Columbus Dispatch sold

They bought the Providence Journal recently, with the sale announced in July 2014 and finalized in September. Since then, they've done multiple layoffs / buyouts, and doubled the newsstand price.

 

Bye bye Columbus. Gatehouse is a disaster.

 

I left a daily newspaper last year and now work for Gatehouse. It's not so bad, and I think design hubs are already exploding around the country. It's a way to save money for the paper.

 

I don't know how these chains are saving money if their design hubs are exploding.

Fire bad!

 

It's also a way to put competent designers and copy editors out of work. GateHouse hires young, inexperienced people to fill those design jobs in Austin. And fails to train them.

Many of the chain's papers look worse than they did one year ago. And if your shop hasn't been hit with some big-time layoffs yet, believe me, it will.

GateHouse isn't about journalism. Not even about putting out a quality product. It's about profit. It's about slashing and burning. It's about Kirk Davis' bonus each December.

 

I am waiting for the day when design hubs are opened in Manilla. I don't think it will be long.

 

Sounds like a wet dream straight out of Quant's bible. </crossthread>

 

It's bad if the company is interested in preserving the quality of local knowledge in editing, which GateHouse is not. How is someone on the desk in Austin who has never been to Las Vegas or Columbus or Providence going to catch errors relating to geography of those cities? Or when a reporter misspells a city councilman's name? Or when an overworked sports reporter slips up and writes the wrong nickname for a high school team?

It saves money by putting people who would have caught those mistakes out of work. If that's the goal - and I believe it is - mission accomplished.

 

RIP, iconic Columbus Dispatch sign:

Columbus Dispatch staff will leave the building at 34 S. 3rd St. by the end of the year and move to 62 E. Broad St. - Columbus - Columbus Business First

 

I'd be worried. As it notes at the end of the article, that's a big drop in space. If the company is moving to a building with 1/3 the space of the current, they'll either have to cut back on staff or make everyone work on desks the size of TV trays in the new building.

 

Sources said the Dispatch is trying to figure out how to put
the big sign on top of the new, slimmer headquarters lipstick on a pig.

 

"No staffing changes will be made for at least three months."

Well, that's reassuring.