John Carroll (journalist)
Encyclopedia
John S. Carroll was the editor of the Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun. During his tenure the Times won 13 Pulitzer Prizes.
, and Washington, D.C. He attended Haverford College
, graduating in 1963. Upon graduation, Carroll went to work as a cub reporter for The Providence Journal
but left within a year to serve for two years in the Army. In 1966 he was hired by The Baltimore Sun
. where he covered the Vietnam War
, the Middle East
and the Nixon White House. In 1971-72 he was a Neiman Fellow
at Harvard University
. In 1973 he took his first editing job with The Philadelphia Inquirer
.
Carroll was an editor at the Inquirer until 1979, when he left for the Lexington Herald, where he was editor and vice-president. During his tenure in Lexington, he spearheaded an investigative series of reports titled "Cheating Our Children," which exposed flaws in Kentucky's public-education system. The newspaper won two awards for the series, which helped lead to the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. The ten reporters involved with the series donated the $26,500 in prize money to Alice Lloyd College
in Pippa Passes, Kentucky
, to establish the John S. Carroll Scholarship Fund to aid needy students from Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District, which is a part of Appalachia
. In 1985 the newspaper published a series on widespread cheating in the University of Kentucky basketball program, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its authors, Jeffrey Marx and Michael York.
In fall 1988, Carroll took a sabbatical from the newspaper as a member of the University of Oxford's Visiting Journalist Fellowship Programme (now the Thomson Reuters Fellowship Programme). In 1991 he became senior vice-president and editor of The Baltimore Sun, and in 1998, he became a vice-president of the Sun's parent company, Times Mirror. In 2000, Times Mirror, which also owned the Los Angeles Times, was purchased by the Tribune Company
.
In 2000, after nearly 10 years as editor of the Sun, Carroll was considering leaving to run Harvard's Nieman Fellowship
program. He had already begun house-hunting in Cambridge
when he was recruited to be editor of the Times.
in the preparation of a 168-page magazine about the opening of the sports arena. The agreement was seen as violating the separation between advertising and journalism.
Carroll began by hiring top talent from papers on the East Coast, such as Dean Baquet
, the national editor of The New York Times
, whom Carroll appointed as managing editor. Carroll aimed to compete with the East Coast papers on major national and international stories. The slogan he wanted for the paper was, "A National Paper From the West."
During Carroll's five years, the newspaper earned 13 Pulitzer Prize
s,, compared to eight in the 1990s. The Pulitzer streak was considered to indicate a dramatic improvement in quality at the paper. In 2004, Carroll hired Michael Kinsley
to serve as editorial page editor.
In 2003, however, Carroll began to clash with the Tribune Company's management. Because of struggles in advertising and circulation, the company wanted to reduce costs. One proposal was to use stories written at other Tribune newspapers in the Times. Carroll opposed this move because he believed top-tier newspapers investigate and write their own stories. The company also wanted to consolidate all the Washington, D.C., bureaus of the newspapers that it owned.
Financial pressures continued; during the last year-and-a-half of Carroll's editorship, the stock price of the Tribune Company declined from $50 to $36. During Carroll's tenure, nearly two hundred positions were reduced in the newsroom. In early 2005, Carroll and Baquet went through a difficult round of negotiations with the Tribune management. They reportedly proposed a plan that included staff cuts, but which was rejected by Tribune for not going far enough.
On July 20, 2005, Carroll announced that he would resign effective August 15, 2005. Baquet reportedly considered resigning as well, but decided to remain and become the paper's top editor. After leaving the Times, Carroll became a Knight Visiting Lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
.
, Carroll is the basis for the character of James Whiting on the HBO show The Wire
.
board, and in 2002 he was board chairman. In 1998 he was named Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation. In 2003 he was elected an American Academy of Arts and Sciences
fellow. In 2004 he received the Committee to Protect Journalists
' Burton Benjamin Award for lifetime achievement in defense of press freedom. Also in 2004, Carroll received the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Leadership Award. In 2009 he received the Richard Clurman Award as a mentor of young journalists.
Early career
Carroll was born in New York City but was brought up in Winston-Salem, North CarolinaWinston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
, and Washington, D.C. He attended Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
, graduating in 1963. Upon graduation, Carroll went to work as a cub reporter for The Providence Journal
The Providence Journal
The Providence Journal, nicknamed the ProJo, is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper, first published in 1829 and the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the United States, was purchased...
but left within a year to serve for two years in the Army. In 1966 he was hired by The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
. where he covered the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and the Nixon White House. In 1971-72 he was a Neiman Fellow
Nieman Fellowship
The Nieman Fellowship is an award given to mid-career journalists by The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. This award allows winners time to reflect on their careers and focus on honing their skills....
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. In 1973 he took his first editing job with The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
.
