ek Hot Times By David Gregorio It was a hot, rainy summer in New York City, and nowhere was hotter or stormier than the newsroom at The New York Times. Two high-profile reporters had resigned in a scandal involving plagiarism and other ethical lapses. Morale melted as The Times and the rest of the media ran stories about problems at the nation’s newspaper of record. The paper's two top editors resigned in early June. At the end of July, The Times tapped Deputy Managing Editor John Geddes "74 and Washington Bureau Chief fill Abramson to help lead the newspaper out ofits summer of discontent. Bill Keller, the new executive editor, promoted Ged Jes to managing editor for news opera tions and named Abra editor for news gathering. With Keller, they took on the task of boosting morale and making reforms while keeping news operations humming, san managing 12. QUAD ANGLES WINTER 2003 is tite suggests that Geddes concen: trates on the operations side, but things are much more fluid at the paper with a 200 who need deci sions in a New York minute We operate as a triumvirate,” Geddes said. “You have an area of concentration and yet at the same time anyone is inter changeable with anyone else. The efficiency ends on: Can y of any organization d get an answer quickly? In thei first few weeks the new editors faced tough questions from staffers dis {gruntled about the scandal Jayson Blair, a 27-year-old national reporter, resigned in May following a plagiarism charge, and The Times published a lengthy story about how he managed to draw top assignments despite numerous errors and complaints about shoddy work. Mana a committee to review its policies. And then Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rick Bragg resigned in late May. The Times sidJohn Geddes '74 is managing editor for news operations at The New York Times. A Providence native, Geddes ‘majored in economics at URI and also took journalism classes while working at The Good 5¢ Cigar. he had taken a byline on astory that was largely the work of a freelancer. Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Edi- tor Gerald Boyd later resigned amid heavy criticism. Facing questions about how they planned to reform the hiring and promo- tion policies, the new editors eschewed the approach of using big, formal meet- ings to address the staff Instead, they spent a lot of time in the newsroom, talk- ing with people individually. “You walk the newsroom floor every day, and people stop you and ask you 4questions; you try and answer them the best you can,” Geddes said during a recent interview. Visibility counts I think, more than any official meeting. People appreci ate the impromptu one-on-one sessions. He thinks morale has turned the cor- net.“A newsroom's—or any organiza- tion's—moral, realy, is a very changeable beast,” he sai. “It hit a trough here in July” ‘That was lucky, because in August the power went out. Shortly afer 4 pxm. on August 14, the summer got even hotter as ai condition- ers shut off all over New York City and in much of the Northeastern United States and nearby Canada. Keller was on ‘vacation; Abramson was ata journalism conference in California. Geddes had to remake page one and lead The Times through the first big disaster story of his tenure as managing editor. “The story was literally atthe front door. Thousands of people poured out of offce buildings into the streets of mid- town Manhattan trying to figure out ways to get home. Thousands more were stuck underground as subway trains stopped moving, ‘As the sun set, an eerie darkness settled cover Times Square, where acres of neon billboards and TV screens were blank Police patrolled the streets, and tourists slept on the sidewalks when hotels found themselves without electronic reservation systems and room keys Federal officals in Washington reassured Americans that terrorists were not behind the power fail- ‘ure, After all these stories and more were written and edited, some staffers could not get home to the suburbs because the trains weren't running. Geddes invited some to crash at his place in Manhattan's West Village. “We were here until about 2 a.m. oF 0" he said, “and I brought a couple of folks from the news desk back home to sleep at my place because they couldn't get home. Walking down there from here was just so other-worldly It was incredible” ‘Things have returned to normal—as ‘normal as things get in the news business, anyway. Geddes gets to work by 8 or 9, reads the papers, then heads to the morn- ing news meeting “After tha, it depends what the day is. Itmay be fielding cals or answering mes- sages from department heads or corre- spondents.” Geddes also belongs toa committee that plans the paper's long- term strategy. His latest project in that area was the takeover of The International Herald Tribune. The Times bought out longtime partner, The Washington Post, to take full control of the English-language newspaper based in Paris that serves ‘Americans in Europe. ‘A Providence native, Geddes majored in economics at URI and also took jour- nalism classes while working at The Good 5¢ Cigar, He earned a master’s in business journalism from the University of Wis- consin, Madison, then started his career in 1976 ata small newspaper in Connecti- cut, Within two years he was the bureau chief for the AP-Dow Jones news wire in Bonn, Germany. The New York Times hired him as a correspondent, then The Wall Stret Journal hired him as Bonn bureau chief. He later moved to Brussels and helped launch The Wall Street Journal/Europe, which named him managing editor. When he returned to the States, he worked at The Wall Street Journal in various positions, including senior editor/netional news editor. In 1993 he left the newspaper business fora stint at a partnership funded by large investors to explore opportunites in the media. One of his partners was John Struck "74, his college roommate at URI and also business manager of The Cigar when Geddes worked there. Geddes returned to newspapers when The New York Times asked hira to run its ‘business and financial news section. By 1997, he was deputy managing editor. While his latest promotion came during a summer of turmoil, Geddes was ready to face the heat. “t's always hard to pinpoint any one class or professor or moment in your college career that prepared you forall the challenges ahead,” he said. “But learn- ing how to deal with people, your peers, whether they're in a college dorm a classroom or at The Good 5¢ Cigar, is critical. The maturation I got at URI in that area has really made a difference in my life” ® A former reporter for The Good 5¢ Cigar, Dave Gregorio '80 is a desk editor atthe financial news desk of Reuters in New York iy. He lives in Milford, Conn, [UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 13