More E&P coverage on layoffs

Beacon Journal' Guild Hits 'Deep Cuts' at Akron Paper

By Joe Strupp
NEW YORK The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal's plan to cut 25% of its newsroom staff has local guild leaders worried about the impact on the union's future strength, and the paper's ability to continue covering a five-county area.

"How do we continue to be an effective group?" said Andale Gross, a nine-year reporter at the paper and unit chair for the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild, which has 140 members there. "It is a significant loss. How do we ensure that the people who remain can stand strong?"

Of the 40 newsroom staffers destined for layoffs in the cuts that were first announced Tuesday, 36 are members of the guild unit, Gross said. That means slightly more than 25% of the union's power will be lost.

"A number of people who are cut are members of our executive board, potential future leaders," Gross said. "It makes us a smaller group and it puts us in a position where we take a hit."

The cutbacks were the first major move by new owner David Black, president of Black Press, which bought the former Knight Ridder paper from The McClatchy Company earlier this month.

"We are extremely disappointed the employer has decided
to make such deep cuts in the Beacon Journal newsroom," Executive Secretary Mark Davis of the guild local said in a statement Thursday. "Layoffs and buyouts in 2001 had already reduced the newsroom by 20 percent, and now they are chopping another third."

He also noted that "this is a newspaper that has won four Pulitzer Prizes. With such deep cuts, there is no way to maintain the quality journalism to which the Akron area community - readers and advertisers alike - has long been accustomed."

Although the guild is currently in a four-year contract that does not end until 2008, Gross admitted that the layoffs by a new owner raise concerns about how management might engage in future contract negotiations.

"We expect there to be some challenges," Gross said about the future talks. "Negotiations with a new owner: We don't know what that will bring forward. I don't think it is going to be easy."

As for coverage, Gross also indicated concern that the paper may not be able to continue covering the five-county area it has blanketed since he joined up in 1997. He suggested that emphasizing Akron and surrounding Summit County would be the best approach and believed editors were looking at that reassessment.

"We have taken a lot of [staff] hits through the years and we have still acted as a five-county paper," he said. "I don't think we should. We should pull back to take care of Akron and Summit County and go back to the other counties when stories break."

Editor Debra Adams Simmons and Managing Editor Mizell Stewart could not be reached for comment on that issue. Rita Kelly Madick, a spokeswoman for the paper, agreed that a coverage pullback was likely in the offing. "We are used to being a great paper," she said. "And if that means looking at covering a smaller area, it is an obvious one to look at."

But even with a realignment of beats and coverage areas, Gross contends that the layoffs will hurt because they are removing several key writers. "We are losing several sports writers, one columnist who is well-known, the pop music critic, and the movie critic," he said. "It goes by seniority, so essentially beats are being cut."

The seniority approach is a mandate of the guild contract, Gross said. He also said the paper appeared to be implementing the layoffs in the proper way, as the contract dictates. But he said there may be some grievances filed if the guild finds specific people were not treated correctly.

"We want to make sure everyone is following the proper job titles," he said. "The company put together the seniority list so we want to make sure it was done in a way we agree with."

Madick added that further layoffs outside the newsroom are expected in the coming weeks, but offered no more details. "I expect the same level of signifigance throughout the building," she said.

[Source: Editor & Publisher Published: August 24, 2006 2:15 PMET]