Fred Kuntz is resigning as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star effective Dec. 31, several sources at the newspaper confirmed on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the paper declined to comment.
Mr. Kuntz has held the top editor role at Canada's largest daily newspaper for just over two years.
On Jan. 1, CBC News publisher John Cruickshank takes over as the new publisher of the Star. Is that related to Kuntz's departure? I dunno. You tell me. The Star has nothing on all of this as I write this post.
Cruickshank replaces Jagoda Pike, who left in October for an executive position with the Pan-Am Games bid committee.
Both Pike and Kuntz were Star lifers who replaced two outsiders back in 2006; publisher Michael Goldbloom (Montreal Gazette) and editor-in-chief Giles Gerson (Globe and Mail) respectively.
Read this Oct. 17, 2006 post, but it seemed that deteriorating financial performance was a big reason for the shakeup at that time (you can also find more about that period in this Spring 2008 Ryerson Review of Journalism article).
Since then, it hasn't exactly been a return to boom times for the Star, which announced an "operating cost relief" program back in February, a move that followed some tough contract bargaining (more in this Jan. 19 blog post). That, along with some involuntary job loss, meant TorStar lost 160 jobs as of April.
However, the economic hits have kept on coming -- to the entire industry (CanMediaLayoffs is documenting the carnage on Twitter).
Stockwise, Torstar Corp.'s shares were just under $20 on Dec. 21, 2007, which was the 52-week high. On Tuesday, they closed at $7.82 (more at this Globeinvestor page; this chart maps out the stock's decline over the past year).
Pike and Kuntz did preside over a major redesign of the paper. Here's Kuntz's May 28, 2007 column on the changes.
And then in early August 2007, he penned this note to readers: Introducing your slimmer Star.
One of Frank's final issues (Vol. 2, Issue 72; Oct. 22) summed up the Kuntz-Pike partnership this way:
Her Save-the-Star strategy was to have her editor-in-chief bumboy Fred Cuntz (sic) fill the paper with wall-to-wall local news, but readers weren't buying and the bleeding continued. By Year One of the Pike regime, paid circulation had plummeted 3.5 per cent; Sunday Star circ. was down 9.1 per cent. ....
Pike's henchthingy ... didn't known of her fate until the morning the axe fell, and there are reports of slamming doors upon learning that his shield and protector was out on her considerable ass. Cuntz later told reporters and editors that he may well be the next to go.
How prophetic.
What would be interesting to know is how the Star's editorial performance in recent years -- as measured by circulation and readership -- compares to other GTA dailies and to the national and continental picture.
Is the Star doing worse, on balance, than other properties in what has become a besieged industry?
There are structural forces buffeting the newspaper industry. Maybe Cruickshank (and whoever he hires as his editor; I presume they will leave the job open until he takes over) has a solution.
I certainly hope so.