Gannett 'pauses' plan to return reporters to ghost papers

Associated Press file photo by Jacquelyn Martin

Most of the ghost newspapers of Gannett Co., with no or hardly any staff members, are likely to remain that way for a while, Rick Edmonds reports for The Poynter Institute.

The nation's largest newspaper company "has promised that it is working to add hundreds of new editorial positions, backfilling the many openings that were lost after a December 2022 hiring freeze, then growing further . . . the company hit the brakes on hiring for that key small newsroom position three months earlier," Edmonds reports. "According to internal communications, the 'pause' has now been rolled over through the second quarter."

Kristin Roberts, the company's chief content officer, declined Edmonds' interview request, and was not asked about the issue in the call that followed publication of the company's quarterly earnings report, which was favorable. Edmonds gives some background on the hiring initiative, which was limited to 30 markets and dubbed "I-30."

"Journalists, well paid at roughly $50,000, are being hired on one-year contracts rather than as full-time employees," Edmonds reports. "They must physically work in the target communities. Their job is to establish a local news presence in cities that have been getting only a thin trickle of hometown content. A particular emphasis . . . is creating newsletters, now a primary way in the industry to get samples of coverage to the target audience and capture email addresses of potential paid digital subscribers."

Edmonds concludes, "I’m hoping, even betting, that the I-30 program and other reinvestments resume. But for right now, the community papers have again taken their position in the back of the line for Gannett."

UPDATE, May 9: Edmonds' source of the "internal communications" has been fired for talking to him, he reports.