David Goldberg is no longer the editor of the NDG Free Press. His resignation wouldn’t be such a big story, except for why it happened.
Goldberg was charged on May 30 with accessing and possessing child pornography, and released on $5,000 bail, according to The Gazette. Among his conditions, beyond staying away from places kids go, is that he can’t use the Internet, which I guess means he won’t be reading this post.
At the Free Press, things changed quickly. The biweekly paper reports in its June 12 issue (PDF) that Goldberg resigned on June 1. Publisher David Price takes over until June 18, when Marlene Eisner, a former Suburban EIC and Concordia professor, takes over.
To the credit of the paper and Price, the news wasn’t hidden or sugarcoated. In addition to announcing Goldberg’s resignation and Eisner’s appointment, the paper carries a short story with Price’s byline about Goldberg’s arrest.
Hope Eisner leaves all the Suburban habits behind her. Goldberg’s paper did a honest job of covering NDG on no budget and tried to restore a sense of community.
If this is the same Marlene Eisner, she used to be a library clerk at The Gazette in the days when the newspaper was located at 250 St. Antoine St. W., the former home of The Montreal Star.
Sad story. You might’ve mentioned that he was also a volunteer at NDG Baseball for many years, which may or may not be relevant. Hopefully not. He also has a very terse personality. From the couple of brief conversations I had with him, I left thinking it very unlikely that such a difficult communicator could run a newspaper.