution through one of the many syndicates and news services that court me all the time. (Before the final cut, I emailed DeWayne offering similar assistance to any other Trotter.)

“And like at David’s paper, we started discussing coverage, only with me it was with my publisher and vice president. Imagine the thrill of having to say ‘never mind.’ “

Cary Clack, columnist for the San Antonio Express-News:

“My newspaper thought the trip was important enough to send me and I didn’t find out I wouldn’t be going until after I made my travel arrangements. Frankly, it was embarrassing to have to tell them the trip was off. And as for the meeting being open only to founders and newspaper columnists well, my newspaper pays me to write three columns a week so that should put me in the latter group.”

Issac Bailey, Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News:

“I think we have to find a better way to handle these situations. One of the hardest things to do now is to get your editors to see the importance of speaking about national events in your column — even though most of our readers are conservative and boisterous about President Obama and national politics. They were readying to make room for this trip, though.

“I understand that in any such process that there will be difficult choices to be made, and that disappointment simply can not be avoided in such situations. I’m a grown up. All I’m saying is that moving forward, we need to figure out a process we can all agree upon so one day we don’t tell our editors we are heading to the White House, then two days later have egg on our faces.”

The Trotter Group decided at its 1992 inception that it would have no formal officers or bylaws — a mistake, according to Barbara A. Robinson, a retired columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I remember when I tried to get the organization to function like any responsible organization, bylaws etc, and my ideas were opposed by the founders. The organization has grown tremendously since then,” she said. “Without elected officers you will continue to have arbitrary decisions made by the founders who really didn’t expect this organization to grow this large.”

Wickham has functioned as the group’s leader.

Asked a series of questions about who made what decision when, and how much the White House was involved, Wickham asked Journal-isms which members were dissatisfied.

Told that not all were speaking on the record, he replied:

“I’m not going to respond to complaints and charges from unnamed journalists.

“I don’t see any point in engaging in a discussion about questions that are being raised by people whose own role in this matter cannot be examined.”

The final list of 10 selected columnists included:

Wickham, USA Today; Payne, theRoot.com; Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean; Tonyaa Weathersbee, Florida Times-Union; Rhonda Graham, Wilmington (Del.) News-Journal; Annette John-Hall, Philadelphia Inquirer; Askia Muhammad, the Washington Informer; Lynne Varner, Seattle Times; Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press and Joe Davidson, Washington Post.

• Monroe Anderson blog: White House blackout peeves some black columnists
• Mary C. Curtis, Politics Daily: Obama Aide Valerie Jarrett’s Advice to Boss: ‘Stay the Course and Know It Will Get Better’
• Joe Davidson, Washington Post: Obama considers leaving government jobs unfilled
• Keach Hagey, Politico: Black columnists angry at being disinvited from White House [Oct. 19]
• Annette John-Hall, Philadelphia Inquirer: Keeping the faith in President Obama [Oct. 19]
• Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: A visit with Obama yields interesting answers
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Obama: Dems can win if voters can tune out attacks
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: We should judge Barack Obama as the president, not as the black president
• Lynne Varner, Seattle Times: The president gets into campaign mode [Oct. 19]
• Tonyaa Weathersbee blog, Florida Times-Union: Obama has faith in essential common sense of Americans [Oct. 19]
• DeWayne Wickham blog: Obama rises above the racial swamp 

Editor & Publisher Staff Fired

Replacements Named at “Bible of the Newspaper Industry”

The editorial staff of Editor & Publisher, for more than a century considered the “bible of the newspaper industry” — at least until the new millennium’s proliferation of media blogs — has been fired by the owner who revived the publication in January.

“Mark Fitzgerald, Shawn Moynihan and Jim Rosenberg are no longer with the company,” Duncan McIntosh, an Irvine, Calif.-based magazine and newspaper publisher, said in a memo dated Friday.

Instead, McIntosh has brought in employees from elsewhere in his business: “Jeff Fleming has assumed the position of Editor in Chief of the magazine, Kristina Ackermann has taken on the duties of managing editor and Deena Nenad has become associate editor.”

“It was 10 of the weirdest months of my life,” Fitzgerald, who became editor when McIntosh bought the magazine, told Journal-isms on Monday. “It was almost like working with a cult with these people. I got no clear explanation of why we got fired.”

The company publishes several boating magazines and newspapers, “including Boating World magazine; Sea Magazine, America’s Western Boating Magazine; The Log Newspaper; and FishRap. The company also produces the Newport Boat Show in the spring and the Lido Yacht Expo in the fall. Both shows are held in California,” a news release said in January.

Editor & Publisher had gone out of business two weeks before McIntosh bought it. Its editor, Greg Mitchell, and star reporter, Joe Strupp, were not rehired. Strupp joined Media Matters for America, and Mitchell moved to the Nation magazine after the two collaborated on an “E&P in Exile” site while they awaited new jobs.

The revived E&P was a shadow of its former self, at least online. Each of the three editorial staffers worked from home, with Fitzgerald in Chicago and Moynihan and Rosenberg in the New York area. Still, Fitzgerald said, “I’m really proud of what we did . . . We had a good printed product and were were able to keep the website going fast and accurate. We were working 24/7.”

Fitzgerald, an E&P employee for 26 years, did the lion’s share of coverage of the black press and Latino issues, and wrote editorials supporting diversity, such as one from 2005 asking, “Newsroom Diversity: Was It Just a 1990s Ideal?” He is co-chair of the resolutions committee of the Inter American Press Association.

He said he did not know what he would do next because “I literally have been working 24/7. I just haven’t had a moment to think about it.”

Moynihan, managing editor and online editor, added in an e-mail he sent to interested parties on Monday, “I’m extremely proud of the work my team and I have done over the past seven years — especially over the past 10 months, with a downsized staff committed to preserving the editorial quality and integrity that E&P readers have come to expect. And we did just that.”

Rosenberg agreed that the staff had been working so much that they hadn’t had time to contemplate the future. But, he said, “It’s hard to believe there is a future when you’re in your 50s, in publishing and in a bad climate.” Still, he said, “I’d like to stay in this business.”

He and others called attention to this piece from the “new” E&P, “Politicians Spreading ‘Swine’ Flu,” as an example of what we might expect.

McIntosh said in his memo:

“Editor & Publisher magazine will be utilizing more individuals for the print edition who are experts in their individual fields as opposed to reporters who track down experts and put the expert’s story into the writer’s words. Communications are also expected to improve over a department that previously was spread over four states and three time zones.

“E&P is completing a reader research project, results from that study will be available to the editors to assist in determining what subjects are of primary importance to readers and online visitors.”