As reported by E&P in May of 2023 (“Ghost papers: Journalists find themselves alone or with just a few left in the newsroom”), UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media’s Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics, Penelope Muse Abernathy stated, “Although the exact number is hard to pin down, we estimate, based on news accounts and industry data, at least 1,000 of the 7,200 newspapers still published in this country — and perhaps as many as 1,500 — have lost significantly more than half of their newsroom staff since 2004. As a result, they have become ‘ghost newspapers’ with drastically curtailed reach and journalistic missions.”
The article mentioned Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa, who became the last remaining journalist at the St. Cloud (MN) Times, a Gannett-owned news brand that has served this city of nearly 70,000 since 1924. Gaafarelkhalifa told E&P that he found the responsibility and demands of his job as the last employee to be so overwhelming that it took a toll on his physical and mental health. So he publicly announced that he’d be taking some time off from the job — not to shame his employer, but to be transparent with the public about his leave.
E&P has also reported on other communities that have suffered from downsized Gannett newsrooms, like Hutchinson, KS, a city of over 40,000 that had the family-owned, Pulitzer Prize-winning Hutchinson Newsfor years. Gannett bought the newspaper from the Harris family in 2016 and laid off most of the news staff, creating such a void that a local high-school junior, Michael Glenn, became frustrated with their coverage. In 2023, Glenn recruited a team of journalists and started the competing Hutchinson Tribune, where some days he out-reports the Gannett property ten to one on local stories.
However, things at Gannett seemed to be changing recently, with more and more announcements of local reporters, managers and sales reps hired at the United States’ largest media company.
On this episode of “E&P Reports,” we get the inside story on Gannett Media’s major hiring frenzy from their chief content officer, Kristin Roberts, and chief revenue officer, Jason Taylor. We learn about what is being called their “turnaround plan,” which has created hundreds of new local news media industry jobs in dozens of their markets across the U.S. Both Taylor and Roberts directly address the negative reporting that has been pointed at this media empire and how they are both bullish on the company’s plans to continue serving their readers and advertisers.
