Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Newsroom
love
Susan Denley and Bill Nottingham lived together for several years before
they got married in 1982, not because they were averse to marriage but
because their employer, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, had a strict nepotism
policy that would have required one of them to leave.
“I considered it more of a nuisance than a tragic circumstance,” said
Denley, who now is director of editorial hiring and staff development at
the Los Angeles Times.
When the couple left St. Petersburg in the mid-1980s for California,
it was because they wanted to try something new, not because they were
angry about the forced delay of their nuptials. Denley and Nottingham met
while working at the St. Petersburg Times in 1973. They were just starting
their careers when their romance began. But the Times’ policy forbade the
hiring of relatives or the retention of both spouses if employees married.
“In the early ’70s there was sort of an expectation that women would
quit their jobs,” Denley said. “It was during the height of the women’s
movement. I wasn’t about to quit my job, and the St. Pete Times was the
best place to work in the area.”
They weren’t the only newsroom couple. Some hid their relationships,
but Nottingham and Denley’s supervisors were aware that they were involved.
The nepotism policy “seemed sort of silly. In fact, we were together,”
Denley said. “We certainly wouldn’t have waited that long to get married
without the policy.”
They were able to marry while still working at the paper after management
changed the policy to allow people already working at the paper to marry
and remain employees.
“Over time, it became clear we had to change to be competitive (in hiring),”
said Senior Editor Tom Rawlins. “It’s still very clear that nobody can
work for a spouse or relative.”
Rawlins said the policy was changed because times had changed and exceptions
started being made, which diluted the policy. “Staffers were living together
and a lot wanted to get married and didn’t because they’d have to leave,”
he said. “It was pointed out that the problems were there whether they
were married or not.”
Denley said she and Nottingham were careful to avoid any potential problems
of one reporting to the other, although while she was night city editor,
she “once or twice by accident had to edit something he did.”
She said it’s not surprising she and Nottingham, now senior editor for
regionals at the Los Angeles Times, wound up together. “From the time I
set foot in the newsroom, I just wasn’t interested in men who weren’t journalists.”
— M.E.S.
