With payday looming tomorrow morning, employees remain on edge at The Washington Times. There’s even uncertainty over whether the troubled newspaper has enough short-term cash flow to keep its operation running.
Executive Editor John Solomon is still absent. He did not return TPM’s phone call seeking comment today, and hasn’t been seen in the newsroom since the Sunday firings of three top executives. As we’ve reported, a rift in the family of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose Unification Church owns the newspaper, is driving the turmoil at the newspaper.
In today’s regular morning meeting, staffers were encouraged to refrain from talking to the press.
Newsroom sources tell TPM that it’s still tense and staffers are being told not to believe everything they read, though no specific reports were cited.
Meanwhile, several Washington Times employees who work from field offices outside of the newsroom are feeling isolated. With Solomon absent and few phone calls from the paper’s headquarters, they are left in the dark about what’s happening. In some cases, they are learning about the shakeup, including White House correspondent Jon Ward’s departure, from news reports.
The paper sent White House bureau chief Matt Mosk on President Obama’s nine-day Asia trip. It’s a multi-country excursion that could total tens of thousands of dollars as the paper faces financial uncertainty.
Acting president and publisher Jonathan Slevin has not returned several phone calls seeking comment this week. Today, a receptionist told TPM that Slevin would be out of the office for a couple days. 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.
And just in case you’ve missed out on this week’s drama at the Washington Times: Several executives were fired, the paper’s top editor is MIA, security on management’s floor was beefed up, the family that runs the church that runs the paper is a mess, staffers fear for their jobs, confusion reigns and the very survival of the paper is in question. Quite a week.
