Save the Plain Dealer says it better than I can, so I’ll just add emphasis:

We have no doubt that the gifted Plain Dealer journalists whose jobs were spared will continue to do good work. But they will do so in spite of, not because of, the radical changes that Advance Publications is imposing on its newspapers. Nationwide, the New Jersey-based company, owned by one of America’s richest families, has gotten rid of more than 1,500 journalists’ jobs since launching its ill-conceived “digital first” strategy in 2012. Fewer journalists inevitably means fewer in-depth stories, less comprehensive coverage, and reduced oversight, commentary and critical thinking. The remaining newsroom personnel at The Plain Dealer will struggle under an Advance business model that stresses quantity over quality of news, and under the direction of some managers who seem obsessed with trivia and sensationalism.

Throughout the past year, the Save The Plain Dealer campaign and the Newspaper Guild have worked to oppose these disastrous changes, and to warn the public of the impending harm to their daily newspaper. These layoffs mark a low point, but not an end, of that effort.

A grim coda.

And here is some response on Twitter.



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Dean Starkman writes and edits The Audit. He is CJR's Kingsford Capital Fellow.