Failing Statesman Journal fires two experienced journalists

As the Statesman Journal sinks further into a journalistic abyss of mediocrity, sadly its cruel corporate overlords are dragging down highly competent staff in another round of firings. The Statesman Journal staff directory hasn't been updated yet, so via these screenshots let's have faces and titles to go with the names. Currie was one of the four members of the Newsroom Leadership. Since Salem is the Oregon capital, and Radnovich was the reporter for state government/legislature, naturally the non-geniuses at the Gannett Corporation picked him to be fired — a dumb move if the Statesman Journal wants to be a quality newspaper, which obviously isn't the goal here.

Saving enough money in newsrooms to pay for the outrageous salary of the Gannett CEO and board members does seem to be the goal. 

Don Currie's firing elicited some especially strong feelings since he had worked at the Statesman Journal for 27 years. 

Gannett believes that lowering the quality of its local newspapers by firing experienced journalists is going to help somehow. Hasn't worked so far. Won't work in the future.

Gannett, the country’s largest local news chain, is in a tailspin. The publisher of some 200 daily papers reported a significant loss in the second quarter — $54 million on revenues of $749 million.

According to Rick Edmonds, who analyzes the media business for Poynter, the company is either down or missing its targets in digital and print advertising as well as print circulation. The sole bright spot: a steady rise in paid digital circulation. Extensive layoffs are on the way. Edmonds quoted a memo from Maribel Perez Wadsworth, head of the media division, in which she said: “In the coming days, we will … be making necessary but painful reductions to staffing, eliminating some open positions and roles that will impact valued colleagues.” It’s hard to see how shrinking an already diminished product is going to help.

So we here in Salem need to get used to the idea that one day there won't be a daily newspaper in this town. Or if the Statesman Journal staggers on, it will be as a walking dead pale shadow of what newspapers used to be and still need to be.