This just in:

 Cliff Teutsch and Bobbie Roessner will be leaving the Hartford
Courant, effective tomorrow. Cliff and Bobbie have been guiding forces
here at The Courant for more than two decades. I have known both of
them for several years and have always been impressed with their
passion for quality journalism. Their record of accomplishments speaks
for itself.

Cliff began his journalism career with The Courant in 1980 as a
reporter in the Willimantic Bureau. Over the years, he has held a
number of reporting and editor positions with the company, culminating
with a promotion to editor and vice president in 2006. Under Cliff’s
leadership, the news room broke the investigative series, “Mentally
Unfit, Forced to Fight,” asserting that the military was increasingly

sending, keeping and redeploying mentally ill soldiers into combat in
violation of its own policies and mandates from Congress. Because of
the report, legislation was later passed to help address the flaws in
the military’s mental health system. 

This photo was taken the day the Courant won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. The only person in the photo who still works for the company, as of tomorrow, is Lynne DeLucia, whose back is to the camera.

Bobbie began her long and successful career with the company in 1978
as a reporter and has held several positions including associate
editor, deputy managing editor and most recently, managing editor. In
2004, she completed a Knight Fellowship in Journalism at Stanford
University. Last year, Bobbie oversaw the redesign of the newspaper
giving it a new look, new sections and more than 40 new features, all
with a stronger emphasis on Connecticut news.

Naedine Hazell has accepted the enormous responsibility of becoming
interim editor. In the short time I have known Naedine, I have been
very impressed with the contributions she has made and continues to
make to the company. Many folks have told me of the excellent work she
has done in her two months leading our digital efforts. The recent
gains in online traffic bear that out. The Hartford Courant’s website,
courant.com, continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. In March
2009, courant.com had 2.4 million unique users and over 23 million
page impressions – a 20% increase over March 2008. Additionally, her
depth of knowledge, versatility and strong sense of vision will allow
us to maintain the extraordinary level of quality that Courant readers
have come to expect from us, while we rapidly work to develop the
newsroom of the future. 

The past year has brought extraordinary change to our company, and the
speed of transformation is likely to continue, even accelerate over
the coming months. Recently, the focus has been on reducing costs in
order to keep The Courant from falling into the red. We still will
continue to effectively manage costs; however, the predominant changes
over the coming months will focus on the positive – rebuilding our
organization in order to meet the ever-morphing needs of our readers
and audiences. We will work diligently to establish the best structure
to channel our passions and work in order to expand our content over
three platforms – print, online and television. 

I know you will want to show your appreciation for the immeasurable
contributions Cliff and Bobbie have made to the Hartford Courant.
Please also join me in offering support to Naedine as she takes on her
new role, working with all of us to preserve and develop the important
place this institution plays in Connecticut life.

I realize you will have many questions and be looking for more
information on these changes. Naedine and I will hold a short meeting
today on the newsroom floor at 5:15 p.m

– Jeff Levine