Axe falls in Merrimack Valley

Without warning, The Eagle-Tribune eliminated 52 positions yesterday. From what I've heard, only three editorial people were affected, but that's only because the company has refused to fill dozens of newsroom positions that have been vacated over the past two years.

I think one part-timer in sports was shown the door.

The Trib is a CNHI-owned paper, so take that for what it's worth.

 

damn, that used to be such a good paper, too.

were those 52 all at the eagle-trib, or were they spread out among the other cnhi papers in the group (salem, gloucester, newburyport)?

 

Just the ET and its weekly publications. The other three dailies are considered separate publications. Apparently, those communities were BS their community paper was connected to the ET. A lot of philosophies from the previous editor have been thrown in the dumpster, and for good reason.

 

more info here: http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/messenger/index.php/2008/09/04/eagle-tribune-owner-slashes-50-jobs

(also hearing gatehouse has or will cut more jobs in its new england cluster. can anyone confirm/deny?)

 

I don't think the E-T's cities and towns much appreciated getting a steady dose of Newburyport and Gloucester news either.

I worked at the E-T for over seven years and saw how a strong local paper fell to near ruin, and while the general decline of the industry was certainly a major factor, it's not the only one. The Rogers family's decision to buy those three ECN papers was most fateful; they bit off more than they could chew just when the industry was starting to sour (2002 -- not long after a major addition was put on the North Andover building, too), and only three years later, they sold it to CNHI.

Meanwhile, the philosophy seemed to change every year. In the early part of the decade, we replated all the time, trying to make each edition as hyperlocal as possible (long before the term entered the mainstream). After the ECN acquisitions, the new editor tried to sell us on the "shared life" concept -- in which people in Marblehead purportedly had common interests with folks in Sandown, N.H., and they tried to invent a "North of Boston" identity to justify putting all of these disparate communities together (the idea failed miserably).

After CNHI bought the papers, the central layout desk (for the four dailies) turned into a central copy desk. If you were a Gloucester-area kid answering calls part time for the Gloucester paper, you had to drive to North Andover to work. Surely, the price of gas took up most of your paycheck. Then they dismantled the whole concept and went back to doing their own thing at every paper. Just one panicked move after another. It's sad to see.