Job of Section Editor Kenneth J. Cooper Is Cut
The Boston Globe plans to close its national news department, but not its Washington bureau, to help achieve cost reductions mandated by its parent New York Times Co., Globe Editor Martin Baron confirmed today.
The move affects National Editor Kenneth J. Cooper, the paper’s highest ranking African American line editor, reporter Tatsha Robertson, a black journalist who has been New York bureau chief for the past 2 1/2 years, three other editors and the Boston-based roving national correspondent, Brian MacQuarrie.
Staffers were told of the decision in meetings last week. Cost reductions might be achieved by placing the national staffers in positions vacated by those taking buyouts in other sections. The move is to be effective at the end of November.
None of those affected would speak for publication, perhaps because plans are not completed. Even Baron told Journal-isms, “I am restricted” in being able to speak.
One employee described journalists throughout the newsroom as upset. Another said, “reporters, of course, feel very sorry about the changes. Anybody who’s in journalism is going to be sorry about any cuts, but they are hopeful their work will continue to be the same.”
The New York Times Co. announced Sept. 20 that it plans to undertake staff reductions that will affect approximately 500 employees, about 4 percent of its total workforce.
In an Oct. 5 memo to the staff, Globe Publisher Richard Gilman said the Times Co.’s New England Media Group, which includes the Globe and the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette and which Gilman also heads, hoped “to achieve the majority of the 160 staff reductions through voluntary buyouts” and that “we will try to complete these staff reductions by the end of this year.
“At The Boston Globe, we are offering voluntary buyouts to Exempt and Newspaper Guild employees. . . . In the Newsroom, Exempt and Guild employees who have 7 years of service are eligible.
“This staff reduction is one of the many actions we are taking in response to very challenging business conditions. We are tightly managing expenses in all areas of the company. We are relentlessly pursuing new advertising revenue and business opportunities. We continue to implement new processes that make us more efficient,” his memo read.
Baron emphasized that the Washington bureau, where nine reporters, two editors and a columnist work, would remain. Staffers said the bureau, which includes deputy bureau chief Joe Williams, a black journalist, was expected to assume more of the national coverage. Bureau Chief Peter S. Canellos, who is also deputy managing editor, does not report to the national desk, but rather to Executive Editor Helen Donovan. The Globe also has bureaus in South Africa, the Mideast, Colombia and Germany.
Cooper, 49, was the first African American national correspondent of the Knight Ridder newspaper group, covering major political stories, including the 1988 presidential campaign of Democrat Michael S. Dukakis. He returned to the Globe in 2001 after being a national reporter and India correspondent for the Washington Post. In a previous stint at the Globe, Cooper shared in a 1984 Pulitzer Prize as part of a team that examined race relations in Boston, “a notable exercise in public service that turned a searching gaze on some the city’s most honored institutions including the Globe itself,” the Pulitzer board said.
While Cooper is the Globe’s highest-ranking African American line editor, Paula Bouknight is assistant managing editor for hiring and development.
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New “Nightline” Anchors Include Person of Color
With Monday’s appointment of Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran as co-anchors of “Nightline,” ABC News has a person of color in one of the anchor slots, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey W. Schneider said today.
Bashir became known worldwide as Michael Jackson’s interviewer in the 2003 television documentary “Living With Michael Jackson,” which played a role in the entertainer’s child-molestation trial.
In a June story after Jackson’s acquittal, Nick Allen of Britain’s Press Association wrote, “Mr Bashir’s success is a far cry from his childhood growing up on a south London council estate, where he has said the only book in the house was a rent book.
“His parents are from Pakistan and he went to a local comprehensive before studying English at Southampton University.
“At 18 he converted to Christianity and went on to study religious history at King’s College, London, before beginning his career as a football reporter.”
Schneider told Journal-isms today, “diversity is an important factor in decision-making, and you can see it is reflected in a decision” like this.
Bashir joined ABC in 2004 and will continue to report for the newsmagazine “20/20,” the network said in Monday’s announcement.
Schneider said he could not discuss whether any American journalists of color were considered for the anchor slots.
“Nightline” is known for its willingness to tackle racial issues and for its appeal to African Americans. As reported in February, in the overall ratings “Nightline,” ran third behind “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on NBC and “Late Night with David Letterman” on CBS. But it rated first with African Americans.
Bashir was the subject of a scathing critique yesterday by Foxnews.com media critic Roger Friedman:
“Congratulations, David Westin. You’ve replaced serious, competent, respected Ted Koppel with the oily, obsequious Martin Bashir on ‘Nightline.’ My only question is, was Jerry Springer not available?”
In the Jackson film, “Jackson admitted, and defended, allowing boys to sleep with him in his bed,” Allen wrote for the Press Association.
“With what appeared to them to be a virtual confession of inappropriate behaviour, prosecutors and police jumped into action, raiding Jackson’s Neverland ranch, arresting him and putting him on trial.
“The 13-year-old cancer survivor seen resting his head on Jackson’s shoulder in the film . . . became the prosecution’s star witness.
“But it was Mr Bashir who gave evidence first, after the full 90-minute documentary was shown to the jury.
“He was reluctant to do so and had to be subpoenaed. It was the first time he and Jackson had seen each other since the film and the star was noticeably agitated. After the courtroom encounter, he said he felt angry.”
The story noted that Bashir, 42, “first hit the headlines in 1995 when he persuaded Diana, Princess of Wales to open her heart . . . Other exclusives followed, including interviews with killer nanny Louise Woodward and the five suspects in the Stephen Lawrence murder case,” an infamous 1993 incident in Britain in which Lawrence, a black teenager, was beaten to death by white racists.
The three who were appointed Monday will rarely anchor the same 30-minute broadcast, Nightline chief James Goldston told Gail Shister in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Goldston labels him ‘one of the best interviewers in TV journalism. His great abilities as an investigative journalist are sometimes overlooked,'” Shister wrote.
Moran is ABC’s chief White House correspondent and McFadden is a veteran ABC reporter.
- Editorial, Broadcasting and Cable: Requiem for a Heavyweight
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Added Oct. 19:
Short Takes
- A memorial service for AIDS journalist LeRoy Whitfield is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday at the National Black Theater in Harlem, 2031-33 National Black Theatre Way, at Fifth Avenue between 126th and 127th streets, New York. “Whitfield, 36, died on Oct. 9 from complications related to AIDS. Having lived with HIV for 15 years, he wrote for a range of publications about both his personal experiences and the broader politics of the epidemic, particularly as they relate to African Americans. Among the many journalistic milestones Whitfield set was serving as the founding editor of the Institute’s print magazine Kujisource,” the Black AIDS Institute wrote. Whitfield and Kai Wright on Saturday won a National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for an article in City Limits magazine, “AIDS Goes Gray.”
- On Saturday, Wayne State University’s Journalism Institute for Minorities plans to salute veteran Detroit broadcaster Emery King. “The event will also help endow JIM, an organization that provides scholarships, internships and support for minority journalism students,” Desiree Cooper of the Detroit Free Press wrote Thursday. The former WDIV-TV anchor noted that many journalists of color aren’t lucky enough to find mentors, according to Cooper’s column.
