Publisher Craig Moon is bringing in a new senior-level editor, following top Editor Ken Paulson's departure, according to a reliable tipster, who's given me the candidate's name. The individual would be such an unlikely choice for a senior editing job, however, that I'm withholding the name, pending further confirmation. I'm posting as much as I can now, in hopes of flushing out more information.Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Please note my careful wording (a new "senior" editor) in this post. It wasn't an accident.
ReplyDeleteIt's conceivable, I guess, that this new senior editor would technically be paid by an organization outside Gannett.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteIt is no surprise that it will be Tom Callihan from Cincy. This is the chap that Dubow has been pushing for to replace Paulson.
Could it be "BOB COLLINS" ?
ReplyDeleteI hear they're bringing sexy back. The position will be filled by Jim Hopkins.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Sexy, yes! Me as a USA Today employee again, no!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, my tipster and I have swapped more overnight mail. This deal sounds real, and possibly imminent. But the candidate sounds more interim than permanent, if I correctly understand this slightly loopy idea.
Maybe it's that Super guy people have talked about from Jersey
ReplyDeleteThat would be Tom Callinan. There are a couple of ex-USA Today editors at the Enquirer. Callinan, who I believe worked on the national desk and whose pedigree goes back a long way in Gannett, and Lee Ann Hamilton, deputy ME. Callinan going to USA Today at the top would be nothing short of remarkable.
ReplyDeleteIt's not Callinan.
ReplyDeleteSounds like they're leaving the existing leadership but bringing in some Yahoo (careful wording, as Jim would say), to concentrate on digital marketing.
ReplyDeleteBut the Yahoo in question is hardly a "well-known'' editor.
It's Tom Daschle, right?
ReplyDeleteHe needs a job, what with his recent disappointment and tax problem.
IT'S BIG AL!!!
ReplyDeleteTHE SOB RETURNS ...
10:28 LOL. Yeah, right: Freedom Forum is buying USA Today at a deep discount, and Big Al is installing his chiropractor professional baby adopter wife as the new top editor.
ReplyDeleteUh: no. It's not Neuharth, either. BTW: How come everyone's floating the names of men? Couldn't the next editor be a woman?
Someone from AP or NPR perhaps?
ReplyDeleteNot the AP's Hal Ritter (puh-leeze!) or NPR's Kinsey Wilson (we rats generally don't scurry back up the gangplank once we've escaped the ship).
ReplyDeleteKetzel Levine is out of work, laid off by NPR last month, mid-assignment. That would be a surprise, since she's mostly done radio. She was a SENIOR correspondent.
ReplyDeleteCould it be "Ben Dover" since we are all taking it up the ol' wazzu
ReplyDeleteThe reason they're guessing men is one of the disgraces of our industry.
ReplyDelete"The male culture at newspapers tends to be self-perpetuating," a Media Management Center study states. "Those in control follow the human tendency to hire and promote others like themselves."
Karen Jurgensen
ReplyDeleteSparky, Lovey or Thurston would work!
ReplyDeleteSounds like Craigy-poo's gimmick-for-the-day to serve up at the board of directors' meeting. Everything is coming up roses, he will tell them.
ReplyDeleteAnd from what I'm reading about the Gannett board, they'll immediately accept that all is well in these new hands, so as not to delay their after-meeting dinner at the most expensive restaurant in town.
Geneva Overholser
ReplyDeleteHints:
ReplyDelete-Might be paid by an organization outside Gannett.
-Jim would never be a USAT employee again.
It's Jim!
I have no guess, but I think those of you who are guessing aren't guessing old enough -- or well known enough.
ReplyDeleteNeuharth comes out of retirement to save USAT.
ReplyDeleteLarry St. Cyr!
ReplyDeleteBob Collins
ReplyDeleteBarbara Henry
ReplyDeleteOK, we need another hit ... or a lifeline call.
ReplyDeleteDavid Swensen or Michael Schmidt, who wrote the column, "News You Can Endow." They proposed "another option: Turn them into nonprofit, endowed institutions — like colleges and universities."
