Gannett strangled more newspapers this week when it fired staff in small city newspapers across the country. These tragic firings make it more difficult for local citizens to learn what is happening in their communities and their government. In that sense, the firings are rifle shots aimed directly at democracy.
It’s an old quote, but “No news is bad news” is actually really bad news since the growing information gap has created multiple news deserts where people do not have the information they need to grow their families and their businesses. The Internet, as it contributes to the demise of newspapers, has grown fat and happy with the advertising money it has captured, but it has failed the test for providing accurate, fact-checked information. (The purpose of My Rural America is to share fact-checked information that our readers in the growing news deserts can depend upon.)
For this week’s Gannett lay-offs, Kristi Garabrandt, the only full-time reporter at the Daily Jeffersonian newspaper in Guernsey County, Ohio, knew that Gannett’s lay-offs were coming, but she didn’t think it would be her. Nor did award-winning photojournalist Don Shrubshell at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. Gannett targeted more one-of-a-kind, local newspaper staff like Garabrandt and Shrubshell, in other towns, too.
Elaine Izadi at the Washington Post tells today’s story: They were some of the last journalists at their papers. Then came the layoffs.