- Sep 13, 2002
- 93,983
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A former reporter of mine broke this story and it’s excellent reporting. And very depressing about the state of journalism.
“I didn’t want to be so-and-so’s daughter or so-and-so’s cousin,” she said. “I just wanted to be Laigha.”
In December 2018, she graduated from the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas, and six weeks later, she moved from the place she’d spent her young life to Burlington, Iowa. A small newspaper — “Iowa’s oldest” — hired her on to cover local government.
In February 2019, then-general manager of The Hawk Eye Sean Lewis wrote a columntelling the community to welcome her to Burlington. He explained that the paper was aware of newspaper delivery issues, but things were changing for the better: Anderson was a part of a slate of hires that were “good news” for the local paper.
“We have made headway over the last few months at The Hawk Eye because of the hard work and integrity of the staff here. Some are new and some have been here most of their adult lives. They all share a common goal of restoring The Hawk Eye to the community newspaper everyone wants and deserves.”
Anderson got to work. A few months after Lewis’ column, her analysis at The Hawk Eye found that Des Moines County had double-taxed the City of Burlington for between $1.23 and $1.52 million over 10 years. After the story ran, she said people would make jokes about the money she saved them on their property taxes.
And there’s a lot like this: how a missed assessment drove up the property evaluation of a shed by $35,000 or her award-winning coverage of the murder trial of Diavontae Davis.
It wasn’t all hard-hitting stories. There was the threat of layoffs, the daily grind of public meetings and the copy deadlines that only seemed to move earlier.
“I was working so fast,” she said. “I felt this pressure of if I don't write this, then people will say, 'There’s no local news.’ ”
On Friday, Aug. 12, Anderson took a bus from Burlington to Iowa City for a doctor’s appointment. In addition to being in a wheelchair, she manages multiple chronic illnesses that leave her with bouts of intense nausea.
For the day, she had two appointments scheduled. There was her doctor and the executive editor of The Des Moines Register, her boss’ boss. She knew she was getting laid off.
Newspapers cut across the Plains
That Friday, Carol Hunter, the executive editor at the Des Moines Register, called an “All Iowa” meeting to tell staff about the layoffs. This didn’t come as a surprise as they’d been warned via email and by industry news sites like Poynter that layoffs were coming.
The Burlington Hawk Eye and The Des Moines Register are part of Gannett/USA Today Network, the nation’s largest chain of newspapers. This month, the company reported a disheartening second quarter. Revenue was down. Costs were up. And a reduction program was implemented.
“We are not satisfied with our overall performance in the second quarter and have quickly responded to this rapidly deteriorating economic environment by implementing a significant cost reduction program that we believe will better position the company to realize its long-term growth goals... The changes and reductions to our cost structure are focused primarily on our legacy print business,” the company reported.
In addition to leading the Register, Hunter is the regional editor for Gannett/USA Today Network newspapers in the Plains Region. And on that day, she was tasked with explaining where the cuts had happened.
“The marching orders” she explained were to try and protect resources as much as possible at the top-40 newspapers, big metro papers like the Register and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader (even though one position was closed at the Leader). She said, “In order to meet the cut I needed to make, (there) were these very deep cuts at some of the smaller papers.”
She rattled them off: There were two layoffs at the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. Two more at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. Another two from The Hutchinson News in Kansas (“Which was an even smaller newsroom”). A part-timer laid off at Springfield News-Leader, and a full-timer at the Topeka Capital-Journal, not to mention a host of unfilled positions that would be closed.
The Burlington Hawk Eye — the only of Gannett’s 13 Iowa properties discussed — got the worst of the Plains region: Three full-time reporters and one part-timer were laid off. This left three in the newsroom: two for the news section and one for sports.
Back in 2015, the Associated Press presented the Hawk Eye with two prestigious awards: the First Amendment and Mark Twain awards for its newsroom's excellence. On the award, there are 25 faces smiling from the 2015 newsroom. Seven years later, only two of those faces remain at The Hawk Eye.
