Stackhouse announces major management changes at Globe and Mail

In a memo sent to staff Aug. 10, recently appointed Globe and Mail editor John Stackhouse announced a series of structural changes and shifts in management positions. See the full text of the memo below.

From: Stackhouse, John
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 2:58 PM
To: All Staff Editorial
Cc: Executives
Subject: Management Changes

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for the editorial department of The Globe and Mail. I’m announcing a series of management changes that involve every part of the operation, and are designed to promote and protect our journalism, invest more seriously in our people, build opportunities in a digital age, and innovate like mad in the newspaper.

What follows is based on serious thinking from across the map, from Mike Bird’s task force (their mandate: a newsroom of the future) to the scores of people who have told me in recent months about the need for change in how we work.

Today’s changes are driven by three basic principles – collaboration, innovation and talent. I’ve brought together and promoted editors who are excellent at working together, who don’t build walls around their sections and who know our best work is done by many. These are people who believe the next decade for our business will be significantly different than the one we’re exiting – and it’s ours to invent, so long as we have the right people and right skills.

Moving forward ….

There will be three main content groups – news, features and business – each headed by a senior masthead editor reporting to me. These will be supported by three other groups – resource management, digital and presentation – that also report to me but have responsibility to the content groups, too. It sounds complex but is actually simpler. The support groups are there to ensure we have the best people and the most innovation on the go. The content groups make it happen. Fewer walls. More integration. Much more innovation.

Also, I opted not to have a deputy editor. Why?  Too often the position exists only for the times when an editor-in-chief is not present. I have a good team that in the last while has been very much working like one. In fact, the cooperation between sections has been stunning to watch. Less hierarchy helps with that. I want a flatter organization, stronger section editors, better coordination and more support for each department.

Here’s how:

NEWS

David Walmsley becomes managing editor, news and sports.

In his new position, David will oversee the national, foreign and Toronto departments, as well as the sports department. He will also be responsible for the daily production of both sections.

David has been with the Globe since November, 2006 as national editor. He previously held senior editorial positions with the Toronto Star, CBC and National Post, after moving to Canada from London where he worked on the Daily Telegraph. David is one of the few people I know who is both a classic newspaperman and a new media junkie. He loves little more than a newsroom bursting with a great, screaming story. He’s a passionate defender of his reporters and copy editors, something that has greatly impressed me in the last while. Don’t let the cheery disposition fool you. David will stand up for his staff’s interests before his own. And he thinks morning, noon and night about the revolutionary changes we need to make to thrive in the years ahead. He’s a natural leader, suited entirely to this position.

Sinclair Stewart becomes national editor.

Sinclair will return to Toronto in early September from his post in New York City to take the helm of our national desk. In his new position, Sinclair will oversee all our national reporters and bureaus. Greg Boyd, Patrick Brethour and Brian Laghi will report directly to him. Working with Sinclair closely over the last five years on several of the biggest stories in Canada, I’ve been in awe of his skills as a reporter and writer. To use a cliché, he’s a reporter’s reporter – and will ensure the national desk is a haven for Canada’s best journalism. He also is deeply interested in the fundamental challenges of our industry, and will bring back from New York a fresh approach to the way we run a newsroom.

Stephen Northfield remains foreign editor.

The foreign desk is one of the most prized and reliable parts of the Globe, and much credit for that goes to Stephen. He’s led our foreign coverage through a remarkable period of world history, championed the remarkable expansion of bureaus (pretty much against the grain of the entire industry) and delicately handled our presence in Afghanistan. As I’ve stated from the beginning, foreign coverage will play an even greater role in the Globe in the years ahead, reflecting our changing country and our readers’ growing interests in our changing world.

Kelly Grant remains Toronto editor

The Toronto desk has shown great strength in the last many months, under Kelly’s leadership, most critically during the recent city workers strike. This includes the vibrant new Toronto hub. With Craig Offman, she also has given Globe T.O. a good sense of journalistic direction that makes it now a must-read, as well as a lively part of our weekend paper.

Tom Maloney remains sports editor.

