Ex-L.A. Times Editor To Be Fellow

John Carroll, the former editor of the Los Angeles Times, will be a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) during the spring semester.

The Shorenstein fellowship program appoints up to six distinguished journalists, scholars, and policy makers each semester to explore a topic concerning the relationship between the mass media and politics. Fellows must produce a final paper and are encouraged to attend seminars at the center and give public lectures.

Carroll offers unparalleled expertise in the newspaper business, according to Alex S. Jones, the Shorenstein Center’s director.

“He is among the most respected journalists in the United States,” Jones said.

Carroll will draw on his five-year stint as editor of the Times, and previous experience as editor of the Baltimore Sun, to examine the ever-changing nature of the newspaper business.

“My research project will be about the circumstances journalists are facing as the business of journalism goes through its current upheaval,” Carroll wrote in an e-mail.

Upheaval is something familiar to Carroll. The Times had just been acquired by the Tribune Publishing Company of Chicago when he came on board in 2000. At the time, the paper was embroiled in a scandal over advertising from the newly opened Staples Center.

“He took a demoralized newspaper and turned it into a paper that was winning multiple Pulitzer Prizes,” said Jones.

But success came at a price. According to an Oct. 10 article in The New Yorker, the relationship between corporate executives in Chicago and Carroll in Los Angeles became increasingly strained until his departure in August of this year.

“I imagine that being a Shorenstein fellow is as difficult as you want to make it. I don’t intend to waste the opportunity, but I am hoping to unwind a bit after an intense five years in L.A.,” Carroll wrote.

Carroll’s decision to come to Harvard marks a roundabout journey. First coming to Harvard as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism from 1971-72, Carroll declined the curatorship of the Nieman Foundation in 2000.

“When I passed up the Nieman job, I didn’t have any plans beyond doing a good job in L.A. But, as I mentioned, I’d always hoped for another chance to spend time at a university, especially Harvard,” Carroll wrote.

While the Shorenstein fellowship lasts for one semester, Jones said it is possible Carroll could stay on in a different position at the KSG, though he said nothing is definite.

“There is a possibility, it is premature to discuss. But he may be here in a different capacity,” said Jones.