Also this issue:

Secret Service
Nonprofit group Citizens Alliance keeps it on the down-low when it comes to its for-profit enterprises.
-Daniel Brook

First Light
Daily News photographer Jim MacMillan scores big with a shot from Ground Zero.
-Deborah Bolling

Taxi Driven
-Mary F. Patel

Who the heck is Walter Lundy?
The Inky editor walks into a hornet's nest at a Jewish Business Network meeting.
-Deborah Bolling

They Kill Kenney
-Daniel Brook

The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

September 26-October 2, 2002

on media

Soundbites

by Deborah Bolling

Ellen Foley, Daily News managing editor, may be heading home to the Midwest. The 27-year newspaper veteran, recently lambasted by the Coalition for Fair News Coverage over a controversial DN cover which portrayed the faces of 17 men of color, all labeled as murder fugitives, has confirmed that during the last two and a half months, she’s been in discussions with her former employer, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, about the possibility of accepting a managing editor’s gig at that paper.

"I have been recruited for a number of jobs in the past six months," Foley says. "But I have not been looking for work."

Foley scoffed at the idea that she would consider leaving to satisfy the leadership of the Coalition, who demanded her resignation (as well as editor Zack Stalberg's) from the DN, after the group staged a demonstration on Sept. 9, protesting the controversial cover.

"This process [with the S-T] started way before all that happened," Foley says. "In any case, it would actually argue toward my staying here and continuing the work that we have been doing to fairly cover all aspects of Philadelphia."

Foley was with the S-T, which is owned by the McClatchy Company, for 14 and a half years. "That's where I got all my experience," she says, explaining that she worked every department and did every job, from features to news, assigning editor to copy editor. Foley stresses, however, that she loves her current job.

"Knight Ridder has treated me like a queen," she says, "so it would take a whole lot of convincing for me to leave -- including the promise that the S-T would fly me back to Philadelphia regularly, so that I could get my ŒZack fix.'"

While Foley has offered no definitive answer regarding her future at the DN, her boss may already know the outcome.

"I'm delighted that she's staying. For me, this is the best possible outcome. I know it's all about me," Stalberg says, laughing. "That's why she's not going to leave."

But at press time Foley had not turned the job down.

"I'm from the Midwest, so this particular offer interested me," she says. "But I'm pretty tied to the East Coast now and I've developed a deep affection for it. "