U.S.' largest newspaper owner cuts Iowa staff, leaving small papers' futures in question
Iowa Public Radio | By Zachary Oren SmithWhile The Hawk Eye got the worst of the Gannett’s Plains region; this month's layoffs were part of a larger response to right its financial ship after a bad second quarter.
Laigha Anderson wanted to be her own person. Coming from a big family in Leavenworth, Kansas, that was hardly a given. She had to get out.“I didn’t want to be so-and-so’s daughter or so-and-so’s cousin,” she said. “I just wanted to be Laigha.”
In December 2018, she graduated from the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas, and six weeks later, she moved from the place she’d spent her young life to Burlington, Iowa. A small newspaper — “Iowa’s oldest” — hired her on to cover local government.
In February 2019, then-general manager of The Hawk Eye Sean Lewis wrote a columntelling the community to welcome her to Burlington. He explained that the paper was aware of newspaper delivery issues, but things were changing for the better: Anderson was a part of a slate of hires that were “good news” for the local paper.
“We have made headway over the last few months at The Hawk Eye because of the hard work and integrity of the staff here. Some are new and some have been here most of their adult lives. They all share a common goal of restoring The Hawk Eye to the community newspaper everyone wants and deserves.”
Anderson got to work. A few months after Lewis’ column, her analysis at The Hawk Eye found that Des Moines County had double-taxed the City of Burlington for between $1.23 and $1.52 million over 10 years. After the story ran, she said people would make jokes about the money she saved them on their property taxes.
And there’s a lot like this: how a missed assessment drove up the property evaluation of a shed by $35,000 or her award-winning coverage of the murder trial of Diavontae Davis.
It wasn’t all hard-hitting stories. There was the threat of layoffs, the daily grind of public meetings and the copy deadlines that only seemed to move earlier.
“I was working so fast,” she said. “I felt this pressure of if I don't write this, then people will say, 'There’s no local news.’ ”
On Friday, Aug. 12, Anderson took a bus from Burlington to Iowa City for a doctor’s appointment. In addition to being in a wheelchair, she manages multiple chronic illnesses that leave her with bouts of intense nausea.
For the day, she had two appointments scheduled. There was her doctor and the executive editor of The Des Moines Register, her boss’ boss. She knew she was getting laid off.
Newspapers cut across the Plains
That Friday, Carol Hunter, the executive editor at the Des Moines Register, called an “All Iowa” meeting to tell staff about the layoffs. This didn’t come as a surprise as they’d been warned via email and by industry news sites like Poynter that layoffs were coming.
The Burlington Hawk Eye and The Des Moines Register are part of Gannett/USA Today Network, the nation’s largest chain of newspapers. This month, the company reported a disheartening second quarter. Revenue was down. Costs were up. And a reduction program was implemented.
“We are not satisfied with our overall performance in the second quarter and have quickly responded to this rapidly deteriorating economic environment by implementing a significant cost reduction program that we believe will better position the company to realize its long-term growth goals... The changes and reductions to our cost structure are focused primarily on our legacy print business,” the company reported.
In addition to leading the Register, Hunter is the regional editor for Gannett/USA Today Network newspapers in the Plains Region. And on that day, she was tasked with explaining where the cuts had happened.
“The marching orders” she explained were to try and protect resources as much as possible at the top-40 newspapers, big metro papers like the Register and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader (even though one position was closed at the Leader). She said, “In order to meet the cut I needed to make, (there) were these very deep cuts at some of the smaller papers.”
She rattled them off: There were two layoffs at the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. Two more at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. Another two from The Hutchinson News in Kansas (“Which was an even smaller newsroom”). A part-timer laid off at Springfield News-Leader, and a full-timer at the Topeka Capital-Journal, not to mention a host of unfilled positions that would be closed.
The Burlington Hawk Eye — the only of Gannett’s 13 Iowa properties discussed — got the worst of the Plains region: Three full-time reporters and one part-timer were laid off. This left three in the newsroom: two for the news section and one for sports.
Back in 2015, the Associated Press presented the Hawk Eye with two prestigious awards: the First Amendment and Mark Twain awards for its newsroom's excellence. On the award, there are 25 faces smiling from the 2015 newsroom. Seven years later, only two of those faces remain at The Hawk Eye.