Carroll was an editor at the Inquirer until 1979, when he left for the Lexington Herald, where he was editor and vice-president. During his tenure in Lexington, he spearheaded an investigative series of reports titled "Cheating Our Children," which exposed flaws in Kentucky's public-education system. The newspaper won two awards for the series, which helped lead to the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. The ten reporters involved with the series donated the $26,500 in prize money to Alice Lloyd College
Alice Lloyd College
Alice Lloyd College is a four-year liberal arts work college in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. It was co-founded by the journalist Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts and June Buchanan, a native of New York City, in 1923, at first under the name of Caney Junior College, as an...
in Pippa Passes, Kentucky
Pippa Passes, Kentucky
In the census of 2000, there were 297 people, 48 households, and 30 families in the city. The population density was 557.3 per square mile . There were 50 housing units at an average density of 93.8 per square mile...
, to establish the John S. Carroll Scholarship Fund to aid needy students from Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District, which is a part of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
. In 1985 the newspaper published a series on widespread cheating in the University of Kentucky basketball program, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its authors, Jeffrey Marx and Michael York.
In fall 1988, Carroll took a sabbatical from the newspaper as a member of the University of Oxford's Visiting Journalist Fellowship Programme (now the Thomson Reuters Fellowship Programme). In 1991 he became senior vice-president and editor of The Baltimore Sun, and in 1998, he became a vice-president of the Sun's parent company, Times Mirror. In 2000, Times Mirror, which also owned the Los Angeles Times, was purchased by the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
.
In 2000, after nearly 10 years as editor of the Sun, Carroll was considering leaving to run Harvard's Nieman Fellowship
Nieman Fellowship
The Nieman Fellowship is an award given to mid-career journalists by The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. This award allows winners time to reflect on their careers and focus on honing their skills....
program. He had already begun house-hunting in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
when he was recruited to be editor of the Times.
The Los Angeles Times
Carroll took over the Times when the paper's morale was said to be at an all-time low. In particular, the credibility of the Times had been hurt by revelations in 1999 of a revenue-sharing arrangement between the newspaper and Staples CenterStaples Center
Staples Center is a multi-purpose sports arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. Opening on October 17, 1999, it is one of the major sporting facilities in the Greater Los Angeles...
in the preparation of a 168-page magazine about the opening of the sports arena. The agreement was seen as violating the separation between advertising and journalism.
Carroll began by hiring top talent from papers on the East Coast, such as Dean Baquet
Dean Baquet
Dean P. Baquet is an American journalist, who on June 2, 2011 was named to become managing editor for news operations of The New York Times effective September 6....
, the national editor of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, whom Carroll appointed as managing editor. Carroll aimed to compete with the East Coast papers on major national and international stories. The slogan he wanted for the paper was, "A National Paper From the West."
During Carroll's five years, the newspaper earned 13 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
s,, compared to eight in the 1990s. The Pulitzer streak was considered to indicate a dramatic improvement in quality at the paper. In 2004, Carroll hired Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley is an American political journalist, commentator, television host, and pundit. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire...
to serve as editorial page editor.
In 2003, however, Carroll began to clash with the Tribune Company's management. Because of struggles in advertising and circulation, the company wanted to reduce costs. One proposal was to use stories written at other Tribune newspapers in the Times. Carroll opposed this move because he believed top-tier newspapers investigate and write their own stories. The company also wanted to consolidate all the Washington, D.C., bureaus of the newspapers that it owned.
Financial pressures continued; during the last year-and-a-half of Carroll's editorship, the stock price of the Tribune Company declined from $50 to $36. During Carroll's tenure, nearly two hundred positions were reduced in the newsroom. In early 2005, Carroll and Baquet went through a difficult round of negotiations with the Tribune management. They reportedly proposed a plan that included staff cuts, but which was rejected by Tribune for not going far enough.
On July 20, 2005, Carroll announced that he would resign effective August 15, 2005. Baquet reportedly considered resigning as well, but decided to remain and become the paper's top editor. After leaving the Times, Carroll became a Knight Visiting Lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...
.
In popular culture
According to creator David SimonDavid Simon
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns...
, Carroll is the basis for the character of James Whiting on the HBO show The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
.
Journalism honors
From 1994 to 2003, Carroll was a member of the Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
board, and in 2002 he was board chairman. In 1998 he was named Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation. In 2003 he was elected an American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
fellow. In 2004 he received the Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
' Burton Benjamin Award for lifetime achievement in defense of press freedom. Also in 2004, Carroll received the American Society of Newspaper Editors
American Society of Newspaper Editors
The American Society of News Editors is a membership organization for editors, producers or directors in charge of journalistic organizations or departments, deans or faculty at university journalism schools, and leaders and faculty of media-related foundations and training organizations...
Leadership Award. In 2009 he received the Richard Clurman Award as a mentor of young journalists.