Fanning and 2 Other Top Editors Quit Christian Science Monitor in a Dispute
BOSTON -- The Christian Science Monitor's editor, Katherine Fanning, resigned along with her two top assistants to protest a restructuring they say will weaken the paper.</br></br>The restructuring will include staff cuts and other cost-reducing measures. It is aimed at narrowing the newspaper's losses at a time when the Christian Science Church, which owns the paper, faces financial strains from heavy outlays for a new television news program and a reduction in working funds because of the stock-market crash. A new format being considered for the Monitor would reduce the paper to 16 pages from its 28-page average, a church official said. The Monitor may also eliminate advertising.</br></br>As part of the restructuring, Richard A. Nenneman, formerly general manager of print publishing for the Monitor, will become editor-in-chief in charge of all of the church's news operations, a new position. Richard J. Cattani, formerly the Monitor's editorial page editor, succeeds Ms. Fanning as editor.</br></br>The Monitor's managing editor, David Anable, and assistant managing editor, David Winder, also resigned. In a letter to church leaders criticizing the restructuring plan, Mr. Anable said the plan calls for a 50% staff reduction and a "new desk-top, advertising-less version" of the Monitor that was presented to church leaders before the paper's editors had a chance to review it.</br></br>Ms. Fanning, 61 years old, assumed her post at the Monitor in 1983 after serving as editor and publisher of the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, which she led to a Pulitzer Prize in 1976. While she was editor of the Monitor, its circulation rose to about 170,000 from about 150,000; it peaked at about 300,000 a few decades ago. She recently served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.