And the BJ & newspaper beatdowns go on and on
More BJ newsroom personnel became unemployed as GateHouse Media,
one of the largest publishers in the United States with 156 daily newspapers
and 328 weeklies, again slashed jobs across the country.
The BJ lost lost a copy editor, deputy Features editor Lynn Sherwin, 1
page designer, five sports statisticians and its only librarian.
There
will be a farewell gathering for Lynne, Norma Hill, Mark Turner and
Jamie Hogan at 6 p.m. Monday, June 10 in the front bar of Barley House in
downtown Akron.
By my calulations, Ol’ Blue Walls may have less than three dozen
humans breathing and working in what qualifies as a newsroom in today’s world.
Gatehouse’s Lakeland Ledger in Florida has dwindled to 16 in the
newsroom. Gatehouse’s Worchester Telegram & Gazette in Massachusetts is
down to ONE full-timer in its newsroom.
Mike Reed, CEO of GateHouse’s parent company, New Media Investment
Group, told Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds, “We are doing a small
restructuring” because it involved only “a couple of hundred.”
Like paper cuts, the BJ and newspapers all over America are
suffering thousands of small layoffs spread out over the months to try to make
the situation look less appalling.
Gatehouse, for example, laid off 60 in January. Management tries to
pretend they are ripples instead of icebergs.
The Beacon Journal Guild
report:
Gatehouse slashed
local journalism jobs across the board (and across the country) today. Akron
was not spared. And it’s worse than the company’s owners are letting on.
Gatehouse owns The
Canton Repository and Akron Beacon Journal. Both got hit.
Mike Reed, CEO of
Gatehouse’s parent company, New Media Investment Group, told Poynter that maybe
10 people were cut — total. But we’re seeing 10 journalists let go at multiple
newspapers.
Our early estimates
(with dozens of Gatehouse papers not yet accounted for) in this national
downsizing is about three dozen union reporters, photographers, copy editors and
other newsroom staff, and another three dozen who are not in the union, which
includes papers without guilds and management.
Akron lost five
sports statisticians, a copy editor and our only librarian, a talented
researcher who slowly watched one of her tasks (apparently the only task
Gatehouse cares about) become automated by a mistake-ridden algorithm.
We may lose more
staff tomorrow on the non-union side, including editors who we respect as
talented journalists. But that’s how Gatehouse rolls.
New Media turned an
$18.3 million profit last year. Revenue increased in the first quarter of 2019,
compared to a profitable 2018. So, what does the company do? Slash local jobs
that tell local stories that matter to local communities.
Reed dismissed rumors
that the cuts could be as high as 200 — a number he calls “immaterial.”
People are not
“immaterial.” They’re families are not “immaterial.” The communities they serve
are not “immaterial.”
We will continue to
serve the community. We didn’t get into this business to get rich.
Meantime, Reed is
trying to save face by saying revenue from the cuts will be reinvested into 30
new investigative jobs. Thirty jobs to replace 200 ... are they six times more
valuable than the local communities that lost a few beats on their local news teams?
Well, Mr. Reed, we
know dozens of talented, dedicated journalists who are more than qualified for
your new investigative team. They’ll be looking for a job in two weeks.
Oh, wait, they’re
“immaterial.”
To read the Poynter article on Gatehouse
Media’s layoffs across the country, go to
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