• Editor & Publisher, Tuesday, July 11, 2006 11:30 AM

The former editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press, who resigned over the owner's alleged meddling in news coverage, says his fate should be a warning to others who see private buyers as saviors of a troubled industry, reports Editor & Publisher. "There is definitely a downside," Jerry Roberts says. "When you have one owner who is very wealthy and used to getting their way, you have this conflict between the audience of the paper and the audience of one--the owner.” Roberts refers to Wendy McCaw, who bought the News-Press from The New York Times Company in 2000. Although she had long used the editorial page to promote her views, he says efforts to influence real news were rare--for a while.  "She was extensively involved with the paper, with the editorial page," adds Roberts, who was one of a half-dozen top news side folks to quit the paper last week. "That was fine. She was pretty hands off on the news side when I was there, but that changed and became untenable.” Says the first to resign, deputy managing editor Don Murphy: "I was pleased when she bought the paper, an independent owner not beholden to stockholders. It seemed like a plus. But she had no experience with newspapers, no knowledge of newspapers and it was not a traditional [private] ownership--handed down generation to generation."

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