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Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 6/8/2007 11:56:22 AM
Title: Satullo steps down as Inky editorial page editor
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 11:41 AM
To: Inquirer
Subject: Message from Chris Satullo

Colleagues --

In Sunday's Currents section, the attached column announces my decision to step down as editorial page editor of the paper. I'll be taking on a new role as a twice-weekly columnist and director of civic engagement, running the Citizen Voices program. I also plan to challenge Dick Polman for the title of Wordiest Blogger on Philly.com.

Brian Tierney plans to look at internal and external candidates; I'll leave the job formally when my replacement is named and settles in, but my hope in the coming weeks is to turn more and more of the decision-making over to the board's superb deputy editor, Harold Jackson. I'll be focused primarily on sustaining and advancing the momentum of the Great Expectations project.

My thanks to everyone in this newsroom who gave me advice and support over the years as I tried to help the Editorial Board do its work well. It's been a privilege.

Chris Satullo

.....

Excerpt of Satullo's upcoming column:

I am stepping down as editorial page editor of The Inquirer.

When Brian P. Tierney, CEO and publisher of the paper, chooses my replacement, I’ll move into a new role. In essence, I’ll get more time to do two of my favorite parts of the old role.

I'll write this column, “Center Square,” twice a week. I'll join the chattering online throng and do a blog version, too. And I’ll continue and extend my work as the director of Citizen Voices, the much-acclaimed program of civic engagement I helped found in 1996. This will include carrying forward Great Expectations, the ambitious civic conversation about the future of the Philadelphia region that we’ve pursued in this mayoral election year.

Being an editorial page editor is one of the great jobs in the known universe. I’ve loved my seven years in the chair, and the six before that as deputy to Jane Eisner. This job lets you lead a group of journalists, the Editorial Board, who are unusually dedicated, talented and collegial. It puts you smack in the middle of the rolling, raucous and occasionally reasonable conversation known as American democracy. It gives you a chance to take the measure of the powerful, and to use your pages to hold them to account. Even better, it enables you to get to know thousands of your fellow citizens in all their variety, sincerity and quirks.

So, why leave all that?

This decision flows from a convergence of factors. The easiest way to sum it up is this: Thirteen years is a long time to do any one demanding thing. ...

Over the last 13 years, this Editorial Board has received national notice for its innovations in opening up its pages to readers. Before the fiscal convulsions of the last two years forced some painful cuts, we published more pages of outside commentary and letters than any other American newspaper. This included three different local Commentary pages each weekday, and eight grassroots Community Voices pages on Sunday.

Earlier than most journalists, we put our phone numbers and e-mail addresses in the paper; we spent hours responding to those messages, sometimes fostering friendly dialogues with readers that have endured for years, despite origins in rancor. ...


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