News & Record editor announces resignation : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

John Robinson, editor of the News & Record since 1999, announced his resignation Tuesday, ending nearly 27 years with the newspaper.

His last day will be Dec. 2.

"John has been a superb leader for our newsroom,” President and Publisher Robin Saul said. “He has guided our news coverage with consistently high journalistic standards, while developing his staff and providing innovative concepts and changes. John will be missed professionally and personally."

Saul said a search for a new editor will begin immediately.

In announcing his resignation, Robinson said the paper is in good hands.

"The journalists at the News & Record are top drawer, every one of them,” Robinson said. “After serving as editor for 13 years, it is time for the newsroom to have new leadership with new ideas. And it’s time for me to contribute to this community in new ways.”

Robinson came to the paper in 1985 as an assistant city editor. He rose through the ranks, serving as editorial page editor before becoming editor. During his tenure, the newspaper won more than 170 N.C. Press Association awards and won a Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism. Editor & Publisher also named the News & Record one of the nation’s “Ten that Do It Right” in 2002 and 2005.

writermike

November 1, 2011 - 5:36 pm EDT

Wowww. Does that mean we can play some golf?

DonMoore

November 1, 2011 - 6:21 pm EDT

Contrast on the retirement. Hopefully you will enjoy it, but I suspect there will be some community groups wanting your time.

northoftheboro

November 1, 2011 - 6:32 pm EDT

As I, and many, many other former subscribers to the News and Record took issue with the publication's liberally-biased slant over the years, sparing many rounds with Mr. Robinson who denied and ignored any and all cited examples of bias, hopefully the N & R will find an editor who can provide balance and objectivity to its reporting. What's the worst that can happen in doing so...increased readership? Check the top of the cable news ratings; it sure worked for Fox News!

Panacea

November 1, 2011 - 7:03 pm EDT

Oh please. There is no bias. The N&R is a fairly well balanced newspaper.

John's retirement is the N&R's loss. I'll miss him.

Best wishes, John!

nemo0037

November 1, 2011 - 7:12 pm EDT

I've always believed that if you tick off the left and the right, you can feel that you're doing a well-balanced job of reporting. I've admired the balancing act over these years... a great job that he can be proud of.

Cheers!

jstevenh1952

November 1, 2011 - 8:30 pm EDT

Again Panacea you have a myoptic view on this along with other positions this paper takes. The result of the bias of this paper can best be demonstrated in its growth of readership. For the past 15 years this paper has become a regurgitation of the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Associated Press and many more far left, out of the mainstream news organizations. Robinson found his best role competing with local pick papers and focusing the editorial agenda out of the mainstream to more radical left wing views.

Although I don't expect any improvement with his departure.

Andrew Brod

November 1, 2011 - 8:49 pm EDT

Um, what? The New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, and the Associated Press are out of the mainstream? It's one thing to claim that those news outlets are too liberal (everyone's got his own opinion on that), but they essentially DEFINE the mainstream. And it pretty much defines conservative myopia not to see that.

November 2, 2011 - 6:38 pm EDT

Point is that the paper has evolved as a reprint of these papers. You consider them mainstream, from an entirely different perspective than I. This paper has less than 20% of the content from local sources. The 80% is almost entirely from media outlets that have a left wing agenda. That is hard to dispute.

Look at the business section today, one page. Nothing local, only stories from the wire. Sports? Heck even the Carolina Panther's coverage is off the wire.

Where is the local content? High school sports scores, a random article form a academic like yourself, is that the extent of local content. Maybe a annimal abuse article. Where is the real local news? How does the national event play into the local? All ignored by the very admission of the editor himself. The N&R has become less of factor in our daily information gathering.

I have lived in this city all of my life and I speak from a qualified and experienced position. The N&R has failed miserably to innovate and adapt. They have lost their "Why" (see Simon Sinek) and degenerated into nothing more than a reguritation of liberal media sources. In their place the pick up papers flourished, grew and commanded a larger and larger readership, while the N&R competed poorly and became less revelant each year.

Oh yes, I still subscribe to the WSJ and the FT, in hard copy.

newshound

November 1, 2011 - 9:51 pm EDT

Heads up everyone, listen, listen. There's the drum roll. And the winner is and the new Greensboro News and Record editor is NORTHOFTHEBORO. Isn't that the best news the readers could have. No biased reporting and the best of all sugar and spice and everything nice. Yeah.

