The executive editor of The Providence Journal said it’s “a mistaken assumption” to believe that Katherine Gregg, who has covered the Statehouse for the ProJo for more than 30 years, won’t be returning to her longtime beat.
According to an email obtained by RI Public Radio, Dave Butler writes, “Kathy is on a month’s vacation, then will take a much-needed break during what looks like a slow time in the Statehouse. She’ll work on projects and other things. We’ve not said she won’t return to the Statehouse. That’s a mistaken assumption.”
RIPR reported Tuesday that Gregg had been reassigned from the Statehouse (perhaps temporarily), in part due to tensions that developed with management in the time since GateHouse Media bought the ProJo in 2014. When RIPR called Butler for comment Tuesday, he declined to take the call and said through an assistant that he had nothing to say.
The news that Gregg had been reassigned away from the Statehouse sparked an outpouring of negative reaction on Twitter and Facebook from a variety of Rhode Islanders. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed lamented the move.
At the time, it was unclear what would happen next. Sources said Gregg had cleaned out her part of the basement office in the Statehouse she shares with other ProJo reporters.
In his email, Butler writes, “We have a top-notch Statehouse reporting crew and I am confident we will continue to cover Rhode Island government as aggressively as we have in the past — if not more so.”
Butler came to the ProJo last year after a long career with newspapers in California and elsewhere.
Gregg declined comment when reached by telephone Thursday morning.
As the longtime bureau chief for the Statehouse, Gregg has a reputation as a tenacious watchdog reporter.
