In the beginning of the week, Adams was forced out as a result of newsroom reductions. This came as a shock to everyone when the owners announced that no one would be taking over her position meaning that the newsroom would be one editor short.  

Next came the LAT’s Baquet firing which resulted in a major morale blow for his former staff.  The highly respected editor known for his journalistic ethics and morale raising leadership style was fired because of disagreements regarding further staff cuts.

Following the big blow in LA, news came from Philadelphia that the Inquirer’s first woman editor, Bennett, was being let go for similar reasons. To avoid staff morale issues like at the LAT, the Inquirer hired Pulitzer Prize winner William Marimow as Bennett’s successor.  But, hope has been lost again after Marimow, a one-time Inquirer staffer himself, announced that more staff reductions were to occur in the near future.

After this hard-hitting week for editors coast-to-coast it seems as though it’s the newspapers that are worse off in the end.  The journalistic trend of sound editors being fired for resisting newsroom reductions may do more damage than good to the award winning newspapers.  

While newspaper owners continue searching for profits by shrinking staff, some wonder how papers can actually get better when all the resources continue to dwindle.

Source:Editor & Publisher