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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 10/3/2008 8:06:31 AM
Title: Resigning is the easy way out
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From ROGER PLOTHOW, editor and publisher, Post Register, Idaho Falls: As the tumult in the newspaper business deepens, it's becoming increasingly popular for journalists -- particularly those, like me, who participated in the comparative heydays -- to express their objections to job cuts and reduced spending by resigning their positions.

The respected editor of the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Steve Smith, is the latest. While I understand this inclination -- I've thought about falling on my sword from time to time myself -- it's an impulse we should resist. Print/online journalism has never needed passionate, experienced, committed and intelligent journalists more than now.

In a way, resignation is the easy way out. We all get that newsroom leaders don't support spending cuts. We all get that they don't want to be seen as colluding with the "enemy" in the CFO's office. Walking away makes a brief impact but robs our newspapers of the very talent we need most.

I don't know Steve Smith well, but I know his newspaper and its record of the highest quality of local and regional journalism. I do know the publisher of the Spokesman-Review, Stacey Cowles, and have no doubt that these cuts and the impact on the newspaper and its employees pain him deeply.

A newspaper has no voice at all if it doesn't stay in business. The current financial stress is the worst in several generations, but we can weather it. More to the point, we must. To do that, we need our best and brightest to stay tied to the mast. That doesn't mean meekly accepting every cut, every compromise, every concession -- it means continuing to fight the good fight.

I regret Steve's decision and hope he reconsiders. It's a highly personal thing and I'm sure his reasons are far more complex than making a simple protest. But we need all the Steve Smiths we have generated over the years, now more than ever. [Permalink]

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