AS THE PROJO TURNS Suspension of sports editor upsets colleagues BY IAN DONNIS

In what a number of staffers perceived as a troubling overreaction, the Providence Journal suspended sports editor Art Martone with pay after accounting questions were raised about a relatively small payment to a schoolboy sports stringer in nearby Massachusetts. After an almost two-week absence, Martone was back at the Journal on Tuesday, October 19, preparing to return to the job — suggesting that the reason for the suspension proved baseless — yet colleagues were left wondering why the episode happened in the first place.

The move came, and Martone was reportedly escorted to the door, after ProJo bean counters were initially unable to find published work to correspond with a payment he authorized — said to be about $250 — to a stringer covering scholastic sports near Fall River, Massachusetts. Although the exact details remain unclear — one source believes the stringer was able to account for the work — Martone enjoyed largely unstinting support in the newsroom, where he has built a reputation as a dedicated editor during his three-decade career at the ProJo.

The suspension occurred in the middle of the first full week in October, a momentous time in New England sports since the Boston Red Sox were approaching their American League Championship Series with the rival New York Yankees, and the New England Patriots were vying for a record-setting 19th consecutive NFL victory.

Many staffers responded by signing a petition calling for Martone’s prompt return, and sports columnist Bill Reynolds visited publisher Howard G. Sutton to discuss the situation, insiders say (Reynolds declined to comment). As one reporter put it, "Everybody’s pissed off about it because this guy is a great guy, and he’s given 30 years to the Journal, and he works really hard." The source cites Martone, who succeeded Dave Bloss as sports editor in 2000, and whose insightful writing about the Red Sox often appears on Internet fan sites, as one of the best-liked editors at the newspaper.

Executive editor Joel P. Rawson declined to comment on the situation, and Martone did not return a call to his home. Sutton did not return a call seeking comment.

Metro columnist Bob Kerr says the reaction to Martone’s suspension was "horrible. The general reaction is, you don’t humiliate a guy who’s been here for 30 years and who is married to his job. It’s insulting. You don’t march a guy out of the building like that. You certainly give him the benefit of a doubt."

Some staffers speculated that managerial anxiety over newspaper circulation scandals (including one at the Dallas Morning News, which, like the ProJo, is owned by the Dallas-based Belo Corporation) played a role in the number-crunching leading to Martone’s suspension. Last week, the New York Times reported that more than half a dozen newspaper companies, including Belo, had received requests for information about their circulation practices from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The internal turbulence at the ProJo is the most serious since a December 2003 contract agreement, after almost four years of pitched union-management feuding, ushered in a new era of good feeling at Rhode Island’s dominant daily. Time will tell whether the episode remains just a blip or a harbinger of ongoing concerns.