Projo Reporter Tells Boston Globe “We Get Our Ass Beat All the Time” on Stories
Monday, January 15, 2018
In a Boston Globe feature on the future of the now bankrupt Boston Herald, a Providence Journal reporter gave insights into the impact their parent company has had on newspapers under their management.
GateHouse, who owns the Providence Journal and the Worcester Telegram and more than 100 other daily papers, is a bidder in the bankruptcy proceeding for the Herald.
“'They haven’t cut pay — what they have cut is bodies,' said one experienced Providence Journal news staffer, who likened the massive GateHouse chain to the Borg from ‘Star Trek,’ a feared alien race that forcibly assimilates all in its path,” wrote Mark Arsenault of the Globe.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Fewer journalists means ‘we get our ass beat all the time’ on stories, the staffer said, which is not something longtime Journal readers are used to seeing from a newspaper with a long history of providing smart coverage and narrative storytelling,” wrote Arsenault — both he and his wife Jennifer Levitz of the Wall Street Journal are former Providence Journal reporters.
GateHouse itself is owned through a complex web of corporate entities which ultimately leads to the Tokyo-based mega-bank SoftBank.
Uncertain Future for Herald
For the Boston Herald, the future is murky. GateHouse and Tampa-based Revolution Capital Group are competing for control of the Herald.
Revolution Capital’s last acquisition, according to its website, was a Wisconsin-based precision sheet metal company.
GateHouse has already announced that they will cut the Herald’s staffing from 240 to 175.
A column in the Lowell Sun by a former Herald reporter raises deep concerns about the future of the pensions for reporters at the paper.
“Reporters, photographers, sportswriters, and editors shown the door will be out of work with no benefits and no prospects in sight,” wrote Pete Lucas.
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