Editor Penny Rosenberg Suddenly Leaves Gazette-Times, Lawyers Up

Penny Rosenberg disappeared. Poof. Just like that.

Executives at Lee Enterprises removed her – rather abruptly it seemed — last week as the editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times and Albany Democrat-Herald.

Paul W. Smith promptly arrived from New Mexico to take over the newspapers Friday, July 17.

“At the advice of my attorneys, I have nothing to say about my leaving Lee Enterprises,” Rosenberg told the Advocate. “I will say I love this community and am deeply grateful for the friendships and professional support and camaraderie I’ve experienced.”

Rosenberg’s exit is just the latest episode of an ongoing drama series at the newspapers. Less than two weeks earlier, Rosenberg devoted huge swaths of her July 4 editions to singing the praises of David Hoffmann, Lee’s supposed billionaire savior.

It was a command performance.

Editors at Lee’s 72 daily newspapers (which also include the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Buffalo News and Omaha World-Herald) were encouraged to celebrate the July 4 weekend by anchoring their front pages with three gushing stories — totalling 4,000 words — about Hoffmann.

Jason Adrians, Lee’s chief content officer, did the encouraging.

“I’m certain the story will be appropriate for A1 centerpiece play in either your weekend or Sunday print editions, depending on your market,” Adrians said in a June 17 email to editors reports the Poynter Institute.

“And I’d also like to see this story in front of the digital paywall for all audiences,” he added. “Mr. Hoffmannn’s incredibly thoughtful investment and total commitment to our industry is important for everyone to read about, whether they are a subscriber or not.”

Any editor who might have something else for the front page on America’s 250th birthday weekend other than devoting two full pages worth of ego boost for the billionaire was instructed to consult National News Editor Teryl Franklin.

“The package should run in your biggest weekend print edition,” Franklin advised editors in a June 30 email (also reported by Poynter).

Rosenberg joined other editors in taking that advice.

Hoffmann can command such gushing after he snagged a majority stake in Lee Enterprises through a $50 million deal last February.

The gushing commenced by introducing Hoffmann to readers as “the man who’s on a mission to save your newspaper.”

Save your newspaper? Maybe. Save its journalists? Not so much.

Other Lee loyalists may find themselves in the same boat as Rosenberg — and they just might need a bigger boat.

Hoffmann is not a journalist. He made his fortune through the executive recruiting firm DHR Global and other kindred acts of capitalism. He has already gone on record as saying he wants to save local newspapers — to a point.

However, he said a “conservative” capital structure will help Lee survive. Translation: If you’re a Lee journalist, hold on to your fedora.

Lee Enterprises executives began their newsroom bromance with Hoffmann in 2023 when they sold him the Napa Valley Register. From there, Hoffmann started developing his brand as local journalism’s billionaire buddy.

Many local Lee employees looked to Hoffmann to save their papers as layoffs continued. Locally, Lee laid off the photo editor and a reporter at the Gazette-Times/Democrat-Herald last September.

Joshua Perry was hired when one newsroom position was funded again this year. That leaves both newspapers with a combined staff of seven operating out of the Democrat-Herald office on Southwest Lyon Street.

Each paper once had news staffs at least three times larger. The Gazette-Times had its own office on the corner of Southwest Jefferson and Seventh streets in Corvallis. The building was demolished in 2016 to make room for apartments. Before that, an older office occupied the space now used by Block 15 at Southwest Jefferson and Third streets.

Rosenberg had been with the newspapers for five years. She was simultaneously the executive editor of the Longview Daily News in Washington. She was removed from that position as well. Hayley Day, previously the paper’s local news editor, has reportedly been promoted to Rosenberg’s old job for the Longview paper.

Before coming to Oregon, Rosenberg worked in California as the city editor of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Southern California News Group.

Rosenberg, who has a law degree from UCLA, started her career as a freelancer for the Corporate Legal Times in 1998.

She is currently the president of the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Her term expires this fall.

What Rosenberg Accomplished, What Smith’s Hiring may Signal

On her watch, Rosenberg’s local newspapers took home wheelbarrows full of awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. The papers won general excellence honors from ONPA for two years and stands to make it three when this year’s awards are announced at the end of this week.

Society of Professional Journalists awards during her tenure included the newspapers being honored for general excellence in writing among medium-sized newspapers in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

Smith, Rosenberg’s successor at the Gazette-Times and Democrat Herald, has a resume leaning heavily toward business and marketing. He spent almost 10 years of his career at the Spokane Spokesman Review in Washington where he was the assistant business editor before becoming the managing editor of business and audience.

Smith moved to New Mexico in 2023 to be the city editor of the Albuquerque Journal. Most recently, he’s produced the nation/world sections for 75 Lee partner newsrooms.

No one at the local newspapers will talk on the record about last week’s development.

While Smith has experience in the business and marketing end of journalism, Rosenberg brought similar sensibilities to the newspapers. She focused heavily on tailoring the news coverage to generate clicks from digital readers and analyzing the metrics.

Although she didn’t want to talk about the situation with Lee, she did want to reflect on her tenure.

“I’m proud of the work we were able to accomplish in these (almost) five years, including a national award for our podcast about homelessness and the top award for a newspaper our size two years in a row from ONPA,” she said. “On Friday, we find out if it’s a three-peat. I have surely worked with some of the best out there in journalism, and I salute them.”

The Bigger picture

Mark Plemmons, an editor at the Independent Tribune in Concord, North Carolina, told the Poynter Institute that the Hoffmann profile was the first time Lee executives has asked their papers to run a specific news story.

Several people told him gushing over a new corporate overlord makes the paper look bad, but Plemmons told Poynter he’s not so sure.

“The biggest thing I fight in my market is people thinking we are going out of business or have gone out,” he said. “This should give our readers more confidence.”

Journalism professor and media scholar Jane B. Marcellus of Middle Tennessee State University is not feeling so confident.

“It’s tragic for democracy when editors of a major newspaper chain don’t know, understand and celebrate the line where journalism ends and public relations begins,” Marcellus told the Advocate.

“What he describes is a perfect example of what Edward Bernays, the purported ‘father of PR,’ called shaping public opinion,” she said. “Every journalism student who has passed introductory reporting should know the difference.”

By Tom Henderson

(Tom Henderson was the reporter laid off from the Gazette-Times/Albany Democrat-Herald last year after four months in the newsroom.)