In late 2012, I was the recently minted public editor (or newsroom guarddog) at the New York Times, when the news hit that Mark Thompson was mostlikely to be the paper’s next CEO. I looked into his background at the BBC where he was director-general throughout a troubled duration, and composed a post questioning the Times hire. Slow down and examine, I advised.
I was mostlikely violating my bounds, because Thompson would be on the service side and not be straight included in the journalism that I was expected to be keeping an eye on.
The New York tabloids ran a huge heading calling me the “Thompson Gunner.” Then-publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (who neverever interfered with my work) went so far as to state that I may haveactually offered him a heads-up. And I saw an e-mail exchange in which one Times reporter stated to another, “She’s going THERE?”
But, as I keptinmind, the service side of any media business does impact the newsroom: “His stability and decision-making are bound to impact The Times and its journalism – exceptionally. It’s worth thinkingabout now whether he is the right individual for the task.”
Thompson, of course, came aboard. And, throughout his eight-year Times period, he not just assisted transform the paper for the digital age, however showed a strong understanding of the newsroom’s objective. The standard rigorous separations inbetween newsroom and company side were liquifying – previous Times executive editor Jill Abramson hasactually composed about her pain, at times, with that — however a spirit of regard dominated.
And the Times, then beleaguered by monetary issues and layoffs, changed its primary income source from print marketing to digital customers; that was big.
Now, Thompson hasactually been tapped to run another beleagured leviathan: CNN. He endsupbeing the 3rd chief executive in under 2 years, follow