Published: September 11, 2009
The marketing executive at the center of The Washington Post’s discredited plan to charge power-brokers for private dinners with the paper’s publisher and journalists has resigned from The Post, the paper disclosed on Friday.
The Post had sent fliers to lobbyists and trade groups, inviting them to pay $25,000 or more to sponsor salons at the home of Katharine Weymouth, the publisher — off-the-record dinners with reporters, editors and government officials. The plan became public in July, drawing sharp criticism from journalists in and out of the paper, and The Post quickly dropped it.
The marketing executive, Charles Pelton, joined The Post last spring as general manager of its new conferences and events business, which was largely suspended when the salons were abandoned and he was identified as the author of the invitations.
In a letter to Stephen P. Hills, president of The Post, Mr. Pelton wrote that he was resigning “given the current circumstances with regard to the resources needed” to start that business, rather than relocate his family from California, as he had planned. “I am, however, looking forward to contributing wherever I can as a consultant to The Post,” he wrote. The letter was dated Sept. 3, and said his resignation was effective Aug. 31.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/business/media/12paper.html