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Editor quits over column attacking rival newspaper

A weekly editor has resigned after his title published a comment piece against his wishes that was critical of a journalist at a rival newspaper.

Bruce Sinclair has quit as editor of the Pembrokeshire Herald over a column published in the paper last Friday in which the Western Telegraph and its news editor Lee Day came under fire.

The Badger Knows Best comment piece attacked a front page story in the Telegraph about hardcore gay porn being distributed on Twitter and accused Lee of “canvassing” his Twitter followers for “outraged reaction”.

The latest controversy for the Herald, which was only launched in July, comes after the paper claimed it had been sabotaged when an obscenity was included in an advert for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which brought worldwide publicity for the title.

Bruce announced his resignation from the paper on his Facebook page on Friday, saying the lack of editorial resources had made his job difficult and matters had been brought to a head by the “needless personal attack” on Lee.

He wrote: “While I have certainly enjoyed the challenge of creating a new newspaper from scratch, a lack of editorial resources has made my role difficult.

“We’ve managed to turn out six editions of the county-wide paper to date with an editorial team consisting only of me, a sports reporter and a photographer, together with some input from the publisher.

“The role of editor is to edit, advise and ultimately take responsibility for the content, fairness, and accuracy of stories, as it would be on any other publication I have worked on.

“Matters were brought to a head yesterday by the manner in what I considered a needlessly personal attack was launched on a senior member of the Western Telegraph in the Herald’s Badger Knows Best comment piece.

“Despite my rejection of the original text and my repeated protests about its tone, I was overruled, with the result that the comment-style article was sent for publication unaltered.

“As a result, I have come to realise the direction The Herald is taking and my role within it as editor are incompatible.”

The column was written by Jon Coles, editor of the Pembrokeshire Best magazine, which is also published by MegaGroup Pembrokeshire Ltd.

Publisher Tom Sinclair, who is not related to Bruce, said the column aimed to be controversial and tongue-in-cheek.
 
He said he had overruled Bruce’s decision to pull the column because it fell “outside the remit of the editor”.

Tom added that following the dispute, he had written to Bruce to tell him he no longer wanted him to be editor but he could remain as a journalist for the paper, such as a news editor or sub-editor, on the same salary.

But Bruce rejected the offer to remain at the title and handed in his resignation on Friday.

Tom said: “Bruce wrote that it was a personal attack on a senior member of the Western Telegraph. I don’t see it as that at all.

“It was more like a newspaper review piece, as being critical of their front page story. He (Jon) wrote it not with any malice against anyone in particular but he believed that there was a public interest in it.

“We are a campaigning paper. We need somebody who is going to lead the campaign and not be afraid of upsetting people. I want a newspaper, not a snoozepaper.”

He added that Bruce was a “great journalist” but was more conservative and careful than he wanted the Herald editor to be.

Tom will be acting editor until another editor is found and he has already been writing stories for the paper and the Best magazine, despite having no formal journalism training.

He said the staffing situation was not as low as Bruce said because there were a number of external contributors and columnists who also wrote for the Herald.

Tweeting about the Herald’s column, Lee wrote: “The Herald had personal go at me. Uncalled for in my opinion and, obviously, in the editor’s opinion as he decided to resign after.”

The Western Telegraph, which is owned by Newsquest, has published a story about Bruce’s resignation but declined to comment on the column.

12 comments

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  • August 13, 2013 at 9:11 am
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    ‘Hey guys we want a newspaper not a ‘snooze paper’.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 9:16 am
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    Unbelievable. This story makes me despair of the publishing industry.

    Firstly, the publisher thinking that an opinion column is “outside the remit of the editor” is really alarming. But then to think he can just appoint himself as editor, with no journalism training or experience, shows how much value many managers place on their journalists – they believe anyone could do it, so they might as well get stuck in, right?

    Good luck for the future, Bruce. Sounds like you’re better off out of it.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 9:32 am
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    “fell outside the remit of the editor”

    Is one of the most scary quotes I have ever seen on this site!

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  • August 13, 2013 at 9:40 am
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    “fell outside the remit of the editor”

    All too common these days. Surely every piece of copy within the publication should be within the editor’s remit…?

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  • August 13, 2013 at 10:31 am
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    I’ve worked for 13 editors and I haven’t always agreed with their decisions but their word is final, everyone knows that. The first rule I learned was that editors carry responsibility for everything in the paper, I’ve never heard of an editor being overruled in this way.

    Apart from that, if you trash the opposition then you’re not going to get any co-operation when you ask if you can check your shorthand note against theirs in a council meeting or if they’ll keep an eye on a court case while you nip out to the phone.

    If you don’t have any journalism training then you won’t be able to take a shorthand note to prove the accuracy of a story, you won’t know when a story / column is libellous and you certainly won’t know anything about section 39 orders in court cases.

    Good luck Bruce and respect for standing up for the role of editor. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in the coming months.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 11:56 am
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    God, what a bunch. Well done to the editor for telling them to stick it.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 12:31 pm
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    Congratulations Bruce . A brave decision. Very best wishes for the future

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  • August 13, 2013 at 1:27 pm
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    Sounds like a Mickey Mouse set-up to me. I can’t imagine any serious journalist wanting to touch it with a barge pole. And, as we know, they can’t even control the content of their ads! The whole operation is destined to go pear-shaped very soon.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 1:38 pm
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    Well done to the editor for having some principles and sticking to them.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 2:30 pm
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    As soon as something so elementary is “outside the remit” of the editor, then it’s not a real editorship at all.
    It sounds to me like they wanted someone to handle the tricky bits they didn’t understand in a vanity publishing exercise. Wise move of the editor-in-name-only to bail out and reject an alternative job doing the donkey work for them.

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  • August 13, 2013 at 2:37 pm
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    I’ll be amazed if this publication lasts beyond 2013 with the inept way that this ‘snoozepaper’ is being run

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