Gannett layoffs

Just wait until 6 months from now, when the paper's executives start bombarding the staff with emails and meetings seeking suggestions for how to improve the paper.

 

Does the Register have a beat writer living in Iowa City? If so, it's completely possible their coverage is stronger, and traveling to games isn't a concern. If that's not the case, this is a stupid move. I'm not defending a paper laying people off, just saying it might not be the end of the world to use the Register's writer to cover the Hawkeyes.

 

I think the Register has at least one full-time person in Iowa City. And probably a couple of others burning some serious tire trend on the highway going back and forth on game days.

I'm a bit surprised at the move, seeing how convenient it is being in the Iowa City paper's backyard and such. But if resources and manpower are limited, I can see the logic. You get more mileage that way.

They are certainly not the first small paper to do such. I had one sports editor in a BCS conference city (small one) tell me that high school and youth sports would always come ahead of the colleges, because "people can get the college stuff anywhere".

 

Up until fairly recently, I think the Register had two in Iowa City. Not sure if that's changed.

 

Mizzougrad,

I don't think you are right on that. My understanding is that the DMR's recent Iowa beat writers - Rick Brown and Andrew Logue - both live in the Des Moines area.

 

Word is that the Nashville Tennessean ended up with a total of 16 cuts, including a couple of sports guys (one current, one former).

John Glennon, former Preds beat writer and most recently a pro football and enterprise guy, was let go.

Also cut was Mike Towle, a former asst. sports editor and a former sportswriter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who was GM/Editor of a couple of The Tennessean's smaller community papers.

 

This sounds no different from when Gannett bought papers in New Jersey back in the late '90s, and consolidated the crossover college and pro beats to a single outlet -- usually the biggest of the lot, which was The Journal News in Westchester (and, if I recall correctly, the only one which had previously been Gannett-owned). It probably wasn't fun for the individual beat reporters who got reassigned, but the teams were still covered in the same manner as before.

What's more shocking to me is the situation locally, where competing papers under separate ownership are sharing pro content... but not all of it, and not necessarily in a timely manner to meet everyone's deadlines.

By the way, Westchester took a pretty big hit this time with at least three from sports gone.

 

Content sharing seems to be one of the current buzzwords. I sort of understand. From a suit's perspective, why pay for an extra body to cover something that you can get from an alternative source (AP, sister paper, etc.) at half the price?

Many of us long ago realized the suits (executives) don't care about scoops, exclusives or any of that journalist stuff anymore. Their mandate is to generate as much revenue as possible while cutting expenses and not getting sued. So if you can get your coverage from some outside source at half the price, that seems to be the way to go.

 

Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger sports cuts widely discussed in social media.

The current ASE was let go last week along with the last person in department with title "copy editor."

Also, longtime preps writer Rod Walker is leaving, under his own power, for New Orleans.

The new C-L sports editor will add oversight of the Hattiesburg American sports staff to his portfolio.

 

Between Rod and the copy editor who was let go, they lost about 50 years of institutional knowledge in statewide high school sports coverage, which has always been the C-L's calling card.

 

I don't believe either of the DMR's Iowa beat writers (currently Rick Brown and Andrew Logue, although Logue and Randy Peterson rotate between Iowa and Iowa State) live in Iowa City.
And apparently, this whole situation isn't going well at the Press-Citizen. According to his Twitter bio, their sports editor, Ryan Suchomel, has quit. https://twitter.com/RSuchomel
Just an ugly situation all around.

 

It's my understanding that Bart was separated from his position for some controversial posts he made on social media - Facebook, apparently. Not part of the cuts.