RIP Youngstown Vindicator

A neutron bomb takeover in Youngstown. The paper still prints but the people who work at the paper disappear.

Ogden, which owns the Warren, Ohio paper nearby will buy the masthead and the subscription list and keep delivering the paper. But the staff and union contracts are eliminated.

So Youngstown will have a daily named The Vindicator after all. But it’s a brand surviving, not a newspaper.

 

Today begins the final week for the staff.

 

Thoughts and prayers for all involved.

 

Has Ogden hired anyone off the Vindicator staff to work on the combined paper?

Good luck to all those affected.

 

I believe there have been 3 on news side hired, but none in sports

 

Is Tom Wills still there?

 

One of the 3 newsies hired by the Trib, I heard.

 

I think the Vindicator has a circulation of 25,000 and I know Mahoning County has a population of 230,000. Three people to cover that a community that size.

 

No surprise Wills would work for the new regime. Sad that he needs a paycheck so bad.

 

I don't think Ogden is a villain here. So I don't think Willis is either.

Youngstown is folding mostly because the newspaper industry is going to hell and the local economy sucks.

 

And a zillion other reasons all with one thing in common: horrendous decisions by suits.