Sean Holman of Public Eye Online keeps working the Victoria News story about a writer and editor who, er, left the paper after an article was published on buying a car for less in the United States.

Here's part of what he's found out:

Yesterday, in an internal email sent to staff, Black Press Ltd. British Columbia chief operating officer Rick O'Connor acknowledged executives spoke with Victoria News reporter Brennan Clarke and editor Keith Norbury about "the impact a potential loss of advertising from the automotive sector" would have on the company. This, after the newspaper published a story about a cross-border car shopper. But Mr. O'Connor has assured staff Mr. Norbury's firing wasn't based on the "writing of this article." Nor was Mr. Clarke asked to resign. And, in an subsequent interview with Public Eye, Mr. O'Connor stressed Black Press's editorial staff don't need to consider the impact their articles can have on advertising.

In his email, Mr. O'Connor writes that Mr. Clarke's story, "caused the publisher, Penny Sakamoto and Island group president Mark Warner, concern for valid reasons. The article wasn't balanced in our opinion and didn't explain the pitfalls of buying a vehicle in the U.S. Mark and Penny had a meeting with the reporter, Brennan Clark, regional editor, Keith Norbury, and group editor Brian Lepine to express their concerns and explain the impact a potential loss of advertising from the automotive sector would have on these newspapers."

"Neither Penny nor Mark knew the article was scheduled to run and asked to be apprised in future when potentially controversial articles or editorials were to run," continued Mr. O'Connor. "This is common practice in all of our newspapers. We did not ask for anyone to resign as a result of writing this article. Not did we base our decision to change editors on the writing of this article."

Indeed, according to Mr. O'Connor, it was "another incident" later in the week that led to Mr. Lepine's resignation "and our decision to make a change with respect to regional editor Norbury. The details of what transpired remain confidential and our treatment of Mr. Norbury is very fair given his long years of service to Black Press."

But what about Mr. Warner's earlier statement that Mr. Norbury's firing was, in part, connected to an advertiser complaint? Speaking with Public Eye, Mr. O'Connor said, "I don't know what he said to you. But, at the end of the day, the single incident of running that article and the ramifications that the paper suffered as a result of it...did not lead to any consideration of the decision to make a change at the top with Keith."

Asked whether editorial staff need to consider the impact their stories have on advertising, Mr. O'Connor said, "No. But they need to understand that, if they don't have balance, then we're wide open to whatever criticisms come our way - whether it's related to advertising or not. In this case, the story was related to an advertising sector we're very strong in. And we took the brunt of their unhappiness" - referring to the fact advertising from the automotive sector dropped the week after Mr. Clarke's article was published.

Click through to see Mr. O'Connor's thoughts on whether a link exists between advertising and editorial in free community newspapers.