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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 6/19/2005 2:37:09 PM
Title: Storozynski's side of the story
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From ALEX STOROZYNSKI: I am compelled to set the record straight on my departure from amNewYork. Newsday has suggested that I resigned as editor because I improperly sourced an article. That's a smokescreen. The reality is that Newsday has decided that amNewYork is successful enough that it wants to take control.

Anyone who wants to know about my principles as a journalist should talk to people who I worked for. My previous two bosses have allowed me to release these statements.

amNewYork publisher Russel Pergament said, "Alex Storozynski is the best editor I've ever worked with. Alex shouldn't be given lectures about integrity, he should be giving them. He has imagination, integrity, commitment and a desire to help other reporters. On a scale from one to ten, he?s an 11."

My former editor at the New York Daily News Michael Goodwin said: "Alex is a terrific journalist who helped the Daily News win the Pulitzer Prize and any news organization would be lucky to have him."

The issue at hand involves an amNewYork story on Deep Throat. Although I was editor in chief of a paper with only two reporters, one of whom was out on the day the story broke, I had to pick up a notebook and start reporting. I began by doing what every other newspaper rewrite man across the country was doing -- I scanned the wires and logged on to the Washington Post's website and reported what the newspaper that owned the story for 30 years was saying.

My story sourced the Vanity Fair article that revealed Mark Felt was Deep Throat. I followed up with the line: "Bob Woodward yesterday confirmed that Felt, 91, was the anonymous source who leaked secrets to him and fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein for a series of articles on the Watergate scandal." The piece mentioned the Washington Post three times.

If I had mentioned that these quotes came from WashingtonPost.com, the attribution would have been clearer. I should have done that. Perhaps I was simply doing too much as editor.

Two years ago, I was recruited away from the New York Daily News, by Russel Pergament who was starting a new free newspaper in New York City. Pergament was entering into a partnership with the Tribune Company which would become the majority shareholder of amNewYork. It was clear from the start that our relationship with the Tribune Co. and its Long Island subsidiary Newsday was schizophrenic. When I asked if we could use the library at Newsday's Melville headquarters or run some of its photos, they refused. I was told that our employment benefits would not be the same as those of other Tribune papers; a financial officer of the company told me that amNewYork is "not really a Tribune paper." It was an arms-length relationship and there was no day-to-day contact.

On our own, our overworked and underpaid staff of 12 people brought this new paper to the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in Manhattan. In less than two years, the paper's total circulation has reached more than 311,000. The paper grew from 20 to 48 pages per day as advertisers realized we were reaching the much coveted 18-34 age group. We proved that you can get young people to read newspapers. We surprised everyone by breaking stories that were picked up by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, CNN, Fox News and others.

Each staff member at amNewYork carries a workload that takes several people to perform at conventional newspapers. And even with this skeleton crew, amNewYork has been able to do something that Newsday was never able to do -- become a successful newspaper in New York City. Now, that amNewYork is recognized for its quality work, Newsday wants to change the relationship and take over the paper.

On Friday, Newsday issued an internal memo saying that its multi-media editor, Diane Goldie, will serve as acting editor of amNewYork and that she will report to a Newsday managing editor. As editor, I answered to the publisher of amNewYork. What newspaper editor answers to the managing editor of a completely separate newspaper? After that memo was issued, Newsday media reporter James Madore called to interview me. He asked if amNewYork should become "an edition of Newsday." Madore's question and the Newsday memo make it what is really going on. amNewYork has become such a success that Newsday now wants to control it.

As luck would have it, I've been involved in a fascinating screenplay project that is taking off. So rather than struggle against the Tribune Company's effort to take over a successful paper that I created and whose distinctive character I am proud to have developed, I chose to resign.

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