JoeScott

November 2, 2011 - 10:13 am EDT

Bad form, North of the Boro. Not only do you pointlessly kick a man during what must a very challenging new step in his life, but you do so while cowering behind the anonymity of an online pseudonym. I know many conservatives who consider courage and nobility to be amongst their virtues, but these are two traits that you are sorely lacking. Go find some tact and some guts. Then after that, go find a clue. No editorial slant can change the fact that there are now two generations of consumers who do not read print journalism.

arnie

I think you have a great future as a James Taylor double! Good luck!

Soccer Mom

November 1, 2011 - 8:25 pm EDT

Good luck, John. You can leave the newsroom, but the newsroom never leaves you. :) You'll always be editing each story, wondering what is causing smoke in the distance and have an even greater appreciation for incredible reads and compelling photos. Best wishes as you embark on your next adventure!

Joe Killian

November 1, 2011 - 9:19 pm EDT

Man. You're going to miss this kind of high minded debate when you leave, JR.

Jeri Rowe

November 1, 2011 - 10:21 pm EDT

Please, look at what the man has gone through.

At least three rounds of layoffs. Two sets of buyouts. Really, I've lost count. In the past decade, our newsroom numbers have gone from 110 to 70 or so. In the past five years, he's had to take a financial scalpel to everything he sees in the newsroom, trying to save jobs and save the bottom line. I mean, we are a business. And he's had our back every step of the way.

We'll charge forward, the ones left in the newsroom. But JR is leaving on his own terms. We all should be so lucky. So, Godspeed, JR.

Now, rage on. Please. Do love these aliases.

lcwhite

November 1, 2011 - 11:04 pm EDT

Tell it Jeri.. amen...

yankeefan

November 2, 2011 - 12:27 am EDT

Thanks, Jeri, for a sane, reasoned comment. I'd recommend you for an editorial post, but then we'd all suffer the loss of your insight and connection to what's real and honest in our community.

Robinson's leadership has clearly had a positive impact on the News and Record, not to mention the Greensboro community as a whole. If that were not the case, the most dedicated followers of the most extreme ends (right and left) of the socio-political spectrum would be weeping in despair.

That the right considers this most moderate of publications a tool of the extremist, socialist, ultra-liberal agenda says much more about their biases than any supposed bias of this publication (or many, many other media outlets...).

Mike Fuchs

November 2, 2011 - 8:09 am EDT

As Jeri said, John had our backs amid some very tough times. You'll be missed.

RangerMgr

November 1, 2011 - 10:36 pm EDT

JR is one the most respected persons at the News & Record. He will be missed. Good luck and Godspeed.

November 1, 2011 - 10:59 pm EDT

I have really gotten to know John through the power of social media...we have had such lively and laughable discussions via Facebook...he also gave me my start in writing a "community column" during a low period in my life. I honestly thought people wouldn't be interested in my stories...but John believed in me and it gave me confidence..and people are still reading. I wish you well and thank you for being my bff Facebook friend! Larice White

Abner Doon

November 1, 2011 - 11:43 pm EDT

I wish you the best.

pixelpusher

November 2, 2011 - 9:46 am EDT

Godspeed, John.

Hope retirement is good to you. You've earned it.

LOIS

November 2, 2011 - 9:57 am EDT

I agree with all the good things said about you. In case it hasn't been written, I'd like to add one word: gentleman.
I wish you the best of luck. Judging from the bare parking lots at the N&R, I'm beginning to wonder if the only one left to man the phones in advertising and attend to editing the paper will be Robin Saul.

wstutts

November 2, 2011 - 11:38 am EDT

I have often disagreed with John but I believe he is honest. I wish him the best in his retirement/

terrier2003

November 3, 2011 - 1:42 pm EDT

Does this mean that we will get better thought out editorials unlike the one today that mentions the BOA issue and how Merrill Lynch was a bad decision to purchase? If you look at the numbers on Merrill and BOA, Merrill is the division of BOA that is making the most profit for the bank. in hindsight, it was genius and it is proving to be an asset that is stabalizing the company and the stock price. The editorial should have brought Countrywide to mind, but then again we are mad at Wallstreet and not the mortgage companies...even though misdirected you have to direct anger somewhere I assume.

John Robinson

November 3, 2011 - 4:24 pm EDT

Thanks, everyone. I waited until the end of the commentary because, well, I've been in these forums for years now and I know how they can get. I appreciate you not letting them get that way.

I apologize for the size of that photo, too. Geez, is my head really that big and my neck that pencil-sized?

Thanks for visiting. I'm still here and you can join me over at the blog as many of you do.

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