This is print media related, but it’s way too big for us to ignore here at OMW.
The long-rumored job cuts at the Akron Beacon Journal are becoming reality, and they are deep.
Beacon Journal business writer Gloria Irwin reports that some 40 of the newspaper’s 160 newsroom employees are being laid off in a cost-cutting move by new ABJ owner Black Press.
New publisher Edward Moss had the unenviable task of wielding the job cutting knife. He tells Irwin that the Beacon’s profits had dropped some 50 percent over the past four years.
WEWS/5 reporter Brad Harvey – who witnessed the story first hand from the station’s Akron bureau inside the Beacon Journal building – lists names of some of the paper’s staffers now being cut… including names such as Browns beat reporter Patrick McManamon, and writers Lisa Abraham and Julie Wallace.
OMW has heard other names on the cut list, including movie critic George Thomas, music/entertainment writer Malcolm X. Abram, and sportswriters Stephanie Storm and Tom Reed. (A special note goes out to Mr. Thomas, who dropped us a note a while ago telling us he’s a regular OMW reader. Here’s hoping some OMW Karma visits you soon, George!)
Other, non-newsroom cuts are in the offing…and Moss warns Irwin of possible future newsroom job cuts “if revenues do not improve”.
While we don’t really cover the print media, this is a major local media event. Let’s hope that the cutbacks don’t turn the Beacon Journal into one of those papers that mainly reprint wire copy…
Speak Your Mind