The editor-in-chief of the Brabants Dagblad Carin Smolders resigned from her duties on Tuesday. That has the newspaper announced. There would be insufficient support from the editorial staff for the functioning of Smolders. There was prevailing within the Brabant newspaper according to Omroep Brabant has been uneasy about her management style for some time.
A plenary editorial meeting had been announced about the relationship between Smolders and the editorial staff, a rare step within a newspaper that often indicates a fragile relationship between management and the shop floor. Even before this meeting could take place, Smolders resigned from her duties. “Changes are desperately needed for a healthy future Brabants Dagblad. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that I do not experience sufficient support from the editorial staff to really implement the desired changes,” says Smolders on the DPG newspaper's website.
There is said to be a “sick and unsafe atmosphere” on the work floor, where about 75 editors work, partly due to Smolders' direct and fierce management style. Several editors and reporters are said to have left or been at home on sick leave since Smolders took office ten months ago. About the editors who anonymously told their story to Omroep Brabant, Smolders writes in an internal email in the possession of the regional broadcaster that “the support for continuing with me as editor-in-chief has been knowingly undermined.”
The editorial board had also openly sounded the alarm by sending an email calling for the aforementioned “full editorial meeting”, Omroep Brabant wrote. “Some of the editors have now indicated that they no longer have confidence in the editor-in-chief. As far as the editorial board is concerned, this situation cannot continue any longer,” it said.
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