Dear Rory,
Good to hear from you — and good as well to see what your reporting has produced. I wish it were otherwise, but business editor Lawrence Ingrassia told me he felt the Metro story was, in the context of his area of coverage, “pretty marginal.”
I disagree. I think it merited at least a brief item, specifically because it involved The Times. I agree with the general proposition that overcovering the Times Company can be inappropriately self-conscious and not particularly of use to readers. (This isn’t necessarily Ingrassia’s position, but it’s one I’ve heard expressed by several others around her.) But in this instance, even if the fact of the Metro editors’ behavior didn’t rise to coverage in The Times, the story has gotten larger (partly through the Herald’s use of it) as it has ripened.
I can say with quite a bit of confidence that there was no conscious effort to repress the story, nor do I believe anyone in corporate management got involved in the coverage decision. Ingrassia and I may disagree on this decision, but I can assure you that his hands are clean.
Yours,
Dan
