Wednesday, March 14, 2007

MORE NEWS-LEADER DEPARTURES

The exodus continues at the News-Leader, Springfield's daily newspaper.

Randy Turner @ The Turner Report has the scoop on two more departures from the paragraph factory, including City Hall reporter Jane Huh and political writer Tracy Swartz. The latter was especially unbeloved by many readers and dismissed as a lightweight.

Turner says N-L editors wanted to send Huh to Jefferson City to cover the General Assembly in place of Swartz -- or, as Turner calls her, "a vacuum with a byline." Yow!

Writes Turner:
The same sources say more resignations are in the offing as reporters are fed up with ill-advised Gannett corporate mandates that are geared toward the bottom line and not with publishing a professional newspaper.
Non-daily publications may contribute more to the bottom line, but the daily newspaper is the franchise. Punt that and everything is lost.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where was the News-Leader when the story broke about the governor's atrocious mishandling of the sexual harrassment case in the state bureaucracy? They let AP do that while the N-L published stories about boring committee meetings. How sad.

Anonymous said...

Please...will Cory DeVera be next?!?!?!

Anonymous said...

Everyone I know at the News-Leader is either looking for a new job or is prepared to leave as soon as a position that needs writing skills shows up in the classifieds. Expect among those reporters nearing retirement, the classified section (specifically Help Wanted) is the most read section of the News-Leader in the news room.

Anonymous said...

With only a couple of rare individuals as notable exceptions, for the past 25 years the News-Leader has been managed by a rotating cast of corporate carpetbaggers who neither know this community nor care about what its people want or need in their newspaper.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:26, it's not called the newsroom anymore, I hear. I think it's the Information Center or some such newspaper industry-killing Gannett nonsense.

I will not stand for Cory DeVera to be defamed here on Chatter. She is a dedicated and hard-working journalist and we're lucky to have any of those left at the News-Leader. Hang in there, Cory, and the rest of you. Today's paper was outstanding.

Anonymous said...

An unbeloved lightweight? Is this why she was sent to cover President Bush? I believe you are sucking up all the stories you can get to keep your bi-lines going.