What do the following Indiana cities have in common – Indianapolis, Evansville, Spencer, Bloomington, Lafayette, Mooresville, Martinsville, Muncie, Richmond, South Bend and Bedford?

All those Hoosier cities have newspapers owned by the largest chain in the nation, Gannett.  Why is this fact important now?

Because, after a wave of recent job cuts, Gannett is once again lowering the boom on its own employees.

Just last week, the top brass at Gannett gave its own workers some very bad news.  Each employee must take one week of unpaid leave in December and the corporation is looking for volunteers to take buyouts and leave the company.  That’s just the start.

On October 24th, the 401(k) retirement program will no longer match employee contributions to the plan.   This was announced 2 months following layoffs of 400 employees and a decision not to fill 400 open positions.

My understanding is the only reason the Indianapolis Star did not have any layoffs 2 months ago was due to the number of unfilled jobs.  Although no one at the Star lost a job, the remaining journalists will be covering more news with fewer people.

It is clear the business of journalism is not doing well, at least not at Gannett.  According to the Poynter Institute, a well-regarded nonprofit covering American journalism, Gannett had a $54 million loss in the second quarter of this year.

Gannett became much larger after a merger with Gatehouse newspapers but it saddled the company with $1 billion in debt.

From everything I am reading, Gannett is doing everything possible to avoid more layoffs.  But with the numbers publicly known, this will be a large task.

The Indianapolis Star is the state’s largest newspaper and news organizations throughout the state look to that staff for leadership in Hoosier journalism.  With the number of journalists there going down over a number of years, that has an impact on how news is covered throughout the state.

I know many of the journalists working at the Star and there is no doubt in my mind that each and every one of them is dedicated to the profession of journalism.  The Star continues to produce amazing reporting.  I just wonder how long that can continue with a reduced staff at a time when there is so much news to cover.

I saw a Twitter post recently from a reporter I respect, and was dismayed at the message.  That reporter can no longer recommend a career in journalism to students in high school and college today.  The business of news is not good and there is no prospect at the moment to find a business model that works better.

There is something you can do to help get journalism back on its feet – subscribe to your local media.  Online subscriptions are not that expensive.

In the meantime, my hearts go out to the reporters and editors that continue to pursue the news as best they can against the financial headwinds of today.

Thanks for reading this.  I may just be a small local volunteer blog, but I try to make this journalism as best as one person can.