The Herald’s staffing numbers are equally dispiriting. With political reporter Kim Atkins relocating to Washington, DC, and business columnist Brett Arends leaving to write a mutual-funds column for TheStreet.com, the Herald’s roster of reporters and columnists is slimmer than at any time in recent memory. And things will only get worse if living columnist Beth Teitell and arts reporters Terry Byrne and Dana Bisbee are laid off, as the Weekly Dig and Media Nation’s Dan Kennedy reported earlier this week. (Before his promotion was announced, Convey told the Phoenix no layoffs had been finalized; word inside the Herald is that as many as five editorial staffers will be axed by the end of the year.) Working hard and working smart is a nice goal. But at a certain point, the Herald simply won’t have enough people.
Convey’s promotion can be read as both a symptom and a response to this generalized decline. No one expected Chandler to be leading the Herald come 2010; in fact, when Chandler became editorial director in 2004, he publicly stated that he expected Convey to run the paper before too long. But with Purcell in full cost-cutting mode, this was an ideal time to shed Chandler’s hefty salary. (The exact size of that salary is unclear, but as a former editor of the New York Post, Chandler can’t come cheap.) In addition, the Herald reports that Purcell has no immediate plans to fill the managing-editor post currently held by Convey, which means still more savings.
That said, Convey may be better suited than Chandler to lead the tabloid through its current woes. Unlike Chandler, Convey’s career has revolved around the Herald. He first joined the staff as a business reporter in 1981. By the mid ’90s — when Purcell bought the paper from Rupert Murdoch — Convey (then the managing editor for features) was part of the ruling troika known as the Micks with Dicks, along with editor Andrew Costello and Andrew Gully, the managing editor for news. In 2004, after a brief stint at CNC, he returned to the paper to serve as Chandler’s number two. In other words, aside from his time at the CNC and three years at Boston magazine, the focus of Convey’s professional life has been the Herald. Consequently, he probably has as deep a connection to the tabloid as anyone in Boston.
He also has excellent interpersonal skills. I first met Convey during his CNC exile, when I was working at a CNC paper on the North Shore. He was in our regional office for a quick visit; while there, he stopped by various cubicles to do some hands-on editing. In the span of about five minutes, he sized up a story I was working on, gave me some praise that didn’t seem like B.S., and offered sound criticism that made the piece significantly better. A few years later, after dropping out of grad school in the Midwest, I was looking for ways to get back to journalism and back to Boston. I e-mailed Convey on a whim; he responded immediately and told me to give him a call. He then delivered some bad news — I wasn’t experienced enough to get hired by the Herald — but did it so skillfully that my morale was somehow boosted.
