South China Morning Post biz editor forced to resign

Stuart Jackson, the South China Morning Post business editor, was forced to resign, and the move was seen as a rebuke of the paper’s editor, former BusinessWeek editor Mark Clifford. Jackson was also an American and had been on the job for less than a year.

Jackson and Clifford had worked together at BusinessWeek, and Jackson had also been a high-ranking editor at Bloomberg News in New York.

Justin Mitchell of the Asia Sentinel wrote, “Jackson, hand-picked by Clifford to overhaul the Post’s business coverage, had been on the job only seven months when he tendered his surprise resignation. The move was largely regarded inside the paper as a reaction by the board of directors to an employee revolt in early November in which more than 100 staffers petitioned the paper’s chairman asking for the reinstatement of two senior editors fired for their minor roles in putting together an off-color, in-house mock front page as a tribute for another employee Clifford had sacked.

“Jackson, like Clifford an American, was previously business editor for the Post’s cross-town rival, The Standard until he followed Clifford from the Standard to the Post in February. In turn Jackson had taken a clutch of business reporters and editors from The Standard to the Post.”

Later, Mitchell noted, “Jackson’s resignation came just as he was due to return from vacation and just as his selected second-in-command, former Standard staffer Jonathan Tam, was due to go on leave. Clifford’s e-mail said that Post staffers Karen Chan and Ewen Campbell ‘will supervise the operation of the business section until a new business editor is appointed.’ Both Chan and Campbell were at the paper prior to the arrival of both Clifford and Jackson and their ascendancy is regarded inside the paper as a setback for Jackson’s allies.”

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