By Katherine Q. Seelye
The New York Times
Published: 10/27/2006
Excerpt:
Dean Baquet, the Los Angeles Times editor who publicly opposed staff
cuts at his paper last month, encouraged other editors Thursday to push
back more against newspaper owners when they propose such cuts.
"Sometimes when I sit down with editors and managing editors, I find
them all too willing to buy the argument for cuts," he said. "We need
to be a feistier bunch."
He said the public service aspect of
newspapers was at stake, even as the industry faces declining revenues. "We understand the business model is changing and we have to do some
cutting," he said, "but don't understand it too much."
Mr.
Baquet was addressing more than 100 editors at the annual meeting of
the Associated Press Managing Editors. He made headlines last month
when he and Jeffrey M. Johnson, The Times's publisher, openly objected
to cuts proposed by the paper's owner, the Tribune Company. ...
...
Butch Ward, who teaches leadership and editing at the Poynter
Institute, a journalism training center in St. Petersburg, Fla., said
the decision to speak up was an individual one. "A decision many
editors are struggling with," he said, "is, after years of
belt-tightening, when do you throw up the window and scream, 'I'm tired
of this and I’m not going to take it anymore'?"
More of this article...Search Google News for more quotes by Butch Ward...
