Bunker down
The Herald's new Business editor stands accused of poor news judgment
and a high-handed management style. But his editors say he's doing a good
job under difficult circumstances.
Wednesday, June 18, was a big news day in the city's business community. Thomas
Tran, a cost-slashing turnaround specialist who'd been brought in to
resuscitate Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts, resigned to join a
start-up firm in Connecticut. TOP FINANCIAL OFFICER QUITS BLUE CROSS, blared
the lead headline in the next day's Boston Globe Business section.
Yet the Boston Herald carried not one word about Tran's stunning
departure. And it wasn't because the paper's staff had missed the story. It was
because Business editor Ted Bunker, harried and on deadline, decided he didn't
have room in the section.
"I've rarely seen this level of incompetence," says one of the few current or
former Herald employees interviewed for this article who would agree to
be quoted, even without attribution.
Although Bunker may yet turn things around, it's clear that just six months
after taking the Business section's helm, he's under siege. Three of his seven
staff reporters quit during the spring and summer, and the vacancies have not
yet been filled. (The Herald's August 7 front-page blowout on
Microsoft's $150 million investment in Apple Computer was an unbylined piece
written by a prospect on a tryout.)
Local 32 of the Newspaper Guild was to file a grievance this week in which
Bunker is accused, among other things, of refusing to approve already-earned
overtime pay and of reserving lucrative freelance work for himself and his
wife, Peggy Bunker.
Most important, the Herald Business section's reputation as a scrappy
competitor that often beats its much-larger rival is at risk. The remaining
staff is considered within the business community to be competent and
hard-working. But morale is low, and Bunker's news judgment is an open
question.
As with any gritty urban tabloid, the Herald's meat is aggressive
coverage of crime, politics, and sports. Yet the Business pages serve as a
crucial calling card for publisher-owner Pat Purcell. "Pat is a savvy
businessperson," says Larry Moulter, president of Woolf Associates, a sports
and entertainment agency. "It's important to him not just on a personal level,
but as a businessperson."
Which raises perhaps the key question: will Purcell intervene? Kevin Convey,
managing editor for features, dismisses the notion that there are any problems
at all, saying Bunker has done "a good job under difficult circumstances." But
several sources -- including one in the upper reaches of the business community
-- say Purcell has given signals that he'll deal with his troubled Business
section soon, once he's no longer preoccupied with his bid to purchase the
Quincy Patriot Ledger.
On paper, Bunker, 44, has excellent qualifications. A Newton native, he holds a
bachelor's degree from the University of Washington and a master's from
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He's got experience in local
journalism, at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and in business
journalism, from his four and a half years at Investor's Business Daily,
in Washington.
And there's no question that Bunker was dealt a bad hand. He came to the
Herald in the fall of 1995 as assistant Business editor. Sources say
then-Business editor Mary Helen Gillespie (who declined to be interviewed) had
wanted to promote staffer Jeffrey Krasner, but that editor Andy Costello and
managing editor for news Andrew Gully insisted on Bunker, who'd had a tryout at
the Herald in the late 1980s and had apparently left a favorable
impression.
A year later Gillespie was promoted to vice-president of editorial services
for Jobfind.com, the Herald's online venture, throwing the Business
editor's job open to a competition between Bunker and Krasner. According to a
number of sources, Krasner was virtually the unanimous choice among the staff.
But at the end of January, Bunker was named the winner, putting him in the
awkward situation of supervising reporters whose loyalties lay with the losing
candidate. It didn't help when Krasner refused the assistant's position.
Still, Bunker took over a section that was continuing to perform well, despite
the loss over the past few years of columnist Steve Syre and assistant section
editor Cheryl Appel (to the Globe); columnist Tom Nutile (to Cahners
Publishing); and reporter Phil Primack (to US Representative Joe Kennedy's
office). Their replacements, for the most part, were young, smart, and
aggressive. Bunker's task was to defuse any lingering resentments and channel
that energy toward the task at hand.
But, according to some half-dozen current and former Herald sources who
insisted on anonymity, Bunker made a tough situation worse. They say he managed
his reporters in an arrogant manner and rarely listened to their story
suggestions. "He believes in telling reporters what the news is and whom to
call," says an ex-staffer. "And his list of sources is all Washington think
tanks, because he doesn't know anyone in Boston." Another former staffer says
Bunker's idea of a good article is to take a national story off the wires and
assign a reporter to localize it by interviewing Boston businesspeople. If a
big local story were to break during the day, this source says, "you'd have a
really hard time getting him to let go" of the initial assignment.
