Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Another resignation at News-Leader: Will the last one to leave turn out the lights?

The battle between the Joplin Globe and the Springfield News-Leader to see which venerable newspaper will be considered the revolving door of southwest Missouri journalism continues, and for the moment at least, the Springfield newspaper has the upper hand.

Sources close to the News-Leader tell The Turner Report that the latest to hit the road is City Hall reporter Jane Huh, who is taking a reporting job in northern Indiana.

Ms. Huh is the latest in a line of young reporters hired as older ones, fed up with the newspaper's leadership, have left at an alarming rate, including well-respected veterans Jenny Filmer, who took a public relations position, Matt Wagner, who has come back to haunt the News-Leader with a number of scoops for the Springfield Business Journal, and Nina Rao. The younger ones are not hanging around either, and more have to be hired as others depart.

The departure of Ms. Huh puts a crimp in editors' plans to send her to Jefferson City to replace the departed and apparently unlamented Tracy Swartz, whose sudden resignation changed the News-Leader's situation from having a vacuum with a byline in Jeff City to no byline at all.

The same sources say more resignations are in the offing as reporters are fed up with ill-advised Gannett corporate mandates that are geared toward the bottom line and not with publishing a professional newspaper.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not sure where Randy is getting his info, but he couldn't be more accurate if he was hiding in the toilets. Nice to see that someone on the outside gets it.