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Several well-known News Journal editors and reporters have taken a buyout offer from parent company Gannett.
The chain of newspapers and related websites offered the packages to staffers over the age of 55 with lengthy tenures.
Maureen Milford, Cris Barrish and Bill McMichael, Jeff Montgomery, robin brown (her legal name), opinion page editor John Sweeney and editor Doug Williams have confirmed, either directly or via social media posts, that they took the offer. They left the News Journal at the end of the month.
Two other reporters and editors did not take the offers, which have been known to lead to involuntary departures at a later time.
Sweeney wrote his final column Sunday calling for a continuing conversation in the community. Sweeney drew praise earlier in a statement issued Friday byDelaware U.S. Sen. Tom Carper.
“Today is truly bittersweet. John Sweeney has dedicated his long and distinguished career to delivering the news and serving as the voice of the News Journal and the Delaware community. A native Philadelphian, John served our nation in the Air Force and then attended Temple University on the G.I. Bill. Not long after graduation, he started his career in news, eventually landing at the News Journal in 1989 as the Public Editor. I had the joy and privilege of working with him and getting know him better after he took over as Editorial Page Editor in 2005. Over the years, I have enjoyed our regular conversations about everything from what’s happening here in the First State, to my work in the Senate, to foreign affairs.
“I consider John Sweeney, a partner in public service. We serve our state in our very different roles, but with the similar missions – to do the work of the people who call Delaware home. John believes that the friends and neighbors that make up the community that we are privileged to serve are entitled to hear many points of view in order for our democracy to truly thrive. While we didn’t always agree on the issues, we always agreed on that. I wish John and his family the best of luck in all that lies ahead, and as we say in the Navy, ‘fair winds and following seas.’ Bravo Zulu.”
The other departures came with far less ceremony, a reflection of the new environment. In the past, retirements of veteran reporters in the industry often featured a tribute story written by colleagues or other tributes.
Word of the possible departures came as a shock to media watchers who saw the moves as leading to a major loss in institutional memory and sources for the newspaper. According to the Delaware Way blog, a social media post from a News Journal staffer estimated the total years of experience among those who left totaled 226 years.
This comes at a time when Delaware is facing a number of economic and social challenges ranging from a structural budget problem to homicides in the City of Wilmington.
A reorganization of the newsroom last year, led to the departure of many veteran staffers who were not offered positions. Unlike some papers that have undergone similar changes, the News-Journal did retain a number of long-time veteran reporters and editors during a number of restructurings.
The departures last year led to the paper not having any business reporters for a couple of months as replacements were sought. The position of business editor was eliminated at the News Journal and throughout Gannett.
Replacements have come in the form of younger reporters who typically earn smaller paychecks.
The News Journal, for a time. escaped many of the cuts that occurred over the past decade at other newspapers, due to the lack of direct television advertising competition that occurs in other markets and a Delaware economy that outperformed the nation.
However, the recession of 2008 and 2009, led to sharp declines in display and classified advertising for all papers, with the News-Journal seeing various cost-cutting programs.
The latest buyouts come as Gannett snapped up the Journal Media Group in a $280 million cash deal earlier in the month.
The Milwaukee-based media group came with a recent merger of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and related newspapers and the Scripps newspapers. It gives Gannett another 17 dailies along with several weeklies.
It was said that Gannett’s cost-cutting prowess was a factor in its ability to snap up the papers, including the Journal , which at one time was ranked as one of America’s ten best newspapers.
Once highly regarded papers like the Des Moines Register and Louisville Courier-Journal, declined in overall journalistic quality after undergoing cost cutting by Gannett, many allege. The chain aggressively cut editorial and other overhead long before digital competition emerged.
The $280 million figure comes at a time when the value of newspapers has plummeted. It is safe to say that the Milwaukee Journal alone might have gone for more than the $280 million price tag.
Scripps and the Journal, like Gannett, spun off their more profitable television holdings. While TV stations have lost a large percentage of their audience, TV advertising revenues have held up well, thanks in part to election-year spots.
For Scripps staffers, it will be the third owner in about a year.
Gannett will merge with papers and websites in 106 markets in the US or about one-seventh of the nation’s dailies. The digital audience will total 100 unique visitors.
Gannett will be able to cut costs by combining back office operations, page composition and even editorial copy desks at central locations. Such consolidations have accompanied by a sharp increase in typographical errors that might have been caught by a less overwhelmed copy desk.
Meanwhile, print advertising revenues continue to fall by single digits each year, with digital revenues not keeping pace.
Gannett is aided in its acquisition efforts by the spin-off from the TV operation that left it with no debt load. Similar spin-offs have often left legacy newspapers with a crushing debt burden on top of falling revenues.
I’d like to know the names….
Paper isn’t good anymore, which is why they’re going out of business soon (end of 2015).
The departure of Jeff Montgomery is a big loss to Delaware (unless he keeps reporting in some other form). He’s done outstanding work for many years.
I’ll miss Chris Barrish also.
On the other hand,good riddance to John Sweeney!