Feed‘Significant’ layoffs at the PJS this fall
June 23, 2007 in Watchdog Tags: GateHouse Media, Journal Star, layoffs, The Newspaper Guild
I found this ominous comment at the Bradley Fans Website:
I just spoke today with an employee of the PJ Star. He said that the company will be dealing with four different unions, but expect significant changes/layoffs to be announced by this fall, as cost-cutting measures get implemented.
There’s a log of debate on this post about the quality and amount of Bradley University coverage in the PJS.
June 24th, 2007 at 12:17 am
and the PJStar will be Sections of Section A, AP stories everyone read on the Internet the day before.Not liking Gatehouse's moves so far….at least they are not trying to hide the face they are cutting back.
June 24th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Just do away with the sports page altogether and save a bundle.
June 24th, 2007 at 10:06 am
bill must be thrilled. The paper he hates and the people he mocks are going to be gone. Then it's just his little site for news
June 24th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Mahkno, um, no. When I do read a paper (am I am BY FAR not alone in this), whether it's the PJStar, the Sun-Times, the StarTribune, or the USA Today, it is sports I read first, it is sports I spend the most time with. Want to save a bundle? Get rid of "religion" sections, or "world news" sections in local papers. That would save money WITHOUT lowering readership.
June 24th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Honestly Bill, why do you do this? Why do you reprint rumors and innuendos without trying to confirm it? The layoffs or cutbacks or whatever may or may not turn out to be true, but the people at the PJS are worried enough already without you printing garbage like this without trying to confirm it first. Geez, you are starting to turn into a tabloid for cripes sakes.
June 24th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
See if you can confirm these three allegations:The JS lunchroom no longer provides free plasticware; employees must bring their own. JS newsroom staffers no longer get free bagels/ doughnuts for breakfast. Rented art works have been removed from the walls. Second-hand source alleges these things, but you know the old journalistic proverb: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." Al
June 24th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
With regard to selling the Pekin Times building: Gatehouse Publisher, Ratliff says, "I love old, historic buildings," and considers it a spacious, beautiful building. Perhaps 30 years ago. The newsroom is seated in a former ballroom, and, despite its unique old qualities, the place is rotting at the seams. Lest we forget a drunk recently fell through the 2nd story ceiling onto the pagination desk. The third floor is a rotting array of floors which host any number of worthless junk from decades gone that also threaten to go shooting through the ceilings straight to China. A portion of the third floor is dedicated to a rogue putting matt sheltered by an old net, and, if you can navigate to that area without breaking your leg, you can hit a few golf balls, withstanding sweltering summer heat and freezing winter chills. Sell it???? Har har. They'll be fortunate if they can give that place away, historic or not.
June 24th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
With regard to selling the Pekin Times building: Gatehouse Publisher, Ratliff says, "I love old, historic buildings," and considers it a spacious, beautiful building. Perhaps 30 years ago. The newsroom is seated in a former ballroom, and, despite its unique old qualities, the place is rotting at the seams. Lest we forget a drunk recently fell through the 2nd story ceiling onto the pagination desk. The third floor is a rotting array of floors which host any number of useless junk from decades gone that also threaten to go shooting through the ceilings straight to China. A portion of the third floor is dedicated to a rogue putting matt sheltered by an old net, and, if you can navigate to that area without breaking your leg, you can hit a few golf balls, withstanding sweltering summer heat and freezing winter chills. Sell it???? Har har. They'll be fortunate if they can give that place away, historic or not.
June 24th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
What's so ominous about it? Don't you hate the Journal Star anyway?
June 25th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Al,
Plasticware no longer available: True
Free bagels/doughnuts: Those items were never free. But they removed the ones for sale on the honor system.
Rented art: True.
Sandra: This post is just another fine example of Bill's citizen journalism at its best.
Tim: It certainly appears as though Bill hates the JS, but it's really
a love-hate relationship. Bill has nothing to write about if the paper
isn't around. The paper does 96% of Bill's reporting.
June 25th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Never did employees get free bagels or donuts. They could buy them, though.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for the correction on the free bagels and doughnuts. I had some bad information, it seems. Is honor-system coffee still available in the cafeteria? Today's JS has an obituary for another citizen journalist, Bill Love, whose PRAIRIE SUN weekly newspaper enlivened the Midwest during the 1970's until its demise in 1982. It was fearless, funny, and free in every sense of the word.
June 25th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Surprisingly, I've never seen an issue of the Prairie Sun. I used to like the old Penny Press, though …
June 25th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
The PRAIRIE SUN was edited by Bill Knight, now a professor of journalism at Western Illinois University. Steve Tarter, now with the JS, was one contributor; Bob Gordon of Acme Comics may have been another.As Tarter said at the Irish wake held for the SUN at the Peoria Pizza Works when it ceased publication in 1982: "The PRAIRIE SUN: it will live forever in our hearts and in our attics."
June 25th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I'm sad that I never contributed to it. I'm was under the impression it was mostly about the music scene, and I'm not as into music as some people are.
June 25th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Since publisher Bill Love was involved with Co-Op Tapes & Records, which distributed the paper free throughout the Midwest, much of its coverage was indeed musical: reviews, features, interviews with musicians both local and well-known ranging from Bo Diddley to Kool Ray & the Polaroids. But it also covered politics, the environment, and pop culture. Craig Moore of the Peoria Record Co. was another staff stalwart. Knight was a solid editor and Bill Love was an ideal publisher: as far as I know, mostly hands-off and supportive: the Anti-Gatehouse, as it were.