Gannett cuts back on editorials and editorial pages, vows more local content; pauses planned cuts in print editions

UPDATE, June 9: The Washington Post quotes an internal memo from a committee of Gannett editors, “Readers don’t want us to tell them what to think,” the editors, who come from Gannett newsrooms across the country, declared in an internal presentation. “They don’t believe we have the expertise to tell anyone what to think on most issues. They perceive us as having a biased agenda.”

Editorials were already getting scarce at the newspapers of Gannett Co., and now that applies to the papers' editorial pages, too. "The 250-title chain is cutting back opinion pages to a few days a week while refocusing what opinion is still published to community dialogue," Rick Edmonds reports for The Poynter Institute. Meanwhile, the company has paused a planned cutback in print editions.

Amalie Nash, Gannett's senior vice president for local news and audience development, told Edmonds that reader surveys and an editors' task force "persuaded her and other executives to recommend a new chain-wide pattern as part of Gannett’s push to make digital content its focus. . . . Routine editorials, point-of-view syndicated columns and many commissioned guest essays consistently turn up as the most poorly read articles online. Readers can find a range of opinions on hot national issues on the internet — so replicating that sort of content locally is a waste of time, space and budget." Also, "In the digital space, readers may not easily distinguish opinion pieces from straight news reports."

Nash told Edmonds that the new approach is a strong suggestion, not an edict, to local editors. "Nor is the approach a first step to phasing out editorials entirely, Nash said. Quick response, a strongly expressed position and front-page play will be appropriate at times, she said," adding that an emphatic institutional voice of the paper “resonates more” if done selectively.

In Louisville, where local editorials are a rarity, the change to two editorial pages a week was obliquely announced in the first subhead ("Changes to opinion section in print edition") of a column from Opinion Editor Bonnie Feldkamp, headlined "The Courier Journal is adding more opinion content online and welcomes advisory board."

Asheville Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle objected to the disappearance of weekday editorial pages without an explanation. “I also feel strongly that as a community newspaper that’s all about clear communication and transparency in government, we should have done a better job communicating the change. For that, I apologize to you readers.”

"More objections came from groups representing editorial cartoonists," Edmonds writes. One wrote, “What I wanna know is what does a newspaper become without an editorial page? #pennysaver.”

Edmonds concludes, "My own take is that well-crafted editorials and opinion columns need not come off as lectures, can indicate respect for different viewpoints and always have a strong underpinning of evidence and original reporting. But I get that there probably is a generational divide at play. Older readers, who have stuck with print or e-editions, may — like the retired editors I heard from — view editorial pages as an essential (however much the material is read)."

Meanwhile, Columbia Daily Tribune Editor Kevin Graeler told his Missouri readers Sunday that "all changes to the number of print editions published per week are being paused while the company analyzes new data and takes into consideration valuable input from our subscribers." The Tribune had announced that its print edition would be reduced to three days a week from seven.