Hearst Shakeup in Connecticut

Matt DeRienzo is gone despite doing strong work across the group, including hiring a more diverse staff such as columnist Mercy Quaye. ... Matt will land somewhere. He's a thinking man's thinking man, an ink-stained wretch to the bone, and he's doing a great job parenting as a single father of 2.

DeRienzo Canned | New Haven Independent

Hearst Media Monday fired the top editor of its eight Connecticut dailies, including the New Haven Register.

The editor, Matt DeRienzo, had overseen high-profile efforts at the group in recent months: The launching of a hybrid reader paywall (read about that here); an upping of the papers’ investigative game, including coverage of absentee ballot abuse in Bridgeport and on sexual abuse at Boys & Girls Clubs; and an editorial calling on Donald Trump to leave office amid revelations about his dealings with Ukraine. The editorial, the first of its kind in a daily newspaper, earned national attention.

In a memo to staff announcing DeRienzo’s departure, group Publisher Mike DeLuca did not cite a reason. He announced that Canadian Wendy Metcalfe will move to Connecticut with her family in mid-November take over the top news executive post.

“Wendy comes to us form the Brunswick News Inc. where she oversaw Editorial, Marketing, Circulation and Customer Service,” DeLuca wrote. Metcalfe has also served as assistant manager editor of the Toronto Star and editor-in-chief of the Toronto Sun.

< from said "editorial" >

The proper next step for the president is clear. He should resign. He has repeatedly proven himself unfit for office and appears to view the presidency as a position meant to benefit himself personally, not as one that must represent the interests of an entire nation.

Because there’s almost no chance he is going to step down, Congress’ work becomes that much more vital.

The truth is that Trump has been breaking laws and norms with impunity from the beginning. For instance, the U.S. Constitution forbids federal officeholders from receiving any gifts or payments from foreign entities, but in the same phone call with the Ukrainian president we see evidence that Trump is in violation. “I stayed at the Trump Tower,” President Volodymyr Zelensky says of his last trip to the U.S. Since Trump never divested himself from his business and continues to profit from it, he’s in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, according to many legal scholars, and it’s just one of countless examples on that score.

< Here's his replacement, Wendy Metcalfe >

Wendy Metcalfe is the Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief at Brunswick News - a Canadian media company made up of a number of publications, including the award-winning provincial newspaper the Telegraph-Journal. Wendy also oversees marketing and reader sales, uniquely placing ownership of both quality journalism and customer experience in the hands of an Editor-in-Chief. Prior to joining Brunswick News, Wendy was the Assistant Managing Editor at the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. She made history before joining the Star when she became the first woman to hold the role of Editor-in-Chief at the Toronto Sun and Ottawa Sun. While at the helm, Wendy was also named one of the top 10 leading women to watch in media across North America by prominent industry publication, Editor & Publisher. Her first 13 years in journalism, however, were spent in the U.K., first cutting her teeth as a reporter, before climbing to management at one of Britain’s largest newspapers, Scotland's Daily Record.

 

Glad to have walked away from that dumpster fire of Hearst CT six years ago.

 

Deluca is a confident chap.

I have been fortunate to work at some of the best companies on the planet during my professional career. EMC in the 90's is where I learned everything there is to know about sales where losing was not an option. Switched over to digital/media in 2003 at Yahoo. Built a large high performance sales and client services team. Next was Yodle where we took a 2M company to 67M in less than 3 years. I then served as Chief Revenue Officer at Savored focused on yield management in the restaurant space. Savored was acquired in Sept 2012 by Groupon. I ran all revenue responsibility for Savored as well as Groupon, Merchant OS up until June 2013. At Hearst, I was proud to have served as EVP of Sales and now am President & Publisher at The Hearst CT Media Group as well as CEO of LocalEdge, a Hearst company.

Specialties: Building high performance sales teams, marketing, business dvpt, sales training and scaling revenue.

 

That place just can't figure out what it wants to be.

It's had about four or five reinventions in the last decade (including the stupid rebranding to "Heart Connecticut Media," which just rolls off customers' tongues).

It's gone all in, pulled back, gone in and pulled back on sports coverage.

Just pick something already.

 

Patty picked up Roland's Thompson gun again?