Dawidziak among latest 18 PD newsroom layoffs

TV Critic Mark Dawidziak, a former BJ TV and movie critic, was among the 18 Plain Dealer newsroom staffers laid off Friday. They had a combined 500 years of experience, an average of about 28 years. There was a severance package.

The carnage isn’t over either. PD management will be accepting volunteers to leave until 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 8.

Mark Dawidziak

There are only 14 Guild members left at the PD, which had 340 when the 21^st century began. There are no black females remaining on the staff, which becomes 81% white in a city that is 47% black.

The PD Guild statement praised Mark’s  “way with words for conveying the power of television to entertain, educate and bring us together. For more than two decades, he recognized this as the pre-eminent art form of our time, informing readers of important shows and technological trends.”

Mark’s newspaper career has lasted 43 years which, coincidentally, is how many years I also worked on newspapers, including 26 with the BJ.

Mark was the best TV and movie critic I had during my 16 years as the BJ's TV Editor. And I had 3 good ones: David Bianculli, who left for the New York Post and today is a college professor in New York, and Rich Heldenfels, also retired but still a free-lance TV Q&A columnist for the BJ.

Mark is 63, still short of normal retirement age. But the PD did provide severance pay and Mark has another book in the works.

And he and wife Sara Showman have their Largely Literary Theater productions of Twain, Poe, Civil War to keep them busy once the pandemic allows people in Ohio to gather for shows again.

Mark told me:

“I got to work with wonderful people and experience journalism when it was a sensational career. No regrets.

 

“And you were a big part of that, my friend. There were many incredible moments, and those are to be cherished more than anything else.

 

“Watching what's happening to journalism is like watching a loved one slowly sicken and die. I've had enough of that. I'll walk away without a backward glance.

 

“No one gets to feel sorry for me.”

 

Mark always was a class act.

Also, the PD Guild statement added, “Since 2013, Advance (which owns the PD) has methodically reduced the number of journalists in the Guild-represented Plain Dealer newsroom, while boosting the presence of its non-union newsroom at cleveland.com.”

The slash-and-burn of union members included 50 in 2013, when former BJ classical music critic Don Rosenberg got the axe (management sided with Cleveland Orchestra donors unhappy because Don’s reviews didn’t kissup to their satisfaction). That left 110 Guild employees.

The PD had previously cut 50 in 2008, including the late BJ reporter Terry Oblander, and 58 of the remaining 168 newsroom jobs in 2012.


Others who agreed to let their Friday layoffs be known:

Brian Albrecht, who chronicled the stories of World War II veterans.

Sports photographer Marvin Fong.

Jordyn Grzelewski, named one of Ohio’s best business writers by the Associated Press Media Editors.

Photographer Lynn Ischay.

Pop culture and fitness columnist Zachary Lewis, leaving no one to cover the internationally acclaimed Cleveland Orchestra.

Theater critic Andrea Simakis.

Feature writer Michael McIntyre, once a paperboy for his dad, who was in PD circulation.

Financial columnist Teresa Dixon Murray.

Business reporter OIivera Perkins.

My Cleveland columnist Grant Segall, whose topics including the park system, transportation and profiles of Clevelanders who didn’t always have impressive titles (sounds a bit like Fran Murphey).


Sports reporter/videographer Branson Wright.

Fashion, home & garden and features writer Roxanne Washington.

Music critic Chuck Yarborough, who went to Iraq for a series on the life of U.S. troops.

Health reporter Brie Zeltner.

Editor Melodie Smith.

Graphics and designer Joel Downey.