Disheartening look at damage to Ohioans when newspapers decimate staffs

Policy Matters Ohio came up with an exhaustive and extensive look at the damage done to Ohioans by the decimation of newspaper staffs.

One of the contributors is Policy Matters research director Zach Schiller, a former PD reporter directed to me by former BJ bureau chief Bill Hershey. Zach and I exchanged a dozen emails as I provided him information about the decline in the BJ population over the years, beginning with the 2001 exodus that was the start of 2,000 years of BJ experience leaving 44 E. Exchange Street.

Without all those departed editors and reporters, politicians and businesses have a field day because there’s no one to guard the public from them by exposing their unethical and unsavory practices.

From 2004 to 2017 Ohio newspaper employment plummeted from 15,643 to 6,505. Newsroom jobs, which keeps the fox from attacking the citizens henhouse, fell from 2,870 in 2012 to 1,640 in 2018 … almost half left the building.

To read the entire report, click on

https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/fair-economy/democracy-government/breaking-news-newspaper-closures-hurt-ohio-communities?fbclid=IwAR2tLysqKCOVPm2FoFfspGHY_4v2Drvx5Gb-awUSAUO6lULy2FRbBbXvFqE