US: Mercury News editor departed after three-section paper proposal?

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 9, 2008 at 10:33 AM

Puzzled staffers are trying to figure out the reasons for the surprise departure of San Jose Mercury News editor Carole Leigh Hutton last week, which may have been due, among other things, to her boss’ refusal to structure the paper around three sections.

The Mercury News has been undergoing many major newsroom and editorial changes, as part of a plan to rethink the newsroom.

One of these aspects, discussed during a presentation mid-December, involved turning the daily into a three-section paper. The new structure would have grouped all news in the first section, business and technology in the second, and sports and entertainment in the third. The paper currently runs four-to-five sections.

David J. Butler, MediaNews vice president for news, who replaced Hutton as editor of the Mercury News, said that Hutton’s plans to “blow up the paper” may have been too bold for now, but didn’t mention the three-section idea.

However, "I think that did scare a lot of people and I would be surprised if that was not part of it," said Sylvia Ulloa, president of the San Jose Newspaper Guild. "That was one of the proposals."

Neither Butler nor Hutton gave ground to the speculation in their comments. The Mercury News has gone through three top editors in less than a year.

Source: Editor & Publisher