The staff of the University of Oregon Daily Emerald, an independent student newspaper, went on strike last week in response to what they say as an act of possible prior restraint on their content. The board of the paper, made up of UO journalism faculty and some students,  created a new publisher position that oversees the paper's editor in chief. This position was created on the recommendation of Steven A. Smith, originally hired as a consultant for the paper to help it out of its financial troubles. The board offered the position to Smith, who agreed to take the position on an interim basis and for an $80,000 salary with the additional responsibility of teaching classes in the Journalism school at U of Orgeon. Smith also refused an interview or to be a candidate in a larger national search. According to a statement written by editor in chief Ashley Chase and managing editor Allie Grasgreen, the staff demanded that the publisher not have supervisory control over the student editor, because that control would threaten "student control and editorial independence" by creating a conflict of interest, especially if the publisher was a university employee and the paper wanted to write about the university.

Additionally, the Emerald's news editor, Robert D'Andrea, said the issue isn't Smith himself, but the "shady" way he was hired — meaning Smith created the position, set the terms of his employment and demanded there be no competition from other candidates. The students’ official demands included not only equalizing the publisher’s and the editor’s power, but demanding all candidates go through an interview process and that the publisher not be formally affiliated with the university. Upon learning of the students’ opposition, Smith withdrew from the position, but the staff continued to strike with the demand that they be able to set the terms of the publisher position. The board agreed to meet with the newsroom staff of the Emerald on Thursday night and the two sides mediated the terms of the publisher position that evening. The staff returned to work on Friday, happy in their victory and grateful to the community who supported them. The strike drew national attention of prominent blogs, such as Poynter’s Romenesko and Twitter was overrun with talk of the strike under the #odestrike hashtag.


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