Copyright © 1999 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Just In: Media

At the Globe, nowhere to go but sideways

By Dan Kennedy

The real message behind this week's lateral shakeup of midlevel editors at the Boston Globe is that there's no room in the penthouse. The paper's troika of top editors isn't anywhere near retirement age: editor Matt Storin is 56, executive editor Helen Donovan is 51, and managing editor Greg Moore is 44. With the most prestigious jobs already accounted for, the prevailing school of thought is that the best way to keep veteran editors focused and energized is to move them around.

"We do have a lot of people who have been here a long time," says Storin. "I do think people need new challenges."

To be sure, not every change was merely for change's sake. Metro editor Teresa Hanafin, who's moving to the newly created position of assistant managing editor for technology, has wanted out of her high-stress position for some time now. Her replacement, city editor Peter Canellos, is touted by many insiders as having the right combination of smarts and leadership skills to revive the Globe's spotty local coverage. Canellos joined the paper's editing ranks less than a year ago, so it will be interesting to see if he can deliver the goods.

Another change -- making foreign editor Sam Allis a bigfoot reporter -- puts Allis in a position where he excelled for Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal, and removes him from a spot he reportedly didn't much like. Indeed, Allis had thrown his hat into the ring for one of the two metro-columnist jobs, which were eventually given to Adrian Walker and Brian McGrory.

Though it's hardly unusual for the Globe to shuffle the deck, particularly in the months after a major election, this week's was the most far-reaching in memory. In addressing the staff on Monday, Storin made it clear that he wants to set a new direction after the paper's disastrous 1998, and that the reassignments are a part of that.

Also part of that new direction was a dinner New York Times Company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. held with about a half-dozen staff members last Thursday at Truc, a chic South End eatery. Hosted by Globe publisher Ben Taylor, the session gave some of the troops a chance to meet the owner -- and to provide Sulzberger a forum in which to offer some understated reassurances. "He was charming, bright, a good conversationalist," says Globe Magazine writer Charlie Stein, who was among the invitees. "He had done his homework about each person there, and I was impressed that he went to that length."

Sulzberger also went out of his way, Stein says, to emphasize that the Times Company would continue to take a "hands-off approach" in its management of the Globe, even though the five-year contracts granted to Storin, Taylor, and other top executives when the paper was sold expired late last year. Worries about the future persist, however. When Storin told staffers on Monday that Sulzberger had offered assurances that the Times Company would leave the Globe alone, columnist Joan Vennochi -- who was also at the Truc dinner -- reportedly piped up, "He said, 'For now.' " ("We all laughed," Storin says. Vennochi could not be reached for comment.)

Although there's plenty of insider speculation as to what some of the other changes portend, there may be less to them than meets the eye. For instance, Moore had the Sunday paper removed from his portfolio, and Donovan, with the help of national editor Mark Morrow, has been given the task of coming up with new ideas to improve the Sunday paper's quality and stop the circulation slide. Some interpret that as a slap at Moore. But the change will last for only one year, and in any case others note that Moore has been given increased responsibility for the daily paper, which could bolster his clout. "People can read into it whatever they want to. There's nothing I can do about that," says Moore. "I'm very happy about the change. It's a way for us to do something different and stay in the same building."

Still other moves have more to do with the domino effect. The longest string of dominos involves Allis. Health-and-science editor Nils Bruzelius replaces Allis as foreign editor; political editor Doug Bailey replaces Bruzelius at health and science; business editor Larry Edelman replaces Bailey as political editor; deputy business editor Peter Mancusi replaces Edelman as business editor; and Globe Magazine assistant editor Bennie DiNardo replaces Mancusi as assistant business editor.

Also moving are Joe Williams, from assistant city editor to city editor; Nick King, from Living-section editor to magazine editor; Evelynne Kramer, from magazine editor to an as-yet-unspecified senior editing position; and Fiona Luis, who's married to Doug Bailey, from assistant Living editor to Living editor.