ReplyDeleteI don't know how senior they are, however.
dean singleton
ReplyDeleteIt's done. Henry Freeman will be announced at the Board of Directors meeting on February 16.
ReplyDeleteWendy P. McCaw
ReplyDeleteThe name I've been given is not Singleton, Freeman or McCaw.
ReplyDeleteYet, allow me to linger a moment over Wendy McCaw's name, to say how much I enjoy the thought of Oprah's Southern California neighbor getting the job. Based on what I've read about McCaw's reign of terror at the Santa Barbara newspaper, she'd feel right at home in Gannett.
It is something interesting to contemplate, isn't it.
ReplyDeleteHer journalistic values, great wealth and prediliction for rewarding intimates do indeed qualify her in a unique way.
Possibly a Washington Post retread?
ReplyDeleteKatharine Graham?
ReplyDeleteBig Al returns!
ReplyDelete12:46 pm: "The hope shall rise again. And the nightmare lives on!"
ReplyDeleteIs it Tina Brown? Arianna Huffington? Anna Wintour (who, by the way, is a really good journalist.)
ReplyDelete12:58 am: No, no and no. (USAT can't afford Wintour's sunglass budget!)
ReplyDeleteAre they bringing Phil Currie out of retirement?
ReplyDelete1:28 pm. [Imagine me as the tortured subject in Edvard Munch's iconic "The Scream"] N-o-o-o-o!
ReplyDeleteis Ward Bushee going to end his SF Chron reign early and get the job he supposedly was perviously denied?
ReplyDelete2:03 pm: Now you're getting colder.
ReplyDeleteDes Moines' own Michael Gartner
ReplyDeleteTom Callinan is too much of a shrinking violet and antisocial to qualify for any leadership job. Here's his Facebook entry. No. 14 says it all. He's so starved for friends, he's put his employees in the awkward position of either accepting his unwanted "friend" solicitations or ending up on the next layoff list.
ReplyDelete25 Things About Me
25. I really miss Minnesota and that feeling of my mustache freezing up.
24. I miss my pool in Florida and sleeping outside under the stars in Arizona.
23. I am a weather schizophreniac.
22. And so am I.
21. I miss living in small towns.
20. I miss living in big towns.
19. I love Cincinnati because it is in the middle of all of above
18. I work too much.
17. But I dream of taking time with buddies and going on a golf junket.
16. But while I try I don't really like golf.
15. And I really don't like to get off my ass and travel.
14. And, with due deference to my pals, I'm such an introvert I really don't like being with people that much.
13. Unless it's my job, which I get paid for.
12. That's why one of my best friends ever was Morris in New York.
11. He had a hearing problem and couldn't hear a damn thing.
10. But he liked to play craps.
9. So we'd drive the hour to the casino and have a great time.
8. He couldn't hear. I didn't want to to talk anyway. What a friend.
7. I always bet on 7. Mickey Mantle, Hedge of 8. Yogi Berra.
6. I am very proud to be a Vietnam veteran.
5. I love Maureen and my family. I got very lucky in life.
4. I am a newspaper guy trying to remain relevant in the new media world.
3. Some people may think I am trying too hard.
2. OK, I am obsessive. I love this stuff.
1. It's cool to connect with friends from long ago and make new ones. I really, really love social media. I may even tweet or Facebook my friend Morris. Just don't ask us to talk, OK.
Anastasia Beaverhousin
ReplyDeleteMichael Gartner, now that's a possibility. But you won't like him.
ReplyDeleteLen Downie?
ReplyDeleteJim -- what is this BS about playing "I know something you don't know" -- it's on sources but I can't say yet, but I'll play 20 questions with you and tell you who it might not be. Cripes. If you know, report it. If not, tell us when you do. There's too much uncertainty swirling around everywhere as it is. Why add to that melodrama?
ReplyDeleteBa Ba Booey?
ReplyDeleteWalter Cronkite
ReplyDeleteI hope it is Callahan. he is an idiot and will ruin USAT even more than it already is. So I hope he gets it. He has already dumped in Cincy.
ReplyDeleteThe other choice is one of Gannett's "chosen" editor kids, that woman who has moved around about 20 times the last 10 years... went to Louisina... was in Indiana... can't remember her name. Super Gannett brown-noser... about 35....
