Reading Eagle

Didn't see this posted anywhere, but just found out someone I went to school with once upon a time got laid off from the Reading Eagle (in sports). Not sure of the total number gone.

 

I'm working on finding out.

 

Per Facebook, an SJ brother was one of them.

 

Who owns this paper?

 

That would be correct.

Three layoffs from the sports department. No severance pay.

 

Sad day for a superb section put out by great people.

 

No severance? Wow, that is fucking horseshit.

 

I can shed some light on the situation.

Three FTs and two PTs in sports were let go. Correct, no severance package whatsoever. The newspaper is privately owned. They just bought a new press and erected a building to house it, and that huge expenditure is eating them alive. A total of 18 in editorial were fired, 50-something company-wide. It seems the sports section was hit the hardest, with all three FTers having high school beats.

 

Let me add a candle on it. The Eagle does a good job but like the Intelligencer Journal and the few more hinterland publications, what they do isn't seen by the masses. While it is disappointing, I am not surprised there is no severance package.

 

I don't quite know what to make of that. The Eagle is the newspaper for Berks County, just as the Intel is the newspaper for Lancaster County. They are seen by the "masses" as much as any other daily short of a major metro.

 

So will they re-assign "pro" reporters to high school sports? You can't give up the high school sports market....

 

They won't, Pendleton. They'll move around. One thing about the Eagle staff, even if they've moved on to pro or college beats, they know Berks County sports.