No Fun At the ‘Sun.’
Salary injustice claims business editor.
One of the most well-guarded secrets at any office is how much everybody makes. Another is e-mail passwords. Take a lesson from what happened at the New York Sun. On May 10, a blunt draft of a memo from the paper’s deputy managing editor, Robert Messenger, was somehow sent out to everybody on his staff. This the paper blamed on a “hacker,” though insiders at the Sun pointed out that e-mail passwords all follow the same structure and are easy enough to figure out. The memo itself was full of suggestions of how to “return the paper to a niche strategy,” which involved firing some people, whose salaries were listed. Business editor Ken Magill (the sixth business editor in the Sun’s three years of existence) resigned early last week, citing the memo as “the last straw,” according to people close to him. The memo specifically listed the salaries of several editors Messenger was considering axing to save some cash, and once Magill saw which of his colleagues were making more than him, and how much more, he decided enough was enough. A Sun spokesperson says, “It’s unfortunate that peoples’ personal financial information was released.”

EDITED BY CARL SWANSON.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Table of Contents: May 30, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!