After repeatedly denying a Politico report Friday that Washington Times publisher Jonathan Slevin’s contract was not renewed after just six months, Times spokesman Don Meyer said Sunday that Slevin is in fact on the way out.
Meyer’s denials were reported by TPM on Friday. Politico, citing unnamed newsroom sources, stood by its story that Slevin was being dumped.
Slevin, in his farewell email, blasted the paper’s board, charging that one top board member “on several occasions in past months communicated directly to me his disdain for The Washington Times.”
“Boy, was I wrong,” said Meyer, of the Washington PR firm Rubin Meyer, in an email to TPM Sunday. “Contrary to information conveyed earlier, I can now confirm that Jonathan Slevin’s contract with the Washington Times will be allowed to expire effective April 30, and that the Times is actively seeking a replacement.”
Pressed on what happened, Meyer said, “I was given bad information, which I conveyed as fact, leading to the 180 turn.” He declined to name the source of the bad information. Meyer has been acting as spokesman for the Times throughout the crisis at the paper, which started late last year and has led to catastrophic cuts in the staff of the paper.
Slevin’s farewell email — sent, he says, in defiance of direction from the Times board that he send a brief letter to only five people — discusses financial difficulties at the conservative paper, which for most of its history has been subsidized by Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church.
“We all have reason to be proud that we have placed the Times on the cusp of becoming a viable commercial operation for the first time in its storied 28-year history,” Slevin writes.
The full email, in which Slevin also blasts Times Editor Sam Dealey for allegedly making unspecified leaks to the press, is below:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
My contract as president and publisher of The Washington Times expires on
April 30. The Board of Directors and I do not agree on certain issues, and
my contract is not being renewed. I am comfortable with their decision and
am honored to have worked together with you during these past challenging
six months.However, the Board members directed me to leave at the end of my contract
term without saying farewell to those with whom I have worked so closely,
and dictated a brief letter I was to send to five people only. I choose
instead to offer a proper goodbye to you, my friends and colleagues at The
Washington Times.Last October I was asked to come in as president and publisher to help The
Washington Times through a very troubled period and to put the company on a
path to being the kind of publication with which we are all proud to be
associated. There were significant fiscal challenges and the need to revise
the company business plan. With the able top leadership support and
collaboration of Tom Culligan, Robert Morton, Curt Scheel, Irena Reese and
Sonja Jenkins, we proceeded to develop and implement a new strategic plan
that took costs out of the company while preserving journalistic integrity,
brand value, and revenue. This task — made painful because the bulk of the
costs were in personnel — is now almost accomplished.Since February, it has been exceedingly difficult for me and my leadership
team to work with The Washington Times Board of Directors. This 2-person
Board has no experience in the newspaper business, and since taking an
active and intrusive role in February have involved themselves incessantly
in operational matters, including taking charge of financial, legal, and
human resources with which they lack the operational knowledge to make
judicious decisions. The driving force on the Board, Mr. Nick Chiaia, has on
several occasions in past months communicated directly to me his disdain for
The Washington Times. Indeed, in the six months since I have been publisher,
one Board member with an office nearby in Tyson’s Corner has never come to
3600 New York Avenue; the other Board member has showed up once from his
19th Street offices 20 minutes away. Being geographically and
philosophically removed from the Times, they lack awareness and appreciation
of the incredible hard work and quality of Times employees. As a result,
they were either aloof or out of touch with our endeavors, which made things
even more difficult.In addition, despite the Times meeting its responsibility to provide a
twice-revised budget for the current fiscal year, the Board has neither
approved nor is approved the budget, leaving us in operational limbo and
prohibiting us from expenditures or contracts in revenue-producing areas
such as subscription renewal or digital products development and sales.
Board decisions seemed at times to reflect other priorities that conflicted
with their fiduciary responsibilities for the
business strategy and growth opportunities of The Washington Times, such as
a constant emphasis on the needs of sister-company UPI.I followed the Board’s directions with regard to painful layoffs and other
issues. I understood this as part of my job, as well as to develop and
implement a sustainable business plan. Together with all of you we have
accomplished this. We all have reason to be proud that we have placed the
Times on the cusp of becoming a viable commercial operation for the first
time in its storied 28-year history. Bold and astute leadership can now
result in a level of success heretofore unimagined at The Washington Times
and not yet realized by print newspapers transitioning in the 21st century.On another matter, as you know from reading Politico and other publications,
several leaks were provided to the national press by Sam Dealey. Since late
February he had been reporting to and was responsive directly to the Board
of Directors, and not to the publisher. His behavior has had a detrimental
effect on the company, its advertisers, and subscribers, since the practice
of revealing internal confidential information jeopardizes the relationships
of trust, which great newspapers and journalists require to maintain close
and professional relationships with its sources and continued credibility
with its readers.As Sam Dealey began leaking company confidential information last Thursday
evening – actions contrary to communications by the Board to me – first to
staff members and then to the press, I urged the Board several times to halt
Sam’s disclosures. They permitted them to continue even though these
disclosures created negative publicity for the company. For me this was
particularly upsetting, since I had hired this young man with the intention
of grooming him in his first opportunity to be an editor. How sad that he elected
to embark on such a pattern of conduct which hurt so many.I wish everybody the very, very best. You are the cream of the crop not only
because of your experience and abilities. More importantly, the Times is
poised to surface as a major national and international asset because of the
quality of your character, which I have observed and benefited from as we’ve
worked together during these challenging months. Each one of you is close to my heart.
Together we have fought to maintain the necessary role of the fourth estate
in its vital role in sustaining the health of our American democracy and republican form
of government.Give a person biased information and you make that person less of a man or a
woman. The Washington Times alone in the country fills the void for reporting on
important news that is not covered by the center left establishment media.In parting, some brief advice: 1) Work collaboratively throughout the
company; 2) Respond to the marketplace by putting digital first, radio
second, and print products third, flowing onto newsprint as the outcome of
first meeting the 24/7 customer digital demand; 3) Disperse authority in the
newsroom throughout, structuring foremost to serve a digital audience.
Recognize that the era of the newsroom as separate and supreme empire and
editor as emperor is over.I shall now move on, not unlike numerous other employees who served The
Times and its readers faithfully and to the best of their abilities.God bless you, one and all.
Jonathan
Jonathan Slevin, President and Publisher
The Washington Times
