Lakeland Ledger

After hearing more of the fallout from the cuts. I know they virtually gutted the design staff, got rid of an ex-sports employees' wife (a copy editor), a photographer and in the biggest cut of them all, the preps editor.

 

They cut Roy? Wow.....

 

Doesn't make sense does it? Especially not as the preps season is getting into full swing at that point.

 

Jesus. Lakeland did a hell of a job covering the FHSAA basketball finals whenever I was down that way.

 

Like I said, none of the people at the big office give a shit how things get covered in Lakeland or Houma or Hendersonville or any other of those towns that cringe when they have to step foot in those newsrooms and feed some BS to those employees about how much they value their work.

The pretty much gutted the news copy desk...And as I heard the list these were all people I worked with for much of my duration at the Ledger. Good people, good workers.

I hope Roy lands on his feet. Hard-working guy who enjoys the people he covers and doesn't take himself too seriously. A joy to work with as is everyone remaining at the Ledger sports desk.

 

I C & P this comment from a Lakeland news blog where a few former Ledger staffers do some good voluntary work. It was such an interesting comment (not by me unfortunately) and it's just something I wanted to put out thought to see what kind of thoughts exist.

 

Excellent points, nafselon. I agree with all of them.
Yes, our industry is in a time of transition, and newspaper management in general is struggling to adjust. Online is the media of the future, but while they're planning to make the adjustment, they still need to understand that the newspaper still has a part in society, and probably always will. And more importantly, they need to remember that they can sell a lot more ads in a newspaper, and advertising is ultimately what brings in the revenue.
I've been hearing for over a decade that the internet was going to destroy the newspaper industry, but I still don't see it. Yes it has hurt circulation, but I think people still want the printed product to read at the breakfast table, on the porch, on the toilet, on the bus or the subway and many other places. Plus, a newspaper article looks a lot better in a scrapbook than an internet article printed on a plain sheet of paper.
Very sad to hear what is happening in Lakeland. They have been a very good newspaper for many years (at least in sports), an overachieving paper that could almost always give its readers a good product. Hopefully for Lakeland and many papers in similar situations, they will start increasing the workforce again once the economy rebounds.