I tried—and failed.

The common thread linking the likes of Gov. Phil Bredesen, former presidential candidate Al Gore, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Congressman Jim Cooper and Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee is that, unbeknownst to my former boss Bruce Dobie, I approached them and about 25 other of the richest and most powerful people in Middle Tennessee in a bid to get Dobie hired as Tennessean editor. It didn't take a lot of cajoling for these movers and shakers (or their more accessible right hands) to become his advocates.

In fact, all those just named apparently appeared on a list of references that Dobie gave to Tennessean publisher Leslie Giallombardo, back when she was seeking a new editor. The list, by the way, contained numerous other names, including a sitting U.S. ambassador, a couple of Pulitzer Prize-winning writers and even a Frist.

Why was Giallombardo willing to thumb her nose at the city's elite and tap a locally unknown, if talented, Gannett hand for the top job? In short, because she's a shrewd and intelligent businesswoman who made the only logical choice. In tapping the thoroughly competent E.J. Mitchell, a veteran Gannett employee and former managing editor of The Detroit News, Giallombardo, in one fell swoop, accomplished four feats:

Why was Giallombardo willing to thumb her nose at the city's elite and tap a locally unknown, if talented, Gannett hand for the top job? In short, because she's a shrewd and intelligent businesswoman who made the only logical choice. In tapping the thoroughly competent E.J. Mitchell, a veteran Gannett employee and former managing editor of The Detroit News, Giallombardo, in one fell swoop, accomplished four feats:

♦ Giallombardo played the savvy Dobie for a chump—no easy task. He actually thought—after a lengthy job interview in the publisher's kitchen and writing up two meaty critiques of the paper as part of his application—that he was a serious candidate. (Another disclosure: I edited those critiques.) Dobie only realized late in the game, it seemed, that he was no more likely to be the next editor of The Tennessean than he was to replace Steve McNair as Titans quarterback. She fooled me too. Former Tennessean editor John Seigenthaler, ever the puppet-master pulling strings behind the scenes, pledged to help Dobie's candidacy; as wonderful as Seig is, I can't but wonder if his influence in this town is finally waning, or if perhaps he made similar promises to Mitchell.

And I too thought, for a while, that Giallombardo would actually pick what many locals considered to be the better, as opposed to the safe, choice. But then, I worked for Dobie for years and am clearly biased. Also, Mitchell, unlike Dobie, has run a sprawling newsroom for a major daily; Dobie has only managed a tiny editorial staff for a free weekly. Give credit to Giallombardo for her seeming willingness to even consider Dobie.

♦ Giallombardo cleverly tipped her hand to Tennessean staffers that she's well aware that the paper had floundered badly under the disinterested management of Sutherland and his No. 2, managing editor Dave Green. She did that by tapping a new editor who is, in Gannett terms, viewed as aggressive—Gannett's version of an antidote for the cesspool of mediocrity that is The Tennessean today. But while Mitchell is sure to improve The Tennessean, whether he can institute wholesale reform is an altogether less likely—perhaps impossible—outcome. Basically, Giallombardo's was a strategically flawed approach.

Think about it. She went shopping for an aggressive editor within the Gannett system. I'm reminded of the fellow who went to the pet shop to buy a guard dog, and only looked in the poodle section. Gannett isn't known for aggressive editors. Gannett does risk-averse, lowest-common-denominator, plain-vanilla, politically correct, diversity-conscious journalism. No matter how aggressive or smart he is—and Mitchell is an impressive journalist, by all accounts—that is still Mitchell's training; that's all he knows. He'll never be able to recruit the best staff because of the Gannett stigma.

♦ Giallombardo appears to have done some good ole' traditional community-spirited ass kissing. According to numerous knowledgeable sources, after Giallombardo bypassed Dobie for the top job, she tried to hire him for another top newsroom post, which, the sources say, could only have been the managing editor position. Dobie is a visionary, though, a leader who doesn't have a No. 2 guy constitution. So why offer him the job? Giallombardo's no idiot; she probably realizes that Nashville's power elite might interpret her rejection of Dobie for editor as a none-too-subtle "fuck you." (Incidentally, it's unclear if the current managing editor has been informed that his days in the job may be numbered. Meanwhile, Mitchell has told Scene sources privately that he will give Green a 90-day tryout.) Green, along with Mitchell, Sutherland and Giallombardo, didn't return calls, and Dobie, who declined all comment on the accuracy of his list of references, said in a prepared statement only that he was "not interested in any other job down there (but editor). But I do wish them a good holiday season."

Give Giallombardo credit too for leaking around town that Dobie was her second choice. This was apparently a strategic move designed to show Dobie's boosters that she actually cares what they think.

♦ In business school terms, Giallombardo "managed up" in a brilliant display of risk-averse decision making that can only serve to help her own impressive career at Gannett. No executive at a large organization like Gannett has ever seen a career derailed by promoting from within. What Giallombardo truly cares about—and rightfully so—is not aggressive coverage of local political and business issues but furthering her own career and returning value to Gannett's shareholders. She's talented at both.

Meanwhile, while other editors retire comfortably to endowed chairs at major universities, the retired Sutherland ambles about, trying to scratch out a teaching gig. Three well-placed sources say that Sutherland had alleged that he had an offer of some $50,000 to teach part-time at Belmont and that MTSU has promised to outbid Belmont for his services. If so, that's news to Thom Storey, chair of Belmont's media studies department, who said he knew of "no offer and no discussions at all with Sutherland." It's also news to MTSU president Sidney A. McPhee, who said through a spokesman only that "there have been discussions with Sutherland but that nothing has been established or signed." Even this innocuous factoid is apparently unwelcome news to Ed Kimbrell, acting director of MTSU's school of journalism, where the often arrogant Sutherland isn't a popular figure. "Dr. McPhee is very open and engaged with his faculty, and I'd be surprised if he arranged a deal with Frank Sutherland without first consulting this department," Kimbrell says. And Vanderbilt? A spokesman says Vandy "doesn't have a journalism department, but we would certainly welcome the opportunity for Frank to share his experiences with our students by teaching an occasional course or giving a guest lecture." Ouch.

♦ In business school terms, Giallombardo "managed up" in a brilliant display of risk-averse decision making that can only serve to help her own impressive career at Gannett. No executive at a large organization like Gannett has ever seen a career derailed by promoting from within. What Giallombardo truly cares about—and rightfully so—is not aggressive coverage of local political and business issues but furthering her own career and returning value to Gannett's shareholders. She's talented at both.

Meanwhile, while other editors retire comfortably to endowed chairs at major universities, the retired Sutherland ambles about, trying to scratch out a teaching gig. Three well-placed sources say that Sutherland had alleged that he had an offer of some $50,000 to teach part-time at Belmont and that MTSU has promised to outbid Belmont for his services. If so, that's news to Thom Storey, chair of Belmont's media studies department, who said he knew of "no offer and no discussions at all with Sutherland." It's also news to MTSU president Sidney A. McPhee, who said through a spokesman only that "there have been discussions with Sutherland but that nothing has been established or signed." Even this innocuous factoid is apparently unwelcome news to Ed Kimbrell, acting director of MTSU's school of journalism, where the often arrogant Sutherland isn't a popular figure. "Dr. McPhee is very open and engaged with his faculty, and I'd be surprised if he arranged a deal with Frank Sutherland without first consulting this department," Kimbrell says. And Vanderbilt? A spokesman says Vandy "doesn't have a journalism department, but we would certainly welcome the opportunity for Frank to share his experiences with our students by teaching an occasional course or giving a guest lecture." Ouch.