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Erik Lukens, who has led The Oregonian's editorial board for four years, is leaving the newspaper to become editor of The Bend Bulletin, marking the end of a noteworthy tenure that included a 2014 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing as well as many public spats with liberal Oregon politicians who didn't appreciate Lukens' libertarian bent.
Lukens' departure leaves the direction of The Oregonian's editorial board up in the air. It remains to be seen whether Steve Moss, the newspaper's president, will move the editorial board more in line with its progressive Portland readership—or maintain a contrarian focus.
In an announcement Friday, the newspaper said no decision had been made about how to replace Lukens, who starts at The Bulletin on Aug. 1, the announcement said.
Lukens joined the paper after the sudden death of Bob Caldwell, the editorial page's long-time leader. Caldwell's passing marked one of the more bizarre chapters in Oregonian history, because he died after a sex act with a prostitute—an episode the newspaper had initially mis-reported when it wrote in a front-page story that Caldwell had died in his car.
Under Lukens, the editorial board won its third Pulitzer for editorial writing, for a series on Oregon's rising pension costs.
But it also drew fire from Portland politicians like Commissioner Steve Novick, who in 2014 went "Richard Sherman" on The Oregonian in a post on his City Council blog. Complaining that the editorial board had moved from criticism to contempt, Novick took aim at Lukens and then-publisher Chris Anderson.
"We're not going to be bullied by some sorry Orange County right-wing publisher," Novick wrote. "We'll be here after you're gone, Mr. N. Christian Anderson III—after the Newhouse family wakes up and realizes that it's economic idiocy to try to foist a Fox News paper on a progressive readership. And don't think for a minute that anything you write will have any influence on us at all. Lions don't concern themselves with the opinions of sheep."
In an email to WW, Lukens says he is proud of the fact his team "isn't afraid to challenge conventional wisdom," adding, "I'm confident The Oregonian's editorials will remain sharp, well-reported and relevant."
Willamette Week