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Bloodletting at Lee papers in Greensboro, Winston-Salem

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Sammi, Sep 16, 2020.

  1. Sammi

    Sammi Member

    Sad day for sports fans in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. Lee Enterprises just laid at least half of its remaining sports staffs at the Greensboro News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal.

    According to Twitter feeds and text, columnist Ed Hardin and Jeff Mills are out at the N&R. Wake Forest beat writer Conor O'Neill and preps writer Patrick Ferlise are out at the Journal.

    All good people. Please help them if you are able.
     
  2. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I think Richmond got hit last week, Lee is chopping across the board it seems.
     
  3. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    Very sad news. Ed Hardin is one of the best columnists in the country.
     
    maumann likes this.
  4. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    I remember going through Greensboro the Monday before Memorial day in May, 2017. I counted three local bylines. I posted that and someone said that I had caught the paper on a bad day, given the limited weekend staffing left after numerous reductions. At one point it was posted Greensboro was down to about dozens staffers. After these cuts how many people will be left or will they be able to produce more than three stories a day.

    And I saw the Wake Forest writer got fired. Is someone else going to pick up the beat or is Winston Salem not going to put a staffer on the school?
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2020
  5. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    I remember the old days when the N&R had an 18-person bureau in High Point. A bureau. Of course that was a long time ago.
     
    maumann likes this.
  6. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Is the High Point Enterprise still there? When the owner gave up on Durham I started to wonder when the Enterprise and the smaller papers in its group would be sold or folded.
     
  7. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    It's still there, owned by Paxton. Shell of a staff. Back in 2003, they had an eight-man sports staff!
     
    maumann likes this.
  8. BlastfromPast

    BlastfromPast New Member

    HPE laid off all three sports guys in the spring. Brought back preps beat writer this week with private schools back in action.
     
  9. maumann

    maumann Well-Known Member

    This is terrible news. I knew Ed from the ECHL and ACC. The writing has been on the wall for a while, especially when they started eliminating NASCAR writers like Mulhern, Dustin Long, etc. High Point, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Burlington were all great stepping stones for people moving up or just wanting to be in a medium market with colleges, minor league baseball, the ACC and racing.

    Was it Greensboro that went to the "minimum byline per day requirement" rule a while back? I still shake my head at that idea.
     
  10. Craig Sagers Tailor

    Craig Sagers Tailor Active Member

    Sucks. I don't think the Triad has an Athletic 'beat?' One of those would be a natural landing spot for one of these guys.

    And what are you even doing if you're the Journal and you don't have a Wake Forest writer?
     
  11. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    It ain’t just Greensboro. It’s the whole company, yet again, and for the zillionth time since Mary Junck pranced into the annual editors meeting in 2004 and gleefully announced that the bankers out of the goodness of their hearts had just given her $1 billion to buy the Pulitzer chain.




    That’s not bad considering that you can get 100 shares of Lee for less than $90 right now.
     
  12. SportsGuyBCK

    SportsGuyBCK Active Member

    Mary f**king Junck ... she (and Lee's board of directors) just has to have that quarterly bonus fix ... :mad::mad::mad:
     
    2muchcoffeeman and Tarheel316 like this.
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