Sunshine in Vancouver

To tart-tongued Columnist Jack Scott, 43, of the Vancouver (B.C.) Sun, no target was ever more tempting than the Sun itself. He railed against the paper's promotion contests ("cynical seduction of a gullible public"), declared western Canada's biggest (circ. 211,012) and fattest daily was slow of foot and dull of eye. Critic Scott's proposal to brighten the Sun: "More deep reporting and vivid writing, the sort of thing that will grab the reader by the lapels and command his attention." Last September Scott got a chance to put up or shut up; Sun Publisher Don Cromie, 43, called him in and said: "Jack, I'm about to play the dirtiest trick on you that I've ever inflicted on anyone. I'll give you $2,000 a month and the title of editorial director."

When the news spread that Scott had deserted his columnist's typewriter for the editor's desk, staffers were flabbergasted. His witty, five-a-week "Our Town" was the Suns best-read column; his special reports from around the world (Hiroshima, Israel, South Africa) had made him one of Canada's most honored newsmen. But for twelve years he had been away from the day-to-day run of the news, working at home or out of town. Cracked one staffer: "He's often been a professional sophomore--now he needs to become a senior." By last week Sun staffers and readers alike were convinced that Editorial Director Scott was indeed a senior.

No One Is Scott-Free. Grabbing his readers by their lapels. Editor Scott ran an expose of shyster used-car dealers that put the worst offender out of business, followed up with a story on a bogus real estate firm that led to three indictments for fraud. He front-paged an account of Vancouver's skid-row bread line, side by side with a Canadian Press story saying that Kraft Foods Ltd. blamed the high cost of food on the consumer demand for fancy preparation. Even Publisher Crornie did not get off Scott-free. The Sun ran a three-part analysis of Vancouver's faltering Community Chest, which Cromie headed last year.

Scott sent Managing Editor Himie Koshevoy to Washington to do a three-part series on John Foster Dulles that turned out more balanced than the Sun's bitterly anti-Dulles editorials. Down to Uruguay bustled Newshen Simma Holt to find Stefan Sorokin, leader of the buff-stripping, dynamiting Sons of Freedom sect of the Doukhobors, filed stories of the wealth Sorokin had gleaned from his followers in British Columbia.

Heat & Light. Scott's most startling idea was to send to Formosa monosyllabic Football Editor Annis (the "Loquacious Lithuanian") Stukus, onetime coach of the Edmonton Eskimos and British Columbia Lions. Scott's theory: "Stukus will give the average guy a sense of identification with where the hell Formosa is and what's going on there." Stukus filed some earnest Hemingway-like prose, scored a major beat by wrangling an exclusive interview with Chiang Kaishek. Though the session produced nothing new, Scott delightedly ran Footballer Stukus' picture cheek by jowl with the Gimo on the front page.

Flooding the paper with his brand of Sunshine, Scott made fresh and imaginative use of pictures. He restored Pun-diteering Columnist Joe Alsop (TIME, Oct. 27) to the editorial page, added Columnists Red Smith and Jimmy Cannon to the sports section. Says Scott: "You have to do everything with a flair if you're going to keep them reading the paper when I Love Lucy comes on. You're in competition all the time against that big glass eye."

With Columnist-turned-Editor Scott in control, the Sun is meeting the competition with more heat and more light.

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