Bylines   

Newspaper Purgatory

Palm Beach Post columnist Ron Wiggins spends a few weeks in what Post Editor Edward Sears calls "newspaper purgatory" after promoting a company he had stock in on an online message board. Wiggins, a 23-year veteran of the paper, had written two columns about Saf-T-Lok, a company that makes gun locks, between 1989 and 1994. But after purchasing $17,000 of Saf-T-Lok stock in August of 1995, Wiggins refrained from mentioning the company to his newspaper audience. Instead, he turned his attention to lobbying the paper's business department, as well as local politicians, to take an interest in the company, and to touting Saf-T-Lok online. Since Wiggins made no effort to conceal his identity in cyberspace, it was only a matter of time before word that he had compared Saf-T-Lok's founder to Jonas Salk on an America Online message board got back to the newsroom. At that point, Sears suspended Wiggins for a week with pay while the paper launched an investigation into the extent to which Wiggins had violated the paper's ethical guidelines, running its findings in an article on November 2. Wiggins declined to comment other than to say the experience was "very painful." Sears says he stands by the punishment, which has been criticized by some as being too soft. "If paddling were allowed," he adds, "perhaps we'd do that in addition to letting him hang out to dry."

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" Coaches Corner ," a newsletter devoted to the concerns of those who coach writing at newspapers, publishes its last issue after more than 11 years. "Coaches Corner" evolved from a cut-and-paste publication created on cofounder Paul Salsini 's dining room table into the definitive word on coaching read by more than 175 subscribers in newsrooms and classrooms across the country. Unfortunately, the labor of love ultimately became too costly to produce, and Salsini, who last April left his position as writing coach at the Milwaukee Journal after 11 years to become a volunteer coordinator for the Milwaukee AIDS project, admits that producing the quarterly newsletter was no longer the priority it once had been.

A Preemptive Strike

While newspaper stories often prompt government investigations into allegations of misconduct, it is far less common for the government to scoop an investigative piece. But that's exactly what happened at the Seattle Times . Two days before it began running a five-part series on ethical violations in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's Indian housing program, the paper published a story about a letter in which HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros , reacting to charges that had not yet been reported, announced that the agency's inspector general would investigate. Times Chief Investigative Reporter Eric Nalder says he had no reservations about tipping off the subjects of the investigation. "Usually you have to be careful about that because you don't want to tip off the competition," Nalder says, "but our investigation was so extensive that nobody's going to catch up with it."

Broadcast Bound

San Francisco Chronicle Managing Editor Daniel Rosenheim crosses over into the world of television news. Rosenheim, who has no broadcast experience and admits that he has "a lot to learn" about the field, becomes news director of San Francisco's KRON-TV , a subsidiary of the Chronicle. Managing editor since 1993 and before that city editor of the Chronicle for six years, Rosenheim, 47, says he needed a new challenge and was inspired by an opportunity to "do news on the electronic side for a change." "I'm coming in as a news person who is a viewer, not a producer, of television. If that's got an upside, it's also got a downside," Rosenheim says. "But I'm humbled a bit, and I'm hoping that some of the skills will translate."

From MTV to CBS

MTV News reporter and producer Alison Stewart moves to the mainstream, joining CBS as a correspondent. Stewart, 30, started out as an assistant to MTV's "veejays" in 1988 and eventually muscled her way into the news department. She says she never imagined back then that she would end up at one of the "Big Three." She says her new position, which will have her contributing to "CBS This Morning," "48 Hours" and the network's upcoming newsmagazine, "Coast to Coast," is a testament to the status of alternative news outlets. "I had to do a dog and pony show, but I was suprised at how receptive the networks were to me," says Stewart, who was courted by ABC and CBS. "But I told them I wasn't going to be their youth girl and they seemed to accept that."

