- Sep 13, 2002
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Was doing a little archive searching today on a project, and came across this 2005 story about the takeover of the Pulitzer newspaper chain by Lee (hey, even a Torbee sighting in there!) and this particular part of the story hit me like a ton of bricks:
In 1999, Lee Enterprises bought another Pulitzer property: the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton, Montana, circulation 5,200. The 23 full-timers and 23 part-timers at the daily had to reapply for their jobs. Only eight got them.
Now, the fact that only about 1/3 of the news staff of that newly acquired Lee paper retained their jobs is not remarkable at all --- that's just business-as-usual for Lee and most newspaper chains.
But what is remarkable is that the Ravalli Republic --- the 5,200 circulation paper in a town of 3,700 in the 2000 census ---- had 46 FULL AND PART-TIME STAFFERS!!
That has to be at least twice as many employees as the Quad City Times (reported circulation of 46,000) in a city of 100,000 in a metro area of 300,000 has today. Maybe two-thirds as many, I've lost count as the casualties have mounted. When I was editing the ICPC three years ago, we had seven full-time staffers and a couple correspondents (not even part time, paid by the story.) And that was supposed to be enough to cover a city of 70K or so that also is home to a world-class research university and the largest hospital system in Iowa.
Let that sink in.
Anyone that tells you that today's newspapers with today's staffing are able to do anywhere NEAR the level of reporting and watchdog work as they were able to do 15 to 20 years ago is simply lying to you.
In 1999, Lee Enterprises bought another Pulitzer property: the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton, Montana, circulation 5,200. The 23 full-timers and 23 part-timers at the daily had to reapply for their jobs. Only eight got them.
Now, the fact that only about 1/3 of the news staff of that newly acquired Lee paper retained their jobs is not remarkable at all --- that's just business-as-usual for Lee and most newspaper chains.
But what is remarkable is that the Ravalli Republic --- the 5,200 circulation paper in a town of 3,700 in the 2000 census ---- had 46 FULL AND PART-TIME STAFFERS!!
That has to be at least twice as many employees as the Quad City Times (reported circulation of 46,000) in a city of 100,000 in a metro area of 300,000 has today. Maybe two-thirds as many, I've lost count as the casualties have mounted. When I was editing the ICPC three years ago, we had seven full-time staffers and a couple correspondents (not even part time, paid by the story.) And that was supposed to be enough to cover a city of 70K or so that also is home to a world-class research university and the largest hospital system in Iowa.
Let that sink in.
Anyone that tells you that today's newspapers with today's staffing are able to do anywhere NEAR the level of reporting and watchdog work as they were able to do 15 to 20 years ago is simply lying to you.