Soon-to-Launch Baltimore Banner Lures Three Reporters from Sun Newsroom

The Baltimore Banner, a news site being brought to life by a wealthy Maryland businessman, announced on Wednesday that it has lured three prominent reporters from its future rival, The Baltimore Sun.

Crime and courts reporter Justin Fenton, education reporter Liz Bowie, and enterprise reporter Tim Prudente will all be joining the media start-up.

The Banner also announced that Andrea K. McDaniels will serve as managing editor, and that Lawrence Burney, founder of a local music and culture site, True Laurels, has been hired to shepherd arts and cultural coverage. McDaniels spent more than two decades at the Sun, most recently as a member of the paper’s editorial board. She accepted a buyout offer in June.

The hires were announced by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a Baltimore-based nonprofit whose website says it is “focused on delivering high-quality local journalism to the Baltimore metro area.”

The Venetoulis Institute is bankrolled by Stewart W. Bainum, Jr., a multi-millionaire hotel magnate from Montgomery County whose attempt to buy the Sun last year was unsuccessful. He sought the 185-year-old paper in an effort to get it out of the hands of Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund dubbed the “grim reaper of American newspapers” by Vanity Fair for its ruthless cost-cutting.

Having failed in that bid, Bainum — who served two terms in the Maryland legislature, lost a bid for Congress and considered taking on incumbent Gov. Parris N. Glendening in the 1998 Democratic primary — launched a non-profit instead. His institute is named for former Baltimore County executive and longtime Maryland politico Ted Venetoulis (D), an irrepressible figure who died in October. Venetoulis, who for many years operated newspapers and magazines in Maryland, persuaded Bainum to pursue a bid for the Sun and then helped in the planning of the Baltimore Banner.

The hiring of three reporters whose work is featured on the front pages of the Sun on a daily basis signals an intention to use Bainum’s millions to get off to a fast start, observers said.

“They’re telling the public: ‘We are not going to be second-rate. We have big ambitions. And we are beginning to put together a team with reporters who know how to cover this region,’” said Sandy Banisky, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland and a former Sun deputy managing editor.

“It means they’re serious about communicating more than headlines — and that I like,” said former Maryland Secretary of State John T. Willis, who teaches a media and government class at the University of Baltimore.

“What I worry about is: What is the response of the Sun, since they have an existing position in the market?” he added. “Are they going to try to match the quality or are they going to further lower the denominator in what people get?”

Trif Alatzas, the Sun’s publisher and editor-in-chief, did not respond to emails requesting comment.

The new personnel announced by the Banner on Wednesday will work under Kimi Yoshino, a former Los Angeles Times managing editor whose hiring was announced in October. The site has said it intends to focus on city, suburban and state government and politics, crime, education and the arts.

“They each bring a unique set of skills and knowledge, but all share the same commitment to telling the most important stories in Baltimore,” Yoshino said of the new hires.

The Banner is expected to begin operations this spring with about 50 journalists and an annual operating budget of $15 million, an unusually large resource base for a nonprofit news start-up. Bainum has said he hopes to reach a break-even point within a few years of operation, in part through paid subscriptions.

Media observers are watching the Banner’s rise closely. With local news in decline, the wealthy benefactor model could be replicated in other cities if it succeeds in the Baltimore region.

“Specialty sites around the country have emerged,” said Willis. “There are some models around the country that give some hope. I don’t think journalism is going to go. Information about government is still going to be of interest to a lot of people. … The topics are still there. It’s just we’re going to be in an adjustment period.”

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