Some new details on this week’s turmoil at the Washington Times: A longtime staffer confirms that executive editor John Solomon is nowhere to be seen — and that the very mention of his name brings managing editor David Jones to tears.
“No one has heard from Solomon and no one knows if he’s coming back,” the Times staffer tells TPM. “We ask David Jones about his status and he literally tears up.”
Publisher Tom McDevitt, Chief Finance Officer Keith Cooperrider and Chairman Doug Joo were fired on Sunday night, and Solomon hasn’t been at work since. Jonathan Slevin was named acting president and publisher.
In the days that followed those firings, turmoil continued at the paper. There were armed guards on management’s floor and the paper’s continued operation may be in jeopardy. Much of this seems driven by a rift in the family of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose Unification Church owns the newspaper.
Now, our source tells us that on Monday, “after Jonathan Slevin spoke to staffers and really offered no real information, there was an impromptu gathering in the newsroom where managing editor David Jones and managing editor/digital Jeff Birnbaum tried to answer our questions.”
The longtime staffer also tells TPM:
“The explanation we got as to why Cooperrider and McDevitt were fired was that company leadership tried to get some answers on ‘P&L’ — profits and losses — and couldn’t get straight answers from them. This explains the extra security on the 3rd floor. We were told it’s standard procedure for companies to protect the area where financial records are kept any time there is a question of how money is being handled. We were told, however, there is no indication of any malfeasance or wrongdoing.”
“We’re in the dark as to why the company couldn’t get straight answers about money, but the general feeling is that since McDevitt and Solomon took over, they’ve been aggressive about launching a number of new initiatives designed to bring in revenue. There’s the radio show and wire service, there was discussion about a TV operation, book publishing and even a national daily edition of the paper. But it seems they were so aggressive that they were naive as to what was actually bringing in money and what was losing money, etc. So the paper’s owners now want to do a nitty-gritty assessment of which of these initiatives are revenue-producing and which aren’t. The belief is that some initiatives, such as the radio show, will stay. Others will be tossed aside. We have been told the organization is committed to continuing printing the newspaper and having the Web site, and there was no mention of layoffs at this point.”
Our source also suggests that Solomon may be upset “because the owners will want to do away with a lot of these business lines, most of which were his ideas.”
When Solomon and McDevitt took over, they were charged with getting the paper be self-sustaining within three or five years, depending on who you talk to. But now, it seems the owners are less tolerant of the losses they are sustaining and want to reduce and eliminate the subsidy even sooner.
Both Solomon and Slevin did not return phone calls seeking comment today, and declined to talk to TPM when reached yesterday. Don Meyer, a spokesman for the Washington Times and a partner at Rubin Meyer Communications, also didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment today. Jones also declined to comment.
