They're all going down.
And that's the only joke I can make here .. because it's bad, bad, bad for all of us.
The ABJ's 20-20 cuts are about complete. Several weeks ago, the word came down that 20 more staffers needed to go from the newsroom. If 20 folks didn't voluntarily take the buyouts, then 20 would be let go.
Now comes word today that the PD is following suit .. cutting 48 jobs (about 15 percent of its newsroom) by Thanksgiving through buyouts or attrition .. or probably dirty looks if it comes to it (sarcasm).
Whatever it takes to clear out some desks, eh?
These are newsrooms that have already been making cuts .. lots of them .. over the last year+.
I'd like to wax poetic about the Beacon's slow, painful slide, but what good would it do any of us?
To lament the upcoming loss of Columnist David Giffels just a year after Sports-writing poet Terry Pluto. Or how tough it will be to replace the photo talents of Ken Love or Lew Stamp. To lose the talents of street writers Carl Chancellor, Elaine Gurgerian, Connie Bloom, and Tracy Wheeler. Talented Cavs beat writer Brian Windhorst is saying goodbye to the ABJ too .. along with columnist Patrick McManaman. And Chip Bok. Chip Bok!
A great many real voices of not only the paper, but the community -- gone. I think that's what readers are feeling.
Now the PD is slicing and dicing too. When will it end?
I had coffee today with a former BJ manager who can't make heads or tails of it either. Between us, we chuckle at the cuts from a "our darn business is at it again" angle .. but the truth is, we both know how much a newspaper drives the news in a town.
I fear that those left behind -- either by choice or necessity -- will soon be banging their heads against their newsroom walls to keep from losing their sanity .. and probably to ask themselves "why am I staying when others are jumping ship?"
The broadcast side isn't faring much better in this economy. I know it very well.
I'm sitting here in an Akron newsroom that just a few years had 11 broadcast staffers .. now reduced by the tough economy to just two: one highly-talented videographer and me. I doubt this town will ever get a traditional evening newscast back.
I don't know that I can speak to the answer, but I know I can speak to the impact: Northeast Ohio isn't benefiting from putting our media in the spin cycle to see how small we can shrink it.
