Gannett, the newspaper company that now owns Bloomington’s Herald-Times, has laid off long-time HT sports editor Pat Beane, and Executive Editor Rich Jackson, according Twitter, and blog posts.
Rich Jackson posted to his blog about his layoff:
https://www.thehomelesseditor.com/2020/.
And on social media:
“BREAKING: I wrapped up my final day at the Herald-Times today, one of the many people laid off across the county. Compounding the unpleasantness of that, I had to move out of the apartment at the newspaper and report this to you from the comfort of the Motel 6 in Bloomington. I’m here, friends, asking if any (sic) you have a room and bed you might lend me for a little while?”
Pat Beane said on Twitter:
“Well, here it is, my final
@theheraldtimes sports front page. After 30 years at the HT (to the month), I was let go this week in a nation-wide purge of folks at my level by Gannett. …”
According to news reports, Gannett began laying off journalists at newspapers across the United States last week.
The Herald-Times, once owned by the Schurz family, was sold to GateHouse Media in January 2019.
Scott Schurz, the former owner of the HT said, according to a story in the Herald-Times, at the time of the sale, “the family talked to a dozen potential owners in recent months but felt GateHouse was a company that would treat employees well.” Employees were assure that GateHouse was the best company to assure the Herald-Times would continue to stay in business.
But, several employees were soon laid off, including the author of this story, Jeremy Hogan.
Soon GateHouse Media bought Gannett, but kept the Gannett name for the new company.
The HT announced earlier this year that several more workers would be laid off, the printing presses at 1900 S. Walnut Street shutdown, and printing moved to Indianapolis.
https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/herald-times-moving-printing-operations-to-indianapolis.php
After the COVID-19/Coronavirus national emergency, and a drop in advertising revenues, Gannett began furloughs for employees across the company making more than 38k per year.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gannett-announces-pay-cuts-and-furloughs-across-entire-media-company
Recently, Gannett stock was trading for 63 cents per share, but bounced back to 1.10 per share Friday.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=gannett+stock+
Jackson had been at the Herald-Times less than a year, and was the third editor since the sale.
The Bloomingtonian will update this story should more information become available.