Staffers, sources say, were forced to stick around after hours while Bunker
edited their stories (sometimes introducing errors in the process, according to
the union grievance) -- and then ran into resistance when they put in for
overtime. Several sources say he's been overly harsh toward the department's
editorial assistants, in some instances making them stay when they weren't
needed; one ex-staffer describes him as a "bully." Adweek reporter Sarah
Jones, a former editorial assistant, says she wrote a letter to Costello saying
how "astonished" she was that Bunker had been named Business editor. "If they'd
had the foresight to ask anybody who should lead the Business section, it would
not have been Ted," says Jones. And though the Herald's top editors
might dismiss the complaints of a green ex-assistant, her on-the-record
comments are echoed and amplified by numerous off-the-record sources.
Eyebrows were raised when Bunker continued to write his Monday column, which
brings him $150 per week and which, according to the union's interpretation of
the contract, is supposed to be assigned to a reporter. Bunker also began
assigning freelance pieces to his wife, which staffers felt reduced their own
freelancing opportunities within the paper.
Several months after Bunker took the helm, the exodus resumed. Marie Gendron
moved over to Job.find. Tom Weisend, hired to fill in for Gendron when she was
on maternity leave, followed her down the hall. Steff Gelston took a job with
Inc. magazine's online division. Krasner was hired by the Wall Street
Journal to help put out its new weekly New England edition, which debuts
October 1. Clearly, not all of these moves were the direct result of
unhappiness with Bunker. But the departures have left the department reeling.
This week, the union was set to submit a five-point grievance about Bunker.
Herald staff writer Tom Mashberg, who chairs the union's editorial unit,
says it needn't have come to this: he sent a letter to Bunker several weeks ago
suggesting that they get together to clear the air. "There was no response to
it whatsoever," Mashberg says. "He's a big boy. It's not up to me to spoonfeed
him. Now he's got some serious matters up against him."
Bunker declined a request for an in-person interview, citing his ever-pressing
workload. In a curt but cordial telephone interview, he said he believed
someone in management had responded to Mashberg's letter ("There was no
response whatsoever -- period," retorts Mashberg), and defended himself against
both the pending union grievance and the accusations that he's not up to the
job. He vigorously denies taking freelance work away from staffers in order to
bolster his and his wife's incomes, and notes that his own column-writing has
been approved by the paper's top editors.
He admits to making his share of mistakes. Of the Blue Cross nonstory, he
says, "In some cases you look back and wish you could have done things
differently." That particular error created shock waves because of its
visibility, but every newspaper is filled with errors of omission and
commission.
Concerning complaints about his management style, Bunker sounds genuinely
puzzled. "I try to explain to everyone here on the staff that I'm always there
to talk," he says. "I think we have a reasonably good level of communication
here. I know that my whole department has been under considerable stress since
last winter."
Bunker then launches into a circle-the-wagons sermonette. "I think it's
unfortunate that some people here may be trying to stir up the waters at a time
when we're all trying to respond to some pretty serious challenges," he says.
"I don't see why the Herald's Business section should be tainted because
of the complaints of a few people. It's not been easy for me, either."
Ultimately, Bunker will have to make that case to Pat Purcell. It could be a
tough sell.
The dog that didn't bark -- the Blue Cross story -- may have been the first
indication to Purcell that all was not right with his Business section. Sources
say that on the day of Thomas Tran's resignation, Blue Cross executive
vice-president Peter Meade, puzzled that he hadn't heard from a Herald
reporter, called Purcell's office to let him know what was happening. By the
time Purcell called back, the Herald was onto the story. Meade told
Purcell not to worry. So Purcell must have been particularly perplexed when the
story didn't appear.
But even with the resignations piling up and the union fuming, Purcell doesn't
necessarily plan to do anything precipitate. More likely, he wants his top
editors to reassure him about Bunker.
In fact, Kevin Convey says that he, Andy Costello, and Andrew Gully think
Bunker's done a first-rate job: "He works his ass off. He's here night and
day." The open slots, Convey says, will be filled within "a matter of weeks."
The Blue Cross gaffe? "Frankly, screwups happen," he says, adding that on other
stories "he has kicked the Globe's ass from one end of the city to the
other."
And what of the complaints about Bunker's high-handed management style?
"Malcontents," Convey replies. "We're happy to see them go." Interestingly,
that response was anticipated by a state-government source who often deals with
the Business section: "I'm sure the Herald would be quick to say that
it's just disgruntled employees. But I think they have blinders on and aren't
looking at the real problem."
What's increasingly clear is that Andy Costello -- and
perhaps Pat Purcell -- is going to have to step in and solve that problem. It's
not too late for Bunker to be part of the solution. But even though Costello
obviously wants Bunker to succeed, he's moved quickly in the past to push out
section editors he didn't see eye to eye with, including sports editor Bob
Sales (in 1995) and political editor Wally Roche (in '96). Both Sales and Roche
had more supporters when they exited than Bunker does today.
For the moment, though, Bunker has the only supporters who count.
Articles from July 24, 1997 & before can be accessed here