The following piece was produced by HuffPost's OffTheBus.
There's a quiet death among us, and no one seems to notice.
"Journal Star leader says it's time to go," reads the headline.
That would be the Peoria Journal Star, one of hundreds of small and medium market newspapers that have been swallowed by GateHouse Media, Inc. over the last year. Jack Brimeyer was the paper's managing editor for 16-plus years before announcing he will retire. The reason he's leaving seems a bit unclear. "You could say I'm retiring until the second best job in Peoria comes my way," he is quoted as saying to his staff.
So if he's already got the best job in town, why is he saying good-bye? His diplomatic comment that the new owners will have an opportunity to "establish a relationship with a new managing editor" just doesn't quite sound right.
Then about two weeks later, this headline from wire reports: "Publisher, editors resign from capital's newspaper."
Publisher Sue Schmitt, Editor Barry Locher and Managing Editor Robert Pope of the State Journal-Register, founded in 1831 and claiming to be Illinois' oldest newspaper, all resigned, stating in an e-mailed memo that the paper's new owners - GateHouse Media - did not ask them to leave.
GateHouse, owned by Fortress Investment Group, has systematically bought up hundreds of local newspapers including more than 90 dailies, 200 weeklies, 100 shoppers and also publishes what it dubs "niche" publications targeting topics such as sports and health. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange as GHS, its presence can be felt in nearly 300 markets in 18 states, reaching 10 million people.
They claim to be the premier purveyors of local news and yet they have chopped newsrooms and consolidated content to the point where little more than the nameplate changes. These are, after all, newspaper "franchises."
Despite what appear to be impressive news credentials, the head honchos seem to be mystified by what local means, and see nothing wrong with printing stories from neighboring communities as far as 20 miles away while ignoring the local city council meeting addressing zoning issues, school board agendas, and yes, even the local dance recital.
Worse yet, the powers-that-be have a distinct agenda and will crush anyone who is viewed as not being with the program, which includes just about everyone currently employed at the papers it acquires.
And so I was not really surprised when I got the call last March from my city editor, Dave Fornell, a man 20 years my junior and a dedicated, hard-working journalist, telling me I might want to drive into his office later that day because he thought he was finally going to be fired. A staff meeting would follow.
I had been hired as editor of The Farmside, one of the Liberty Suburban Chicago newspapers Gatehouse acquired in 2005. There had been a string of editors before me, mostly because before the sale the publishers weren't sure if they wanted to put any money into the paper, which serves the Huntley, Marengo and Union communities about 50 miles northwest of Chicago. Fornell believed in the small town newspaper which began publishing in 1960 and in a last-ditch effort to keep the paper alive, hired me.
The impending firing was expected. Fornell's continued attempts to reason with the new management about the increased workload on a diminishing staff (a few editors already had been fired) and the time-wasting, time-consuming and redundant tasks now required on a clumsy computer system keeping us all away from actually reporting news, was not going over well with the big boys. The staff had also routinely received some rather nasty e-mails from Brad Dennison, the newly-anointed vice president of content/news operations. Fornell had started packing up his belongings weeks before.
Dennison and his side-kick David Arkin, director of content, walked in as the group of us including three editors, a photo editor, and two reporters, waited just outside Fornell's office. Dennison walked in and closed the door while a smiling and cheerful Arkin ushered us into a conference room in the back.
"This won't take long, and then Brad will join us," he cheerily said, then walked out.
The tension mounted as we waited for what surely could only be our executions. Finally, Dennison and Arkin returned, and said something about "changes." We were all so blinded by fear, I'm not really sure what he said. One of the young reporters, about to jump out of her skin, blurted out, "Did you fire Dave? Who's gonna be next?"
Arkin took the lead, as Dennison sat slumped in a chair, staring at the floor. He's not one to look anyone in the eye. Arkin babbled about the great plans for the papers, and that there would be some changes they really felt bad about making. None of us believed they did.
"It's business," Dennison mumbled.
The tension mounted as each of us tried carefully to express our concerns over the quality of reporting, tapping into the experience that sat in the room, and how unsettling it was to work in an environment where our co-workers were systematically being fired. I carefully mentioned they might work on their people skills when firing co-workers in the presence of the staff. But it was pretty obvious that was all well-planned for our benefit.
All of us were punished summarily for our candor. I was fired the next day as was another outspoken editor. The photo editor was transferred to another office and the blurting reporter was suspended for a few weeks. The other reporter quit. The remaining editor had to continue working with empty desks around her.
Following the resignations of the SJR executives, GateHouse stock went down 82 cents or 9.6 percent, closing at $7.70 on Wednesday, November 21. A week earlier, the company reported a net loss of $8.8 million for the third quarter.
While newspapers everywhere are feeling the competition of new media sources such as the Internet and cable news programs, the local newspaper has had a tougher time staying alive with increased costs and diminishing revenues. But how will we find out what the city council is considering, what needs to be done to get that traffic light installed at a busy intersection, and what happened in Miss Gray's first grade class over Thanksgiving?
It's not unusual for a changing of the guard with new management. After all, they're in the driver's seat.
But some of us just don't want to go for a ride on this bus.