RIP Stephens Media

Does anyone have any idea how many people staff the Gatehouse hub in Austin and what they handle now?

The Gatehouse papers in my area, are built in-house, so they aren't using the hub anyway.

I can't imagine that Austin has the capacity to take in eight dailies and 65 weeklies without a serious upgrade in people and equipment.

That could mean a bunch of jobs coming open.

 

When did Gatehouse switch the location of their hubs from New England? My last stop rebelled against having to ship everything back east so we got to keep our inhouse design, but have since moved on from the Gatehouse paper. I thought they were doing hubs in the Massachusetts area and didn't hear they went a little more central with their local.

 

The silver lining in the deal could be the Stephens papers getting AP back.

 

I enjoyed my time at Stephens, but that was one thing I wasn't a fan on. It did, at least, force you to fill with good local copy and not rely on the wire.

 

When I got laid off from Gatehouse a few years ago, they were in the process of creating hubs in Framingham, Mass., and another in Illinois (I forget where, exactly). As I understood it then, the Illinois hub would handle the bulk of the dailies, while the Massachusetts hub would mostly handle weeklies. Not sure if that's how it all played out, but that was the plan they announced to us (right before they canned me with a kid on the way and a pregnant woman, among others).

My experience working at a Stephens daily was quite positive. Good bosses who cared about quality journalism, great co-workers who busted their butts covering the local news. They paid a reasonable wage, offered solid benefits and three weeks vacation a year, with a chance to earn up to five weeks if I worked there long enough (it went up to four weeks after five years and five weeks after 10 years, IIRC). I can't say a bad word about them.

 

Romenesko, August 2013:

GateHouse Media says it selected Austin for its Center for News & Designbecause the city has many available journalists “including seasoned copy editors and designers,” a top journalism school at the University of Texas, as well as “a desirable quality of life.” 



» GateHouse Center for News & Design to be located in Austin JIMROMENESKO.COM


The Gatehouse hub is not associated with the Austin paper, which is owned by another chain.


More stuff here:
Let me google that for you

 

Also known as a feeder program of cheap labor. I bet the median age of designers at the hub drops to 22.

 

Yes, that is the intent. Young, cheap and timid.

 

GateHouse acquisition of Stephens is officially complete.