PressEthic

We often hear about and discuss the cost-cutting efforts at major newspapers around the country. The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and many other big-city papers have attempted to reconstruct their newsrooms to meet their budgets. But, what about the small-town papers owned by the same companies? How are these papers that lack the resources, advertisers and readership base of the big city dealing with these forced cuts?

Papers like The Morning Call, owned by the Tribune Co. of Chicago.

Ah, The Morning Call, my hometown paper: It’s a good newspaper, not a great newspaper, but a good newspaper that serves the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. I must admit that I occasionally sneak a peek at the Call’s not-so-great website just to see if anything is going on in good, old Allentown. Of course, nothing globally significant happens in Allentown, but hey, we do have one skyscraper and a few murders every year. So, when something does happen, the Call’s staff usually does a good job communicating it to the public. And, the Call has blogs – amazing. Plus, the Call has great crossword puzzles – I love crossword puzzles.

Anyway, considering Allentown has a population of about 105,000 (add in Bethlehem and Easton, the other two larger-sized towns in the Lehigh Valley, and you get about 200,000), it’s not an easy place for a newspaper to survive, let alone do a decent job. However, the Call has thrived in this environment and it has been a indispensable part of the Lehigh Valley for generations.

But, the Call, like other newspapers owned by the Tribune company, has been forced to cut costs. Here is what they’ve done:

According to an article by Kurt Blumenau, the Call has stopped the publication of the Chronicles, which are weekly newspapers that focus on specific communities in the Valley, and act as supplements to the Call’s regular coverage. They started the Chronicles in 2003, but like most weekly papers in Allentown, the experiment was short-lived.

While I am disappointed that the Chronicles were cut, it was the logical choice. It was one of the few options for the Call that would not hurt the paper’s integrity or significantly diminish the quality of the paper’s output. It’s a shame they were cut though. I’m sure people will miss the Chronicles, but it could have been worse.

Oh yeah, it does get worse. Blumenau wrote:

Editor Ardith Hilliard told news employees at a Thursday morning staff meeting that the newsroom would lose 20 positions through retirements and leaving positions unfilled. That represents 10 percent of the editorial staff. There were no newsroom layoffs.

I’m glad there were “no newsroom layoffs,” but cutting 10 percent of a newsroom's editorial staff is a huge loss, especially for a small-town paper. How much will it affect the ability of the Call to report the news? I don’t think it will hurt them much this time, but what about the next time?

It’s safe to assume that newsroom cuts will continue across the country, and I think the small-town papers owned by large companies like Tribune will be the first to show signs of the adverse effects of these cuts.

It’s a shame that profitable newspapers are forced make these cuts just to please Wall Street. But, that’s the way it works. I just hope they aren’t forced to cut crosswords next.

According to Editor and Publisher, at least someone is trying to do something about it, though I doubt it will help.