Editorial Page Editor Forced Out Over 'Local' Dispute

[Robbien]

Source: E & P

NEW YORK In the latest upheaval for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Editorial Page Editor Susan Albright will leave the paper after 14 years at the helm following a dispute over localizing the editorial page.

In a story on the Star Tribune Web site, the paper stated "the editor who oversees the Star Tribune's institutional voice will leave the newspaper because of philosophical differences with the publisher, who favors a deeper focus on editorials about local rather than international issues."

. . .

Harte, the chairman of the Star Tribune company, assumed the publisher's title last week when former publisher Par Ridder was forced out by a court ruling, the paper added. It said his decision about Albright "was not rooted in political differences with Albright."

The paper reported that Harte contended his objections stemmed from "her choice of assignments for her stable of writers…He gave as examples the Iraq war and global warming, saying the Star Tribune pays for opinion pieces on those subjects from news services and the nation's largest newspapers and needn't write its own.

. . .

"Harte has demanded that editorials in the Star Tribune demonstrate 'no sharp elbows.' So local and bland is his prescription for his editorial page," Boyd wrote. "To my way of thinking, that is no editorial page at all. It is a genuflection toward the belief that a newspaper must have such a page, coupled with a determination to make it as inconsequential as possible, a boring page to skip over during your morning read.

Read more: http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003647281

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Getting to be standard. Papers only to have the establishment approved opinion letters.

[Red Zelda]

1. Typical

Newspapers' bizarre love of "local" over broader national and world topics cheapens journalism and demeans readers. I spent years fighting this absurd trend to no avail.

Editors think that by spewing reams of mostly meaningless "local" news, they maintain a place in consumers' lives. In reality, they are further driving their products' slippage toward oblivion.

[yellerpup]

2. This is what happens when an Advertising Manager

takes over the Editorial page.

[NJCher]

3. Bad move

I recall many of the editorials being posted here. I often thought the paper was extraordinarily progressive for being in the midwest, even the upper midwest. This is a real loss.



Cher

[blm]

4. This is the direction McClatchy papers are going in - it will be just like Sinclair Broadcasting

but for newsprint.

Approved national editorials from a limited stable with the rest all local and provincial viewpoints.

[flpoljunkie]

5. How very sad for what's left of free expression in this country, blm!

[Tyler Durden]

6. One reason why I don't buy a newspaper.

I borrow/steal a peak at someone else's and make a point of telling the paper what I'm doing and why.

[AngryOldDem]

7. Newspapers are killing themselves.

The newspaper here has dumbed-down its coverage to the point where ALL stories, no matter how big or important, are kept to ONE page. No jumps. It was decided that the readership would not have the interest/attention span to follow a story from page 1 to inside. Then, it tries to cram as many stories on page one as it can. Rarely do you find a story of national or international interest featured prominently on the front page. More often than not, those stories are BURIED deep in the first section, or in the second section, which comes just before the sports section.

The editorial page now features a "Point/Counterpoint" viewpoint where the writers hedge their bets by presenting the opposite view alongside their own, completely negating and undermining the newspaper's voice, not to mention the sole purpose of the op-ed page. I honestly can't tell you where the paper stands on anything, because it has muzzled its own voice, most likely out of fear of pissing someone off.

Instead of opinion, we are treated to man on the street interviews with questions that have nothing whatsoever to do with anything of any importance. ("Who do you think should be kicked off the next Survivor?")

Instead, we get endless first-person essays from reporters and columnists on everything from their kids taking their first shits in the potty to what it's like to grow really huge tomatoes in the garden this year.

Newspapers have made themselves irrelevant, as has most other media.