Sunday, October 2, 2011

More Cuts At Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Even though it's already been reduced to being little more than a press release regurgitation machine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is acting quickly to make it even less of a newspaper:
A new round of buyouts and involuntary downsizing has eliminated six jobs in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom, including five represented by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild.

Journal Sentinel Inc. management has not announced the total number of positions eliminated throughout all newspaper departments, but some sources indicate it could be more than two dozen. The staff reductions were completed during the past week.

The latest cuts mark a return to what had become a troubling trend. During 2009 alone, buyouts and layoffs cut the newsroom work force by one-third. But no downsizing had touched our bargaining unit since then.

“I’m hoping we can keep our current numbers stable, but as we’ve seen the company is willing to squeeze the newsroom any time it feels like its financial numbers aren’t up to snuff,” Guild President Tom Silverstein told members. “I remain dismayed that, with few exceptions, the newsroom cuts have been aimed at bargaining-unit employees and not management.”
While I cancelled my subscription eight months ago, my dad will sometimes drop off his copy of the Sunday paper for the ads. I can read the entire thing in less than 45 minutes, including the ads and the comics, there is so little useful information in there. By the time the editors are done with the articles, there is little fact left to them. And with David Haynes took over the Editorial Board, it's not even worth the nausea that comes with their unabashed water-carrying for Scott Walker and the Tea Party.

Even now, I find myself even avoiding their website as much as possible, because their coverage, with a few notable exceptions, aren't even worth the frustration of their relentless pop-up ads and other clutter.

I would love to see either another daily paper come into the market or the Shepherd Express to expand their coverage and increase their frequency.  I bet either way, their business would take off in this honest news deprived town.

2 comments:

  1. My thoughts exactly. Its sad to see that our great state does not have a single worthy daily newspaper anymore. The insipid prattle that masquerades as news in the Journal Sentinel and the WI State Journal virtually ensures that these two rags will soon go down the toilet where they belong.

    Heck, even a new puppy would have a hard time using these nuzepapers for you know what. Hopefully, these two wastes of paper will go bankrupt soon.

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  2. Thanks. I had no idea Tom was the union's President or that there had been another round of cuts to workers without corresponding sacrifices from upper management.

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