HAIL TO THE CHIEFS
Former Citizen editor Robert Shannon said it was a newspaper's job to `hold a reflecting glass' to its community. For 175 years, Citizen editors have done just that. They've helped shape the city by focusing the paper's journalistic resources on issues such as political patronage, water pollution, bilingualism, literacy, voter suppression and the LRT. Andrew Duffy looks at some of the paper's many memorable editors.
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG ( 1 961- 1 975)
In 1961, Christopher Young was named editor-in-chief: He came to the Citizen from the parliamentary offices of Southam News, which served as the national news service of the Southam newspaper chain.
Young had deep roots in journalism. Oxford educated, he had worked as a reporter and news editor at the Winnipeg Tribune, then as a news editor at the Hamilton Spectator before moving to Ottawa. A quiet, considered man with a keen analytical mind, Young beefed up the Citizen's national bureau, recruiting both John Gray, one of the country's most graceful writers, and Frank Howard, who offered groundbreaking coverage of the civil service.
Young also led the Citizen's move into the future when the paper moved from its downtown headquarters to a sprawling new home in the suburbs (today's location) in 1973. The paper became the first major daily in North America to abandon hot lead type in favour of computerized page design.
Young left the Citizen in 1975 to become general manager of Southam News, and then, nearing the age of 50, went into the field as a foreign correspondent in London and Moscow. He won two National Newspaper Awards for his overseas work.
Two years after he retired from journalism, Young was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He wrote about his early struggles with dementia for Maclean's magazine, and died in March 2006. He was 79.
RUSSELL MILLS ( 1 975- 1 985)
Square-jawed and serious, Russell Mills was named editor of the Ottawa Citizen in November 1975 after a rapid rise through the paper's editorial ranks.
He was 31 when handed responsibility for the newsroom, and would help steward the paper for more than 25 years as editor and publisher before leaving in spectacular fashion.
As the paper's newly minted editor, Mills moved aggressively to damage the paper's crosstown rival, the Ottawa Journal, by poaching some of its most popular writers, including sports columnist Eddie MacCabe and city columnist Dave Brown. The Journal, already hampered by old technology and the after-effects of a strike, saw its readership plummet.
The Journal closed on Aug. 27, 1980 after 95 years as the Citizen's nearest rival.
Following his successful decade as editor, Mills twice served as the newspaper's publisher and was famously fired in June 2002 after the Citizen published a feature critical of then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and an editorial that called for his resignation. His bosses at Canwest Global — the firm owned by the Asper family had bought the newspaper chain — felt that Mills should have cleared the stories with them before publication. Mills disagreed.
His firing was discussed in the House of Commons and Mills was celebrated as a defender of press freedom. He later became an Algonquin College dean and chair of the National Capital Commission.
KEITH SPICER ( 1 985- 1 989)
A public intellectual and civil servant, Keith Spicer was an unlikely choice as editor-in-chief: He seemed too refined for the knockabout world of daily journalism.
Spicer arrived at the Ottawa Citizen with an uncommonly rich resume. A PhD in political science and a former university professor, he had served as the country's first Commissioner of Official Languages.
Flamboyant and erudite, Spicer expanded the sights of the city newspaper. He sent two reporters, Ilya Gerol and Chris Cobb, to Russia for a special report on the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The Citizen produced another special section on the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.
Spicer also expanded the paper's arts coverage and launched a Sunday edition that he promoted as something to be enjoyed in a brass bed with croissants and espresso.
Spicer left the Citizen in 1989 to accept a seven-year appointment as chair the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). He now lives in Ottawa.
JAMES TRAVERS ( 1 991- 1 996)
James Travers was named editor of the Ottawa Citizen in 1991 after a distinguished career as a foreign correspondent with Southam News.
Travers covered Africa and the Middle East during six years overseas with Southam. He wrote about everything from anti-apartheid riots in South Africa to the Intifada in Israel's occupied territories to the famine in Ethiopia. He liked to play a recording of a mortar attack that nearly killed him during the Iran-Iraq War.
Brash, funny and passionate, Travers brought the Citizen into the digital age with the launch in March 1996 of its website: www. ottawacitizen.com. But he balked when the Citizen was bought by conservative newspaper magnate Conrad Black as part of his purchase of the Southam newspaper chain. Travers resigned in October 1996, and joined the Toronto Star, where he became a political columnist.
“I'm living proof there is life after management,” Travers quipped in 2010 after receiving a National Newspaper Award for political writing.
He died in 2011 from medical complications following surgery to remove his spleen. He was 62.
NEIL REYNOLDS ( 1 996- 2000)
Conrad Black chose a wiry and idiosyncratic newspaperman, Neil Reynolds, to take over the Citizen newsroom in 1996.
A high-school dropout who worked his way up to executive positions at the Toronto Star, Kingston Whig-Standard and New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, Reynolds came to Ottawa with a reputation as an eccentric genius. He used to joke about his style of leadership: “There are two ways to motivate people,” he'd say. “Fear — and I forget the other.”
Armed with a $2-million cash infusion and a mandate for change, Reynolds authored a dramatic overhaul of the newspaper. He introduced a Sunday magazine, doubled the space for editorials, recruited conservative columnists, gave photos more prominence, and embraced narrative journalism.
Reynolds also took gambles, none more famous than his decision to buy a series of stories from Diane Stuemer, who walked into his office two weeks before setting out on an around-the-world sailing trip with her husband and three sons. Reynolds agreed to buy her dispatches as long as she wrote about the trip, warts and all. The Stuemers' four years of adventure aboard the Northern Magic captivated readers: Thousands welcomed the family home to Petrie Island on a rainy day in August 2001.
Reynolds left to take the helm of the Vancouver Sun in 2000. He died at age 72 in May 2013.
MICHELLE RICHARDSON ( 2016- 2019)
Michelle Richardson, at 34, became the first woman to lead the Ottawa Citizen when she was named editor in March 2016.
The Montreal native offered clear-eyed, thoughtful leadership during a turbulent time at the newspaper, which had endured a painful series of newsroom departures. Its newsroom had also been recently merged with the Ottawa Sun.
Richardson, the former managing editor of the Montreal Gazette, forged a masthead dominated by women, and significantly advanced the Citizen's digital innovation and online readership.
She left the Citizen in late 2019 for a position at a Crown corporation.