Tom has taken the sports department through a wholly impressive transformation, with a long run of great scoops from the ownership battles of the sporting world to design experiments that are now a model for the entire Globe – and of course a web focus that has paid off hugely on big days in the sporting world.  I’ve asked Tom to keep doing what he’s been doing. And by shifting the department to the news group, he’ll have access, when needed, to more resources – and better play, in print and online, for his best packages.

Ryan MacDonald takes on the role of news editor.

In this role, Ryan is responsible for the overall presentation of the A section, as well as the news file on the website through the afternoon and evening. In particular, he will determine the placement and presentation of all news stories, including A1, which is a more specialized challenge as we move away from being a newspaper of record. Ryan will work with section editors to determine which files deserve enhanced print or web presentation. He also has been setting out every day to develop design options to ensure our front page is as captivating and unique as possible. To do this, Ryan will have overall responsibility for the news desk. Jim Palmateer remains production editor, with direct management responsibility for all copy editors in news, and will report directly to Ryan.

FEATURES

Jill Borra takes on an expanded role as managing editor, features.  In addition to Life, Travel, Style and Real Estate, she will assume responsibility for the Focus, Books and Review sections. Jill has been with the Globe since October, 2000, and has since championed several innovations across the features department, most significantly the  launch of the Life section. She not only has a great eye for feature journalism, she is excellent at developing new sections, and working with all parts of the organization to ensure their success.

The return of Review to the features orbit gives the section more access to resources, especially for online projects – and puts it rightly back at centre stage.

Andrew Gorham remains Review editor and will report to Jill.   Andrew has been at the Globe since ’99, first in the Saturday section, then as Travel editor and over the past four years as Review editor.

The move of Focus and Books returns them to where they can be most effective. Focus has been our best venue for our best journalism, but like all great magazines, needs its own personality and some protection from the space ambitions of other sections; thus the return to features.

Books also needs the sensibilities of the features department, as it strives to be intellectually engaging, broadly accessible and visually compelling.  It faces a quite different challenge online, in building a significant and measurable books community.

Life remains under the direction of Kevin Siu.  Kevin joined the Globe in August, 2004 as associate editor of  ROB magazine.  He was also deputy editor of Globe Toronto before becoming deputy life editor on the launch of the section, and its editor since last November.

Real Estate will remain under the leadership of Darcy McGovern, Travel remains under the direction of Sarah MacWhirter and Style continues to be led by Sheree-Lee Olson. In the coming year, we will begin to expand our online components of each of those areas, which Jill’s group will build through our new digital team led by Anjali Kapoor.

 
REPORT ON BUSINESS

Over the summer, several important changes have been made to the ROB management team, which is now in place:

Elena Cherney is editor, Report on Business, with overall responsibility for our business and finance coverage, through newspaper, magazine and digital platforms. She also has responsibility for our Careers section, which will be the focus of significant online opportunities in the year ahead.

Derek DeCloet is Managing Editor, Report on Business, with responsibility for our business reporting, in print and online. He reports to Elena.

Mark Heinzl becomes Bureaus Editor, overseeing ROB reporters outside Toronto as well as our expanded economics coverage. Mark reports to Derek.

Scott Adams is Managing Editor, Globe Investor, with responsibility for our investment coverage, in print and online. This includes direct responsibility for the GlobeInvestor, GlobeInvestor Gold and Globe Advisor websites. In addition, Scott is now taking on responsibility for digital development in our business category, and will work closely with Anjali, and in turn the advertising, business development and digital departments, to create new online opportunities for our journalism. Scott reports to Elena.

Nicole MacAdam assumes a new position as Managing Editor, production and presentation, for ROB. In this capacity, Nicole is now responsible for all print and online production, and will work closely with the assigning editors to drive our content, especially on rob.com, for which she now has responsibility.

With this, the ROB continues to lead the way in integration, now with a multi-platform editing desk ready for Newsgate.  Scott and Nicole also will lead our efforts to tap the newsroom in new ways as we seek to develop and deliver unique and valuable online content that will set us apart from others in the digital world of financial journalism. This will include an expanded desk in the fall to manage the growth of our investor and small business sites.

