By Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin newspaper editor demoted after writing a column that offended advertisers has started a legal campaign to get her job back, saying she is taking a stand for editorial independence.

Autumn Drussell

Autumn Drussell filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Rights Division seeking to be reinstated as editor of the Stoughton Courier Hub. Drussell said she is standing up for journalism at a time when struggling small newspapers are especially susceptible to advertiser influence.

Months after being named editor, Drussell wrote in a July 2010 column she was shopping more at low-cost big box stores because of the economy. She suggested that local businesses needed to improve customer service, stop badmouthing their areas and appeal to frugal customers, advice offered at a chamber of commerce luncheon she attended.

The column upset some of the newspaper’s advertisers in Stoughton, a city of 13,000 people, including hardware store owner Jim Gerber, who warned he would stop advertising until the economy improves.

“I will stop short from calling for your job — Walmart and Target need your money,” he wrote to the paper.

Days later, Drussell was called into a meeting with the general manager of Unified Newspaper Group, which owns the weekly and other newspapers in the region. Drussell, 35, said she was removed as editor and asked to sign a document agreeing not to write opinion pieces and be on probation for 90 days.

Unified is a division of Dubuque, Iowa-based Woodward Communications, Inc. Company officials did not respond to e-mail and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Drussell, who works for the paper as a reporter and page designer, said she was baffled her bosses did not support her.

“I just don’t want what they did to be precedent-setting,” Drussell said. “It used to be that people at newspapers with an opinion were protected. Because of the constraints newspapers are under with the economy, it sounds like that’s not the case anymore and that’s starting to go away. That’s scary to me.”

A week after her column, the paper published an editorial urging readers to shop locally and acknowledging Drussell’s opinion left “many of our best supporters feeling betrayed.”

“While there were some legitimate points to be made … we as a newspaper erred in allowing those ideas to be overshadowed by the implications that local businesses should simply ride it out while residents shop at big box chain stores,” the editorial read.

Not everyone was upset with Drussell, the paper’s associate editor since 2007 and editor since May 2010. City, school district and hospital leaders sent a letter to the company praising her work, Mayor Donna Olson said.

Drussell’s gender discrimination complaint notes she was demoted while a male superior, Jim Ferolie, who reviewed the column, wasn’t disciplined. Ferolie declined comment. Drussell is seeking back her job, lost wages and attorney’s fees.

Stephen Ward, a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism ethics expert, called her demotion draconian and chilling.

“It really sends a signal that only certain ideas are legitimate,” he said.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Have you noticed how it’s a one-way street? If what is written in the newspaper makes an advertiser happy, is the editor or reporter promoted or given a bonus? Heck no! Why? Well, for one reason, have you noticed that the powers-that-be only seem to hear about it when the advertisers are unhappy? When they’re happy, the advertisers usually keep it to themselves, so those same powers-that-be don’t hear about the good stuff, for crying out loud! (Of course, ad reps are quick to come to the defense of advertisers with the assumption that advertisers demonstrate their happiness by spending money for more ads. Okay, it’s hard to argue with that.)

At what point does a newspaper stop being the voice of the people – the conscience of the community – and become a mouthpiece for advertisers? Have you noticed how the local daily newspaper in London, Ohio, has emerged as the public relations outlet for anything and everything the Madison County Chamber of Commerce spoon feeds it? Admittedly, a good chamber of commerce is important to a community, its business climate and its quality of life. Conversely, an impotent chamber of commerce is merely a drain on the belt-tightened budgets of local businesses.

What should readers think about a newspaper that cows down to its advertisers? What has happened to freedom of the press and journalistic independence? Merely publishing press releases that show up in the newsroom is an easy way to get the newspaper out each day, but is it really a newspaper one really wants to read or that serves our community? Where’s the integrity that was the cornerstone for great newspapers? Do newspapers – particularly small-town community newspapers – now just concentrate on bolstering their bottom line, scheming to see how much money they can siphon from their advertisers as corporate bean counters handcuff their editorial department from reporting the news or daring to express a comment which might upset an advertiser?

Then there’s the occasion centered in Burleson, Texas, where spineless corporate types from Graham, Texas, and Denver who cowered in the corner like frightened children after having been strong armed by the Burleson mayor, the superintendent and the human resources director for the Burleson Independent School District and two members of the Burleson ISD school board who complained that the newspaper wasn’t sugar-coating its coverage of school issues, and when disgruntled former and current employees at the Burleson Star whined about the way the publisher did exactly what the powers-that-be mandated: Make budget and get rid of employees who were dead weight or were the reason for internal turmoil.

By the way, for those who think the Internet is a reliable source for news, blogging and most of the unsolicited crap found in cyberspace is not really news, no matter how they dress it up. It’s usually the skewed opinion of someone who doesn’t have a real life and who thinks they can do as good a job as a professional journalist. But when those who live and breathe community newspaper are put on a leash and unable to do what they do best, the only way you’re going to get your “news” in the not-so-distant-future is through those unreliable blogs. Is that what you want? Let your opinion be known. Email us at OurCommunityNewspaper@gmail.com