Front page article in The Winston-Salem Journal on Nov. Winston no longer has a decent newspaper of record. Any decent city needs a decent newspaper. It’s a paper that consistently produced good journalism that informed our community and provided a foundation for civic engagement and activism. As for the Winston-Salem Journal, it has a proud past. I’ll leave it for someone else to comment on the News & Record’s demise. In a sign of the times, I learned about the layoffs at the Journal and News & Record on Triad City Beat‘s Facebook Page: At the time we were told that Buffett valued newspapers. But no mention of layoffs at the Journal and other Berkshire Hathaway newspapers.Īnd of course, there is no mention in today’s Journal of Warren Buffett not living up to promises he made when he purchased the Journal and News & Record nearly six years ago. On A9 the Journal’s excellent business reporter Richard Craver reported that Novant is eliminating 23 jobs. Koppel, the Journal reported, bemoaned the death of journalism. They ran an article on Ted Koppel speaking in Greensboro a few pages into the paper. The Journal’s lead story today was an article on Foothills and Bookmarks new joint venture, Footnote. The Journal didn’t even put Railey’s last column at the top of the damn page. Where did I learn that John Railey, a 20 year veteran of the Journal and Susan Ladd (a columnist immeasurably better than the Journal’s Scott Sexton) are leaving their respective newspapers? It wasn’t in the pages of the Winston-Salem Journal.īuried at the bottom of page B5 the Journal ran “And now I must be going,” John Railey’s last column with a paper that he’s given two decades of his life. So its readers are forced to scramble to other sources to find out what’s going on at the Journal. To add insult to injury, the Journal rarely reports on its own job cuts. Just when I thought that my local newspaper couldn’t get any thinner or more devoid of local news coverage, Warren Buffett is taking the Journal and News & Record to new lows. Some publications at that time scaled back the number of pages they printed. Last year, Buffett’s newspaper group cut 289 jobs, including 108 vacant positions, saying digital growth couldn’t offset print revenue losses. The organization is seeking to trim expenses because of declining advertising revenue… But Buffett isn’t demonstrating the same patience with his newspapers.īH Media Group is reducing staff by 148 employees and not filling 101 vacant positions, representing a total of about 6 percent of its workforce, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Warren Buffett is famous for playing the long game in stocks. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the parent corporation of the Journal, News & Record and many other small and medium-sized newspapers is cutting costs even as its publication’s page views are increasing. The Winston-Salem Journal and Greensboro News & Record just laid off more workers, including journalists. Today is another sad day for local journalism in the Triad and beyond.
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