Gary Salewicz remains editor, ROB Magazine, a post he assumed in August, 2006 and has since used to bring a series of journalistic triumphs for the magazine, including a string of writing, design and photography awards. Moving forward, he has an added mandate to define the magazine and its content in the digital realm and prepare it for more competitive challenges in print.

CUSTOM CONTENT GROUP

The CCG, which was created earlier this year, continues to be led by Simon Beck and Noel Hulsman. Both report to Andrew Saunders, the head of advertising. But for editorial content, they hold dotted line responsibilities to our senior editors.

Jill is accountable for Simon’s work with auto section and Globe Campus. Auto will be the object of a significant capital investment this fall to build more online capacity, using our new digital group.

Elena will work with Noel, in his capacity as small business editor, as it too launches a major web expansion this fall.

COMMENTARY

The twin pillars of the Globe’s commentary pages will remain largely intact.

John Geiger remains editor of the editorial page, reporting to me.

Colin Mackenzie, as associate editor, maintains responsibility for all other commentary, in print and online, as well as our outstanding obituaries section. Natasha Hassan remains comment editor, and reports to Colin.

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Neil Campbell remains as executive editor, responsible for budgets, administration and partnerships. In this redefined role, Neil will work closely with me examining the way we do everything to ensure that our resources are applied to the best effect — in short, to ensure we’re spending on things that make the Globe stand out.   Neil has contributed his unique talents in so many forms since he started with The Globe and Mail as a teenager, contributing to our sports pages as a part time reporter in 1980.

Sylvia Stead becomes associate editor, staff and training. In this new role, Sylvia will be responsible for all personnel matters, from recruiting and hiring to training and performance management. This is one of my central goals – to see the Globe staffed in every department with people who are among the best in the world, to see our newsroom diversify with its country and to develop all our skills to keep up with technological revolutions, in print, on the web and in the workplace.  No one is better suited to this important task than Sylvia who will draw from her  extraordinary 34 years of experience in numerous senior editorial roles, including for the past seven years of course, serving as Deputy Editor.

In addition, Sylvia will be responsible for legal issues, vetting all copy as necessary and dealing with counsel, and internal and external communications, including public complaints.

DIGITAL

As previously announced, a revised digital group will be headed by Anjali Kapoor, our new managing editor (digital).  Anjali starts next week, and will be responsible for all aspects of The Globe and Mail online.  She will have a special focus on exploring and building new digital opportunities, and will work closely with the Angus Frame’s digital division, as well as business development and advertising.

Kenny Yum returns to the Globe in late August to become editor, globeandmail.com. He will run our website on a daily basis, and report to Anjali.

Jim Sheppard takes on an expanded role as executive editor, digital, with a special focus on website traffic analysis and management.

Two more positions will be added shortly to the core digital group – one to manage new projects across the site and our growing video capacity; the other to edit our content for a growing mobile platform.

PRESENTATION

Adrian Norris takes on a different title as managing editor, presentation. In this capacity, Adrian is responsible for the look and feel of the Globe across all platforms. The photo, design and graphics groups will all report to Adrian.

Moe Doiron remains photo editor, reporting to Adrian.

Mike Bird also moves to this group as presentation editor, with responsibility for all sections. Mike, who joined the Globe in November 2002 as presentation and production editor for the ROB, is one of the most iconoclastic journalists at the Globe, and will be taking his ideas for innovation to every corner. In this role, he will dive into all parts of the Globe, particularly in print, to ensure the creation and presentation of our journalism meets our readers’ changing tastes and habits. He will work closely with all section editors, and their presentation editors, to determine how best to construct and display our best journalism. Expect to be challenged by Mike, and expect to lift your game.

While Adrian is on secondment to the redesign project, Mike will serve as acting managing editor for presentation. The photo, graphics and design groups will report to him on a day-to-day basis.

The Globe should be a place where anything can happen, in line with our core values. Anyone can aspire to any job in the place. Anyone can dream of taking on the best story of the year. Anyone should be able to invent just about anything on our sites. We may be the standard bearer in Canadian print media, but we’re the new pioneers, too.

I will hold two town halls on Wednesday, to take questions.  Details to follow.