Walter Shapiro, who authored a thoughtful and straight-shooting political column for USA Today for the past nine years, is being let go by the newspaper “for reasons of copy hole and budget.”
Shapiro told Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher that recent management changes at the paper were part of the reason his contract was not being renewed: “There is a new team there and none of them were there when the column was created.”
USA Today editor Ken Paulson, on the job seven months, concurred that space and budget were “primary considerations” in not retaining Shapiro. There are no immediate plans for hiring another political columnist, Paulson told CJR Daily. Political commentary will now appear on the op-ed page, he said.
Shapiro told Strupp he hopes to find another venue: “Nine years is a good run. I think I wrote a damn good column and would like to continue.”
We hope so. As we noted here in September, Shapiro “offers a perspective sorely lacking in much of this season’s reporting.” Three decades of writing about politics as a reporter and columnist can do that to a guy.
The election may be over, but there are going to be political stories galore in the months to come, some of them with large stakes for all of us. And it would be nice if readers someplace could be treated to Shapiro’s take on them.
Meantime, here’s a question, not just for the management of USA Today, but also for those who run countless other papers around the country who have used the same excuse to eliminate jobs and regular features in recent years: Why do we never read that coverage of Michael Jackson, or Scott Peterson, or Kobe Bryant, is being scaled back for lack of space or dough?
— Susan Q. Stranahan
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.