Former BW Asia editor in hot water with new staff

Former BusinessWeek Asia editor Mark Clifford, who has been editor of the South China Morning Post for most of this year, has upset many of his staff members for firing employees involved in putting together a mock newspaper front page for another editorial staff member who was leaving the paper.

Clifford objected to an expletive being used on the front page of the mock newspaper, even though the paper was only distributed to those who attended the party.

Justin Mitchell of the Asia Sentinel wrote, “‘For Clifford to take the moral high ground and to treat us like children is really insulting,’ said a staffer. ‘It’s the nature of leaving pages. They are simply a good-humored prank which goes on in any [journalism] office environment and it’s ridiculous to take a moral stand on something like a leaving page.’

“Clifford, who resigned from The Standard in February 2006, has been an object of controversy since his arrival. Long-time SCMP staffers said that some ‘Clifford loyalists’ brought into the paper were at odds with the SCMP’s existing newsroom environment and created what another staffer called ‘a divided culture’ at the paper.

“‘The new people don’t mix with the old people and now there is a very divided culture within the Post between his people and the rest,’ another long-time employee said. ‘It’s become a very unpleasant place to work where real professionalism and journalism isn’t understood and promoted. These people who were sacked are characters. Journalism needs characters and he doesn’t understand the character element of journalism. His words about the need for change and standards are really very empty. I don’t he think he understands what they really mean.'”

Read more here. I guess I need to keep the mock magazine cover from my last job in the safe.