BH media layoffs

[Cosmo]

Can tell you that Lynchburg has also laid off its SE and will not fill that position. ... Danville has also eliminated its lone sports reporter position.

 

[Roscablo]

Saw 11 in the newsroom are gone in Omaha and six other open jobs won't be filled. Don't know the positions that were cut.

 

[Waldo9939]

Jeez. Another win for the suits. Huge loss for journalism in general. Ick

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I'm afraid to check Twitter and see which friends and acquaintances are announcing they've been let go.

 

[QYFW]

Well, this is not good.

 

[BaseballGuy1]

Omaha World-Herald made cuts. Wonder if it was to the sports department at all?
Omaha World-Herald eliminates 43 jobs, makes changes to newspaper

 

[jr/shotglass]

Fredrick in 5, 4, 3 ...

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Fredrick in 5, 4, 3 ...

He's in the middle of one of his 48-hour unpaid shifts.

 

[Moderator1]

He's in the middle of one of his 48-hour unpaid shifts.

How many of those 48 hours does he spending cursing "suits?"

 

[PCLoadLetter]

How many of those 48 hours does he spending cursing "suits?"

About half.

The other half is spent telling the guy at the next desk how incompetent the sales department is.

 

[LanceyHoward]

If BH is laying off it does not bode well for the less affluent.

 

[crimsonace]

Can tell you that Lynchburg has also laid off its SE and will not fill that position. ... Danville has also eliminated its lone sports reporter position.

So how does a newspaper fill the sports section without a sports staff?

 

[jr/shotglass]

Oh, the Gannett papers around us have been doing it for a good six months now. A lot of USA Today material, and then send a reporter out once or twice a week to a sporting event to make it look like they still give a rat's ass.

 

[Cosmo]

In about 12 years, Danville went from a proud section producing some pretty damn great talent to nothing. It's depressing.

Buffett won't put money into losing propositions. He invested money in newspapers years ago when MG sold and he hasn't gotten a ROI. He's not a white knight who is going to prop up a newspaper group that's bleeding money. And it is.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

In about 12 years, Danville went from a proud section producing some pretty damn great talent to nothing. It's depressing.

Buffett won't put money into losing propositions. He invested money in newspapers years ago when MG sold and he hasn't gotten a ROI. He's not a white knight who is going to prop up a newspaper group that's bleeding money. And it is.

Danville has alumni right now covering D-I and pro beats at metros all over the country, plus an editor in OKC. It's sad.

 

[silvercharm]

I haven't seen this anywhere, but about two weeks ago, The Oregonian laid off 11 from its newsroom, including four from sports.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I drove through Lynchburg and Danville the Monday before Memorial Day last year and bought both papers. I counted a total of five by lined stories from the local staff. Now Danville does not even have a sports staff.

At what point does it male sense for a publisher to just merge these papers. Given the paucity of local material these paper have there would be no need to expand page count. I would think it would be cheaper to produce.

 

[Cosmo]

I drove through Lynchburg and Danville the Monday before Memorial Day last year and bought both papers. I counted a total of five by lined stories from the local staff. Now Danville does not even have a sports staff.

At what point does it male sense for a publisher to just merge these papers. Given the paucity of local material these paper have there would be no need to expand page *****cat. I would think it would be cheaper to produce.

First off, "page *****cat" may be the greatest typo I've ever seen on this site. Damn near spit my coffee out.

There's actually a ton of local material in Lynchburg, between Liberty and its move to FBS as an independent, 20-plus high schools, minor-league baseball and three Division III schools. They used to staff both Virginia and Virginia Tech with beat writers but scaled back once BH came into play and they realized they could do more by getting that material from sister papers. I actually agreed with that move, even though I was the one taken off the Tech beat. Three or four 180-mile round trips weekly between Lynchburg and Blacksburg to cover the same stuff three other papers were covering made little sense.

The lack of bylines might have had to do with the day of the week ... Mondays and Tuesdays were sparse just because staff needed time off on Sunday/Monday.

Danville used to cover Tech and UVa, plus Martinsville and SoBo Speedway, along with a handful of high schools and Averett and the rookie D-Braves. But that section slowly dwindled to the point where they couldn't even do that effectively. That truly was a shame. You talk about combining them into one section, but that essentially had already happened. The page designer in Lynchburg often did both sections, just swapping out a story here or there and adding local agate. Danville's an hour drive from Lynchburg and would be tough to staff on a regular basis with Lynchburg based reporters.

 

[Moderator1]

Here's what the publisher of my old paper wrote today - and wow, $2 for a daily newspaper? I don't think that's going to help the cause

From the Publisher: We’re focused on serving you despite a challenging 2018

 

[Slacker]

First off, "page *****cat" may be the greatest typo I've ever seen on this site. Damn near spit my coffee out.

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