Andrew Potter, outgoing Ottawa Citizen editor in chief, watching industry with 'trepidation'

As the Postmedia newspaper chain continues to struggle financially,Ottawa Citizen editorinchief Andrew Potter will leavejournalism in Februaryand returnto academiaand he doesn't deny the industry'stroubles played a role in his decision.

• LISTEN: Full interview with Andrew Potter fromOttawa Morning.

"I'd be lying if I said that broad concern about the nature of the business in general didn't weigh on, not just me, but everybody in it. And that's probably why I'm not going somewhere else in journalism, I'm going to academia," Potter told Robyn Bresnahan, host ofCBC Radio'sOttawa Morning,on Friday.

He also said while he'snot privy to internal Postmediafinancial information, he's not buoyed by public filingshe reads.

"I read the same financial statements that everyone else does and I think I just wish everybody the best. It's vital to the city that we have an effective newspaper, and I'm going to be watching with as much trepidation as everyone else," he said.

His consolation, he said,has been focusing on news instead of the news business.

"I think the more I've been able to sort of focus on news, not paying attention to the market side of things or the advertising side of things ... it's been fun. It's one of the best jobs in Canadian journalism. I've been very lucky."

Potter 3rdto quit in recent months

Potter's departure from the Citizen on Feb. 29 will be the paper's third in recent months. In December, both of the paper'seditorial writers Kate Heartfieldand James Gordon left.

While Heartfieldsaid she decidedto pursue fiction writing and focus on her family, and Gordon didn't publicly announce a reason for leaving, media watchers were quick topoint out that Postmedia drew criticism during the federal election for requiring all ofits daily newspapers, including theCitizen, to post editorials endorsingformer prime minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

Potter said he wouldn't have endorsed the Conservatives if it had been up to him, but Paul Godfrey, the Postmedia chain's owner, had every right to choose.

"I'll be frank, [Harper is]not who I would have endorsed if it was up to me.I actually had come to ...the conclusion that maybe we should just endorse locally, local candidates; that the idea of endorsing a national prime minister was maybe anachronistic ...and somewhat at odds with the way people actually vote, since you only vote for your local candidate," Potter said.

"But I also will defend unequivocally the right of an owner to endorse whoever they want and to use their pages to do that, and I think Mr. Godfrey is entirely within his rights."

As for the state of the newspaper industry and how it might be repaired, Potter didn't directly answera question from Bresnahan about whether a TomKent-style government commission into media ownership is necessary. He didsay he's not in favour of more public investment in the CBC, for example,and that some people in the U.S. are coming up with innovative ways ofmakingthe news business work.

"I think the more interesting experiment is what's going on in the States with billionaires Jeff Bezos and others getting involved, or with the non-profit models associated with places like ProPublica. I think something like that is probably more promising than putting more media on the public dollar," he said.