Education of a Newspaper Editor

By James Kelly

In his glass-walled corner office off the Boston Globe newsroom, Michael Janeway, 45, talks about the doubts he had before he took the helm of New England's premier newspaper eight months ago. "I went through a period when I even wondered if I should take the job," says Janeway, carefully picking his words. "I wondered about my leadership, about whether a leader could also be a constructive critic. But I decided if you're going to do it, you can't do it as Hamlet."

Shakespeare, of course, never wrote about a new editor coming to grips with his paper, but Janeway's experience has become a study in the frustration of learning to run a big-city daily. He must tame a sometimes scrappy staff of 400 editors and reporters while trying to leave his imprint on the paper. At the same time, the Globe faces increased competition from the Boston Herald, a once-feeble tabloid that has come alive under Rupert Murdoch. No wonder that Janeway, a wry, reflective man not easily given to emotion, occasionally looks weary. "I feel like I'm battling so many scarecrows," he says.

Janeway had a tough act to follow. Over two decades, former Editor Thomas Winship had turned the Globe from a provincial, flatly written paper into a nationally respected, crusading publication that won eleven Pulitzers. An open, gregarious man, Winship nurtured scores of talented writers, who came to look upon him as Father Globe. Any successor would suffer in comparison, but Janeway, the paper's former Sunday managing editor, seemed especially resented. An editor of the Atlantic Monthly for eleven years before joining the Globe in 1978 as editor of its Sunday magazine, Janeway was considered an interloper by many longtime staffers and too austerely intellectual to lead the paper.

To smooth the transition, Janeway has tried to rely on Winship's lieutenants, some of whom had been Janeway's rivals for the top job. But Managing Editor Matthew Storin, who ran the day-to-day operations during Winship's last year, yielded his authority reluctantly. In June, Janeway sounded out Storin about becoming Washington bureau chief. Instead, the well- regarded Storin resigned.

Then, in midsummer, Janeway was confronted with a well-publicized libel trial initiated by former Massachusetts Republican Gubernatorial Candidate John Lakian. Though he had nothing to do with the 1982 story that sparked Lakian's suit, Janeway attended the five-week trial every day, sitting next to the accused reporter to show his support. When the jury delivered a confusing verdict that seemed to go against the Globe, Janeway made a rare appearance in the newsroom to explain why the paper's lawyers thought that Judge George Jacobs would rule in the Globe's favor. The following week, Jacobs indeed said that the Globe had not libeled Lakian.

Janeway has been cautious about introducing major changes in the Globe. He developed a weekly science-technology section, spruced up the design and added a news summary and people column to the second page. When he experimented with an index on the top of Page One in April, staffers complained about the wasted display space, and Janeway moved it several weeks later. "Where I am not strong, I try to get good people to help me," says Janeway. "I've tried to encourage people close to me to criticize me."

As Janeway feels his way at the Globe, he must also keep an eye on the Herald, which Murdoch bought from the Hearst Corp. in 1982 for $1 million. Boosted by its popular Wingo lottery game, the Herald's daily circulation has since climbed an impressive 61%, from 228,000 to 368,000. The Globe readership, by contrast, has remained static at 511,000 a day. The Globe commands most of the city's newspaper advertising pie, but the Herald has increased its slice from 16% to 20%.

The Herald has strengthened its business and sports sections, reopened a Washington bureau and added 27 reporters to its 123-member staff. The Globe still outdistances its competitor in reporting on the State House, sports, Washington and foreign affairs, but the Herald covers the city's streets better and faster. "We leave the deep think to the Globe," says Herald Editor Joe Robinowitz. "It usually makes them a day late."

Janeway professes not to pay the competition much attention, telling staffers that his tabloid rival is in the "entertainment business." At story conferences, he is more likely to cite an item from the New York Times, which leads some staffers to fear that Janeway wants to ape the New York City paper. Janeway dismisses those concerns, but he readily admits that he prefers stories with broad implications. Last March he objected to giving front-page space to a report about a Miami hospital patient who died after mistakenly being given the wrong serum. Janeway felt that playing up the story smacked of tabloid journalism. "I want to cover the news more shrewdly," says Janeway. "Too many of our stories have lacked a core, a sense of where we've been."

Many Globe staffers still are not sure that they understand Janeway's news philosophy. Nor has everyone grown accustomed to Janeway's preferred way of meeting with editors in small groups, rather than buttonholing staffers in the newsroom as Winship did. If the new editor lacks Winship's ebullience, he makes up for it in organizing skills and intellectual rigor. "I know my own strengths and weaknesses," he says. "You've got to keep going and not second-guess yourself."

With reporting by Robert Ajemian/Boston