The decision by Taylor Hartz to leave the Day of New London where she has been covering crime and the courts, for a position at the Hartford Courant where she will cover statewide criminal justice issues, provides an opportunity to consider the future of the Courant.
News of the Hartz move comes just one day after long-time Courant political reporter Daniela Altimari announced she is leaving to cover legislative affairs from a national perspective for Route-Fifty.com.
While the Altimari departure, when paired with the recent shocking resignation of former Courant editor Rick Green leads many supporters of the Courant to question what is left to be hollowed out, the arrival of Hartz, and the recent hiring of Helen Bennett as executive editor, suggests not everyone has given up on the Courant. Some even see it as a good career bet.
There are often calls(including some following Altimari’s announcement) by those in journalism and people in the community to “save the Courant,” from its present ownership, Alden Global Capital. But what does saving the Courant really mean? A return to the glory days of the late ’80s and early ’90s? Or does saving the Courant simply mean preserving it as an institution in Hartford?
Colin McEnroe, a former Courant employee, once noted on one of his radio shows, that when considering the future of the paper, “we should consider what is has been in the past.” It was once not much more than a pamphlet. Would going that far back be saving the Courant?
Former Journal Inquirer editor Chris Powell has written that it is possible Alden Global is saving the Courant, by preserving its profitability above all else.
So the question should not be whether the Courant can be saved, the question should be what can it be? How can the value of the brand be used to deliver news in a meaningful way that puts the needs of the customer above the needs of journalists committed first to an old-fashioned approach to delivering a news product?
Hartz and Bennett; our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
