NY Daily News blew chance to run "Stray-Rod" photos--staffers stunned

2 long-time editors have just been released by the NY Daily News. Staffers saddened, but stunned that honcho who turned down A-rod Toronto photos wasn't axed:

• "In fact, many rank-and-file staffers were aghast that Ng hadn't suffered, because he had apparently blown a chance to break the story about Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez cavorting around Toronto with another woman.

Sources said Ng felt the photo of Rodriguez with a busty blonde ex-stripper named Joslyn Morse was actually a photo of Rodriguez accompanying his wife, Cynthia. It triggered an uproar when it ran on Page One of The Post on May 30 with the headline, "Stray Rod."

"It was Ng's call and he blew it," said an insider. "That was a flat-out scoop - and nobody sees any ramification there."

Ng had worked at the News in the late 1990s, but left for the Newark Star-Ledger until he was brought back a year ago by Dunn.

"It's safe to say everyone was angry and upset," another insider said of Chang. "This is a class guy, a well-respected guy and a talented guy with three young kids who was just treated very shabbily."

The metro editor's job has been something of a revolving door at the News in recent years, but the source said that in all previous instances, new jobs were found for the long-term veterans.

Some see the shakeup as a last-ditch attempt by Dunn to prove himself to Zuckerman before his contract expires in the fourth quarter of this year.

Dunn didn't return a call from Media Ink.

Jennifer Mauer, a Daily News spokes woman, said, "We're not going to discuss personnel matters.""

From NY Post article by Keith J. Kelly, "Dunn Wrong, News Bounces 2 Editors," 6/8/07

Via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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