Adams Publishing Group fires editor who warned of ads she thought sketchy, sparking an exodus of other journalists

Athens, in Athens County
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In the past few weeks, nearly every journalist working for the two newspapers in Athens, Ohio, has been fired or resigned in protest over a conflict with owners Adams Publishing Group, Brook Endale reports for the Gannett-owned Cincinnati Enquirer.

The exodus began after Adams fired Corrine Colbert, editor of The Athens News, on Feb. 25. Colbert told Endale she and other editors repeatedly complained to management about Federated Mint collectible-coin ads that she believes to be scams (based on a Better Business Bureau 'F' rating and reader feedback), but said management told her they needed the revenue from the ads. On Feb. 23 she ran an editorial in the News and sister paper The Athens Messenger warning readers about the ads.

Two days later she was fired, allegedly for violating the company's social-media policies by posting unrelated political opinions on Twitter, Endale reports. In a Twitter thread about her firing, Colbert noted that the company had never cared about her political tweets before and believed it was an excuse to get rid of her for warning readers about the ads. Mark Cohen, president of APG Media of Ohio, told her that "our job is to protect APG" before her firing, she alleged on Twitter. But, she continued, her "first responsibility was to the people of Athens County."

Newspapers need money to function, but informing readers is the top priority, Colbert said in the Twitter thread. She said Athens readers haven't been well-served since APG, which bought the papers in 2014, drastically cut editorial and production staff, and she criticized APG for allowing people who don't live in Athens to make decisions about its papers. She said Cohen lives in Columbus, and the advertising staff for the papers is two counties away. "Local journalism thrives when the people in charge of it are personally invested in the community — and when those people understand that good journalism speaks truth to power regardless of who holds it," she wrote.

In a statement in the March 4 Messenger, Cohen defended the ads. He said Federated Mint had had an A rating with the BBB for more than five years, but it was lowered to an F last year "due to two ads that ran in a very small newspaper that contained wording not permitted in a previous agreement the company had with the BBB," Cohen wrote. "The wording was corrected and the company has had no additional occurrences since that incident on the matter." A Federated Mint spokesperson told a Messenger assistant editor that the company is experiencing longer shipping times than usual but is complying with the law on shipping dates, Cohen wrote. He protested Colbert's characterization of him as an outsider, noting that he lives only 30 minutes from the Athens County line, at a location that allows him to better reach the six newspapers he oversees.

Colbert's firing set off a chain reaction. Associate Editor Cole Behrens was the only reporter and employee left at the News after Colbert was fired; in five days, he resigned, Endale reports. Messenger Editor Alex Hulvachick resigned Feb. 24, mainly, she told Endale, because the workload was too much. But Hulvachick was one of several editors who raised concerns about the ads, according to former associate editor Dani Kington, who published a story about Colbert's firing on The New Political, a digital publication run by students of Ohio University, which is in Athens.

The departures could make local news harder to come by in the county of about 65,000, Endale reports, alluding to news deserts: "Hundreds of counties all over the country have the same issue, including Klamath County in Oregon. There, the Herald and News, another APG-owned newspaper, just lost its entire staff, according to Jefferson Public Radio."

Colbert launched a fundraiser seeking $15,000 to start a locally owned paper, tentatively called The Athens Independent. As of this writing on March 14, it had received $18,161 from 296 donors.