Damn! Can't think of the name!
Alright Jim,, fess up> Just tell everybody, it is really me? The first thing I am going to do as the NEW EDITOR OF USATODAY, to to change the name to "GANNETTBLOGSUCKS". On a more serious note: What is Karen Jurgensen, doing now.
ReplyDeleteJudy Woodruff.
ReplyDeleteLen Downie or Phil Bronstein. or Sharon Stone.
ReplyDeleteI happen to be free, BTW. I'm just sayin...
anyone by Carolyn Washburn of Ds Moines. Nurse Ratchet of the presidential Debate Smackdown.
Callihan too anti-social for gtannett?
ReplyDeleteAre you de-ranged?
Gannett thrives on outcast, anti-social socio-pathic, paranoid, full-of-themselves losers!
So why isn't Callihan a good choice???
By the way, another idiot, the group pub at Wilmington, Curty Riddle, would be a great choice. Met him once.... whatta loser.
My guess is that Keith Moyer, a long-time friend / colleague of Craig Moon is the new "Senior Editor" being brought in at USAT.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, if I'm right, will Jim admit it?
How about Arnie Garson?
ReplyDeleteKathy Kozdemba..ol' helmet hair herself!!!
ReplyDeletemy guess is either Kate Kennedy or someone from Poynter
ReplyDeleteSomeone from the Dharma Initiative.
ReplyDelete3:10 pm wrote: "If you know, report it. If not, tell us when you do."
ReplyDeleteI apologize for any additional uncertainty I may have created. But, again, I have reported as much as I dare at this point. I'm not trying to play games; that would be a huge waste of my time and yours. Rather, I'm gathering information about the situation in the only way I know how, via crowdsourcing. That is one of the ways online journalism works.
And, so far, I'm glad I've withheld the individual's name because I haven't gotten anything close to confirmation from anyone yet. The moment I do, I will pass that information on.
Jim's hints:
ReplyDelete1. A new "senior" editor. Careful wording on "senior."
2. Salary possibly paid by organization outside Gannett.
3. Well-known.
4. "Slightly loopy idea."
5. "Sounds more interim than permanent."
Got to be Charles Overby.
SCJ?
ReplyDeleteKathy Kozdemba?!? Oh, I do hope so! I've got lots of stories I could tell.
ReplyDeleteJohn C. Quinn. Game, set and match.
ReplyDeleteKathy Black
ReplyDeleteMary Stier?
ReplyDeletePaid by her own company?
A condition for her departure withheld until now?
Entertaining though this guessing game may be (for a few people, anyway), I'm actually looking for confirmation of the individual's name that I've been given.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I'd really like to hear from people who KNOW something about the candidate, rather than only reading your guesses.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMary Stier was recently hired by the University of Iowa to head up some sort of binge-drinking task force, so I doubt it's her.
ReplyDeleteAmazing.
ReplyDeleteI just got an error message on my computer as a scrolled through the list of speculation.
"This page contains some insecure elements."
Robert T Collins
ReplyDeleteaka:Little Napolean
2:26...you scored. When he was in Phoenix I don't think I've ever met anyone more uncomfortable in public situations.
ReplyDeleteBob Giles?
ReplyDeleteWe're clearly talking about John Seigenthaler.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Monte Trammer?
ReplyDeleteMark Silverman????
ReplyDeleteI hope it is Mark Silverman.
ReplyDeleteOK, Jim, I'll take the bait and run with it:
ReplyDeleteFormer AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi, who would come in in an interim role and be paid by the Freedom Forum's Center for Media Studies.
I have NEVER had the slightest interest in working for USAT, but I would love to work for John Seigenthaler. Such a move may not save the company - or do anything to innovate/migrate us to digital, but it sure as hell would raise our credibility rating as journalists.
ReplyDeleteDavid Ledford, he would fire them up.
ReplyDeleteRobin Ophelia Quivers?
ReplyDeleteTom Curley
ReplyDeleteJohn Quinn..was in the building today
ReplyDeleteBob Dubill??
ReplyDelete