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Newsroom Blues

The New York Times reveals that even the grey lady isn't immune to skyrocketing newsprint costs. The paper cut 50 positions last year in an effort to offset newsprint prices, and now continues that effort by slating an additional 190 positions for elimination. No word yet on how many will be in the newsroom... Spanish-language dailies on opposite coasts fold. El Daily News , the bilingual edition of the New York Daily News , goes under, as does San Diego's only Spanish-language daily, San Diego Hoy .... Four months ago employees at Quincy, Massachusetts' Patriot Ledger agreed to take two weeks of unpaid leave over a twelve-month period to help the paper cope with increasing newsprint costs. Unfortunately, their efforts didn't help enough, and now the largest evening daily in Massachusetts is eliminating 20 full time positions and nearly 30 part time positions, about 8 percent of the paper's total workforce.

Black's New Gig

Cathleen P. Black , former president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, switches media to become president of Hearst Magazines Division, the world's largest publisher of monthly magazines. Black, who has been publisher of both USA Today and New York magazine, replaces D. Claeys Bahrenburg . John Sturm , formerly the NAA's general counsel and senior vice president, succeeds Black.

Around Newspapers

Nigel Wade , formerly assistant editor of London's Daily Telegraph , is named editor in chief of the Chicago Sun-Times . Wade replaces Dennis Britton , who resigns to take a position with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation... The Philadelphia Daily News decides two city editors are better than one. David Warner , formerly deputy city editor, is named city editor/news, while Paul Maryniak , former city hall bureau chief, is named city editor/enterprise.

In Strikebound Detroit (I)

The Detroit Sunday Journal has leased space in a former military recruiting office in downtown Detroit, which may be appropriate, because the new tabloid has launched a battle against the strikebound Detroit News and Free Press . The new paper, put out by striking News and Free Press employees, offers color and free home delivery. Publisher William M. Brown is no stranger to strike papers. He published Pennsylvania's Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice , a strike paper that was converted into a for-profit paper in 1989. Striking Free Press columnist Susan Watson is coediting the Sunday Journal, along with Norm Sin-clair , a veteran investigative reporter for the News. "We're out there for readers who don't want to buy a scab paper but miss the crossword and the TV guide," says Sinclair. "And our readers know it's a true labor of love because we're doing it for free."

In Strikebound Detroit (II)

Detroit Free Press Publisher Neal Shine retires after 45 years with the paper. But this isn't Shine's first attempt to leave the Free Press, where he began his career as a copy boy. He retired once before in 1989, returning nine months later when Knight-Ridder offered him the publisher position. "I consider myself a failed retiree, but I'm going to try again," says Shine, 65. "Unless [Knight-Ridder CEO] Tony Ridder wants to give me his job I think this time it's for good." Shine admits that the ongoing strike in Detroit "sort of saddens what should be a celebration of 45 years on a great newspaper," but says he has no illusions about the complexity of the situation. "If I thought staying would help hasten the end of the strike I would stay, but there's nothing I see on the horizon that indicates that." Shine says he will definitely miss the excitement of the newsroom, which, he says, "can't be duplicated anywhere but maybe in mission control." And for someone who has witnessed 45 years of the evolution of newspapering, Shine says he's not sentimental at all about the way newspapers used to be. "[Newspapering] is a much less free-wheeling and more responsible business than it ever was," he says. "I don't miss anything about the way it was, not even the spittoons they used to have on the floor." Succeeding Shine is the paper's executive editor, Heath Meriwether , who in turn is succeeded by Managing Editor Robert McGruder .

Rosey Ascends

Robert J. Rosenthal takes over as the Philadelphia Inquirer 's executive editor with the paper in cutback mode. But while the former associate managing editor says he'll be working in "a very challenged environment, as every newspaper is today," he says he looks forward to the challenge because "the values the paper has had in terms of quality, investigations and explanatory journalism are absolutely entrenched in me." Rosenthal, 47, a 16-year Inquirer veteran who has also worked for the Boston Globe and the New York Times , describes himself as "a story person," and says he sees his new role at the Inquirer as that of catalyst. "I want to get this place much more aggressive and on its toes in terms of responding to stories," he says. Rosenthal succeeds Inky veteran Jim Naughton , who takes a buyout. Also exiting the paper on a buyout is Managing Editor Steve Lovelady , who leaves to become Time Inc.'s editor at large. The new post, which will have him serving as an overall editorial resource to managing editors of Time's New York-based magazines, was created especially for Lovelady, who was recently described in an Inquirer article as "the master wordsmith on the paper's most important projects."

Grounded

Perks for journalists just aren't what they used to be. Or at least that's how Detroit's Warren Pierce , former morning anchor for WJBK-TV , probably sees things after being fired for borrowing cars from auto companies, purportedly to keep up with the auto industry. Pierce used some 99 cars over the past two years, including such luxury rides as Mercedes', BMWs and Jaguars, and drove each for about a week, according to a Detroit News report. Pierce, who had been with WJBK for two years and had been in Detroit broadcasting for 18 years before that, says such perks are "the way the system works. Everybody knows it." The problem is that BMW didn't think the system was working all that well. Company officials complained that Pierce frequently drove cars but never produced a review. Pierce, for his part, says that he never promised a review and that his only transgression was a minor lapse in judgment.

Back From Cyberspace

Time 's Walter Isaacson emerges as managing editor in the latest shakeup at the newsweekly. Isaacson, 43, had been editor for new media at Time for the past two years, and was credited with grooming Pathfinder , Time's World Wide Web site, into one of the Web's more high-profile venues. But he says that his foray into cyberspace reinforced his belief in the mission of Time in print. "You discover in cyberspace that when people have thousands of sources of information hitting them each moment and they don't know which ones are reliable, brand names become more important, as does the need to be credible and authoritative," Isaacson says. "And that's why Henry Luce invented Time in the first place – to sort out the clutter and the complexity." So now Isaacson happily returns to the non-digital world, in a position he describes as "obviously the best job in journalism." He succeeds James R. Gaines , who lands in Time's corporate offices in the new position of corporate editor.