• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 20, 2025

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has for decades covered both good and bad events in publishing. Now it is itself the subject of widespread coverage over the abrupt departure of its executive editor Sewell Chan. 

“Yesterday I was fired by Columbia University after eight months as executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review,” Chan wrote on X on Friday. “This was the first time in a 25-year career that I’ve ever been subjected to discipline in a job—much less terminated from one.” 

The firing apparently occurred after three separate incidents with staff that Chan defends as “pointed interactions in which I provided fair and critical feedback rooted in editorial rigor.”  

“This is the same approach I took in leading The Texas Tribune and the Los Angeles Times editorial board and as an editor and reporter at The New York Times,” he said. “The norms at Columbia are apparently very different.”

Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, announced that Betsy Morais, the managing editor of CJR, will steward the publication as interim editor, the Columbia Spectator reports. 

Is this really just about an editor allegedly going ballistic in the newsroom? 

The Columbia Spectator writes that one such encounter concerned the question of whether a pro-Gaza fellow could write for a publication he had previously covered for CJR. 

Of course, the elephant in the room is the fraught relationship between Columbia University and the Trump administration. “Are there more facts or another side here?” Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked on X on Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

This is occurring as CJR is about to launch a fundraising campaign, according to The New York Times. 

We wish it well. It is a fine publication and should continue its assertive reporting.