Another blow to local news coverage in northern Minnesota

The Duluth News-Tribune, northern Minnesota’s largest newspaper, announced 10-15 percent job cuts in all its departments yesterday. This will mean cuts in the newsroom, further diminishing their ability to cover the paper’s large two-state readership area. Based on the recent departure of their Iron Range reporter, I infer this will mean reduced coverage of Iron Range news and politics. The DNT will have to cut back their coverage of local news in general, which will lead to a smaller readership and additional job cuts in the future. (That last part wasn’t in the story; I’m just saving everyone the time involved in pretending that the traditional journalism industry will ever get better).

Here’s WDIO’s story by Cassie Limpert:

There is a shake-up at the Duluth News Tribune. The Duluth newspaper is ownsizing, and will do it by cutting staff as much as 10 to 15 percent. Union members of the newspaper staff got a memo today, alerting them of the company’s intention.

The memo says the company needs to cut workers because of falling revenue, and to offset the problem, the company will first offer voluntary buy-outs. Then, if necessary, they’ll resort to layoffs.

According to the President of the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild, the memo was sent to 140 of its members at the Tribune, warning them that the troubles seen at other newspapers are about to hit home.

Steve McLister, Publisher of the Duluth News Tribune, says the paper has about 220 employees. He says between fifteen and thirty employees could be cut.

Union President Peter Passi, also an employee at the Duluth News Tribune, says they learned of the cutbacks yesterday during contract negotiations. He says he is unaware of an exact timeline, but buyouts could begin in as little as two weeks.

McLister told Eyewitness News that the cutbacks won’t just effect Guild members; they could happen anywhere in the building.

Passi says many of the union members were surprised at the news, particularly at how many employees the company wants to cut. He says they’re already tightly staffed. He hopes enough employees will accept the buyout offers, so there won’t have to be any layoffs.

Forum Communications, which owns the newspaper, did not return calls for comment.

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