Around Magazines

Times Mirror's Outdoor Life magazine names a new editor in chief after its previous top editors, Stephen W. Byers and Will Bourne , quit last July in protest of a decision to pull an article critical of a hunting practice called "bear-baiting" (see Bylines, October). Todd W. Smith joins the 1.35-million circulation Outdoor Life from Petersen Publishing Company, where he was editor of Hunting magazine. In the issue prior to Smith's arrival, Outdoor Life ran the article that prompted the exodus of Smith's predecessors, though the controversial piece by Colorado wildlife biologist Tom Beck was packaged with a pro bear-baiting piece by another writer... Michael Barone leaves U.S. News & World Report to join the Washington bureau of Reader's Digest , where he will write about political, cultural and social trends and oversee the magazine's opinion polls... Marshall Loeb , a former managing editor at Fortune and Money magazines, is the new editor of Columbia Journalism Review .

Fox News Update

C-SPAN Capitol Hill producer Jim Mills , who has conducted more than 600 live interviews with members of Congress during his four-year tenure at the network, joins Fox's cable counterpart, Fox News Channel, as senior editor, Capitol Hill... Brit Hume , ABC 's chief White House correspondent for the past eight years, is also moving to Fox, where he will be chief Washington correspondent and managing editor, Washington. Hume will contribute to Fox's broadcast network as well as to Fox News Channel.

On the Infobahn

Time Inc. announces that Daniel Okrent , formerly managing editor of Life magazine, will be editor of new media and will oversee the editorial content of the company's online and cable publishing operations... The Chicago Tribune names its chief of correspondents, Howard Witt , associate managing editor for interactive news... The New York Times launches a new partnership with Feed , a leading journal of thought and opinion on the World Wide Web. Visitors to the Times' service on America Online, @times , will be able to read current articles from Feed while visitors to the Feed site (http://www.Feedmag.com) will be able to join in on live discussions related to Times content.

Around Newspapers

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer names former Washington Post ombudsman Joann Byrd editorial page editor. Most recently a professional-in-residence at the newspaper ethics program of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Byrd says she is looking forward to returning to her home in the Pacific Northwest.... Author and former Newsweek White House correspondent Thomas M. DeFrank joins the New York Daily News as Washington bureau chief... Will Sutton , who recently stepped down as editor of Gary, Indiana's Post-Tribune (see Bylines, October) gets a new gig down South as assistant managing editor of Raleigh, North Carolina's News & Observer ... Kay Tucker Addis is named editor of Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot , replacing Cole C. Campbell , who recently became editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (see Bylines, October). Tucker Addis was the Virginian-Pilot's human resources director.

Let the Sunshine In

"60 Minutes" mainstay Mike Wallace calls for the establishment of a national news council to reach non-binding rulings on the fairness of news stories when subjects complain. Perhaps inspired by a "60 Minutes" segment profiling Minnesota's news council, Wallace seems to be embarking on something of a crusade to save the soul of journalism. "All of us journalists are perfectly willing to call attention to profligate politicians, priests and potentates, but we show little enthusiasm when similar attention is focused on us," Wallace said in a December 4 speech at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center. "What is wrong with letting the American public see institutions in which they very much want to have confidence..engage in a rational and sensible public dialogue, willing to acknowledge or at least to debate that perhaps they erred, perhaps they exaggerated, perhaps they were unfair?"... Meanwhile, perhaps the world's most trusted journalist ever, Walter Cronkite , is given a celestial honor by the California Institute of Technology. Astronomer Eleanor F. Helin announces the renaming of asteroid "1990 WA" as "6318 Cronkite." "This is a member of a class of asteroids that are normally named, by tradition, for gods and godesses," Helin says. "It is extremely rare that a near-Earth asteroid be named for a living person."

Neuharth Steps Down

The Freedom Forum announces staff changes at the top. Charles L. Overby , president and CEO of the international foundation since 1989, retains the CEO title as he is promoted to chairman, succeeding Allen H. Neuharth . Peter S. Prichard , a former editor of USA Today and most recently executive director of the Newseum, scheduled to open in April, becomes president. "With the upcoming opening of the Newseum and with our expanding operations on five continents," says Neuharth, "the time is right for an orderly transition to younger, vigorous leadership."