• by Sara Guaglione , June 8, 2020

The executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Stan Wischnowski, has resigned after two decades at the daily newspaper, following controversy around an op-ed headline that angered staff.

Wischnowski will leave the 191-year-old paper, owned by the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism, on June 12.

A column with the headline “Buildings Matter, Too” published last Tuesday highlighted the destruction of buildings amid nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. 

The headline riffed on “Black Lives Matter,” the slogan for a civil-rights movement echoed in nationwide protests.

Wischnowski and two other top editors at The Philadelphia Inquirer apologized to readers and staff last week, calling the headline “deeply offensive.” 

After a staff-wide video conference, in which Wischnowski said minorities now represent 27% of the newsroom, about a doubling in four years, according to the Inquirer, about 50 journalists of color signed an open letter calling for more rapid changes. 

The next day, most of the minority staff took the day off in protest.

After announcing Wischnowski was stepping down, Inquirer publisher Lisa Hughes told staff over the weekend: “We will use this moment to evaluate the organizational structure and processes of the newsroom, assess what we need, and look both internally and externally for a seasoned leader who embodies our values, embraces our shared strategy, and understands the diversity of the communities we serve."

Editor Gabe Escobar and managing editor Patrick Kerkstra will lead the newsroom in their current roles in the interim, Hughes said.

Wischnowski also led the Inquirer’s sister paper, the Daily News and its website, Inquirer.com. He was editor when the Inquirer won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for an in-depth investigation into violence within Philadelphia schools.