Journalism-related Web sites have been abuzz this week with rumors that Editor Tom Callinan is about to leave his job at The Enquirer. Callinan is keeping mum for now, but one of his rumored replacements says he will remain in California and not return to Cincinnati.—-
The rumors began after Callinan didn't attend an editors' meeting Monday at the newspaper, and some co-workers believed he was acting evasively about why. They quickly spread to The Gannett Blog, a site about The Enquirer's parent firm that's frequented by current and former employees at the company.
Some of the anonymous posters on The Gannett Blog speculated that Rick Green, an ex-assistant managing editor at The Enquirer who is now managing editor at the Gannett-owned Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., would be Callinan's replacement.
Contacted by CityBeat, Green said he doesn't know whether Callinan is leaving, that no one's approached him about returning to The Enquirer and he probably wouldn't accept, if they did.
“I don't know anything specific about Tom's status and certainly don't feel comfortable trying to speculate on a very personal matter,” Green wrote. “I know nothing about talk of succession at The Enquirer. I learned a lot from Tom, and he's someone I respect. Whatever he decides, I wish him nothing but the best.
“What I do know is that the past six-and-a-half years here in Palm Springs have been a tremendous chapter in my life, professionally and personally. As much as I loved Cincinnati and The Enquirer staff during my 15 years there, coming out West has been the best move of my career,” he added. “Frankly, it would be incredibly hard for me at this time to leave my team and the opportunities at hand here in Palm Springs to return to Cincinnati — even if there was a vacancy.”
For his part, Callinan neither confirmed nor denied the rumors in an e-mail.
“Regarding the rumor, I am telling inquiring reporters the truth: My wife and I have an appointment with our financial advisor next week. She is self-employed and does not have health care insurance so we would need to be very careful about any decisions,” Callinan wrote.
As editor and vice president for content and development, Callinan oversees The Enquirer's newsroom and Web presence. Additionally, he writes a column for the paper. A longtime Gannett employee, Callinan joined The Enquirer in 2003 after holding similar positions at newspapers in Phoenix and Rochester, N.Y.
Other anonymous posters online have speculated that Callinan will be replaced by Beryl Love, the first editor of the now-defunct CiN Weekly who is now executive editor at Gannett's Reno Gazette Journal.
CityBeat will update this story if more information becomes available.
