CLEVELAND, Ohio — For more than a decade, the newspaper industry has faced a grueling uphill climb to remain financially viable in a digital age. Newsrooms across Ohio and the United States, including ours, have gotten smaller. Today, it is with a heavy heart that I announce another reduction in staff at The Plain Dealer.
On March 23, we will notify 22 newsroom employees — 18 from the bargaining unit represented by Local One of the Newspaper Guild and four unrepresented managers — that we can no longer continue their employment with us.
The reason is strictly financial. The industry revenue model has changed and print newspapers have struggled to overcome deep losses in subscriptions and advertising.
More people access the news on digital platforms than ever before. Younger audiences are not subscribing to print editions of newspapers anywhere near the levels previous generations did. In my March 1 column where I introduced myself to readers as The Plain Dealer’s new editor, I referenced my beginnings as a paperboy. There were 114 houses on my route, and 109 were subscribers. In my similar-sized neighborhood today, only a handful receive home delivery.
And, while we still have strong advertising partners whom we value, we also have seen a steady decline in print advertising revenue over the past 10 years.
Despite this disheartening news, The Plain Dealer, both in print and our e-edition, will continue to serve greater Cleveland as a valuable source of local journalism. This move today allows us to amplify our resources and continue to strive toward impactful and relevant reporting. Over the next two weeks, we will be finalizing our plans on how our resources will be allocated and I will share them with you as soon as I can.
I worry today that this reduction will cause readers to fret about a news desert in our town. That’s not happening. In fact, we’re doing OK as a market. As you know, the content created by our sister company, cleveland.com, contributes heavily to The Plain Dealer. The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com will have 77 journalists covering stories that matter to Northeast Ohio readers, including reporters based in Akron, Columbus and Washington, D.C. We have the largest news gathering operation in Ohio, one that exceeds the average number of journalists in newspaper/digital newsrooms in similar markets such as Columbus; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri, and Austin, Texas.
I hope that helps reassure subscribers and advertisers, who have been extraordinarily loyal and supportive of us through the years. We will continue to print The Plain Dealer daily, and deliver it on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
But this does not lessen the pain we feel today in my newsroom. In my 30 years at The Plain Dealer, some as a union leader, I have experienced firsthand the changes, both good and bad, in our profession. I have stood side-by-side with respected colleagues, fighting for their jobs and the ideals of journalism we all strive to represent. I am empathetic, but do not pretend to fully realize their anguish.
Now, as editor for just more than a week, I have to share the most difficult news with the people that I admire and respect. These are going to be a tough couple of weeks for everyone. My simple request is that you continue your support of The Plain Dealer – just as you have done year after year, as we’ve seen the news industry evolve.