One relatively predictable change at USA Today‘s editorial page hides a more surprising one. The long-time editorial page editor is retiring and being replaced by his deputy — Bill Sternberg — no big deal.
The more off-the-wall news is that David Mastio is being promoted to deputy.
Mastio has some of the usual boxes checked. For example, this is his third time working at the paper’s opinion shop. That said, he’s not the usual behind-the-scenes liberal USA Today editor by any stretch.
Just consider what he did between stints working for USA Today. He was the founding editorial page editor of the conservative Washington Examiner. He then replaced Pulitzer-winner and D.C. institution Mary Lou Forbes editing commentary for The Washington Times. He also wrote speeches for the Bush administration.
Bizarrely, given that USA Today is among the largest newspapers in the country, Mastio is now in position to be one of the most influential conservative journalists in the nation despite the fact that, as an industry observer put it, “nobody has heard of the guy. As his stewardship of USA Today’s oped pages show, though, he’s a bit of a nut.”
Oliver Stone and Ralph Nader are favorites. So is Duncan Black of Atrios and Media Matters fame, who he gave a biweekly column credited with getting Democrats to start talking about increasing Social Security spending. He promotes the work of feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte and Instapundit‘s Glenn Reynolds, who seem to hate each other.
And going against the conservative wind, one of his biggest pet causes is promoting gay marriage — in the last three months, the top three results on Google for “gay marriage column” are from USA Today.
Some days it seems like he must be being paid off by GLADD, but then, they hate him too, as shown here.
All in all, a pretty interesting pick.
See the incredibly dry internal memo below…
From: Callaway, David
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2015 4:48 PM
To: USAT ED Newsgroup
Subject: Editorial page changes
Folks,
I’m pleased to announce that Bill Sternberg, deputy editorial page editor, will be promoted to editorial page editor at the end of the month, succeeding Brian Gallagher, who is retiring.
And that David Mastio will be promoted to deputy editorial page editor.
Bill has served on the edit Page for more than a decade, and before that had stints running world coverage and Washington coverage. David has served two stints on the edit page, and been a driving force in helping develop its digital transition in the last few years.
Brian, one of our most distinguished senior editors, as well as a helluva golfer, served two terms as edit page editor and a term as executive editor. I will miss his leadership and guidance, and wish him all the best in his new retirement adventure.
Please join me in congratulating Brian on a fabulous Gannett career and wishing him well. And congratulating Bill and David in their new roles.
Cheers. Dave