Dennis Britton Succumbs to Poor Circulation
“I’d asked him to call me if he ever felt there was a time when he needed to make a change,” Simmons said. Now that time had come. At the party she and Britton went into a corner, and last Thursday he announced to a less than flabbergasted staff that he was quitting effective the next day. He’d be moving into the MacArthur Foundation as a “distinguished visitor.”
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Looking back, Britton told me, “We gave it every effort. Were we successful? Not entirely. We made it possible for the paper to find a legitimate buyer it was on a path not to find [Conrad Black’s Hollinger, Inc.]. But there were lots of failings. The Sunday paper is very readable, but it isn’t compelling enough to be changing circulation growth patterns.
“There is a way to do it. British newspapers and Canadian newspapers do it. There’s probably a good reason not to do it, probably sound business reasons. But being told ‘just because’ isn’t very satisfying.
Britton told me about his personal program. He said he’s concerned that journalism is no longer acting out of civic obligation and he wants to see if that sense of duty can be restored. “TV only does it during sweeps,” he said. “Newspapers do it sporadically. And I’m finding on the new electronic platforms it’s not done at all.
Yet this reporter called Britton’s six years “a reign of hypocrisy,” explaining, “He openly disparaged American Publishing Company people. He didn’t practice what he preached about discretion and loyalty to the institution. He made more damaging public comments about the paper with his name on them than I ever made to you off the record.”
A Modest Proposal
