Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Gutted -- Again

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced major reductions in its workforce.

Journal Sentinel Inc. said Tuesday that it is reducing its workforce by 92 employees, or 6.2%, to adjust to declining advertising revenue.

The reductions include 37 voluntary buyout offers that were accepted in the Journal Sentinel newsroom. Most of those affected by the job reductions are expected to leave the company this month.

"The advertising recession continues to affect our business," said Steven J. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Journal Communications Inc., the parent company of the Journal Sentinel. "While these changes are difficult, we must be diligent about reducing our expense platform in order to preserve the overall strength of the Journal Sentinel through and beyond this challenging time. Today we also need to say thank you to a number of Journal Sentinel colleagues for many years of exceptional service."

Journal Communications said it anticipates gross workforce reduction charges of between $4 million and $5.5 million during the second half of the year, primarily through the voluntary and involuntary job reductions at the Journal Sentinel during the third quarter along with reductions in workforce at both the printing services and direct marketing businesses.

..."We will continue to maintain our high quality local news focus and keep our audience penetration high," said Elizabeth Brenner, president and publisher of Journal Sentinel. "We will align our costs to a smaller revenue base while delivering a newspaper and other products that are attractive to our readers and advertisers. We will be responsive to the evolving mix of print and digital products our customers are looking for. Through it all, we remain committed to being the leading news gathering organization in southeastern Wisconsin."

Last week, The Business Journal reported:

Journal Sentinel executives have told the newsroom employees union that “substantially more than 25 positions” must be eliminated to cut costs, [Greg Pearson, president of the newsroom employees union,] said.

Yes, I would say there have been substantially more than 25 positions eliminated.

It's ridiculous to believe the claim that the JS will maintain a "high quality local news focus" when it's operating on a skeleton staff.

The largest newspaper in Wisconsin is becoming like a community paper.

What's next? Will the Journal Sentinel depend on community volunteers to do the news gathering and reporting?

With such a dramatic reduction in newsroom employees, there's no way that the JS can offer the same coverage that it could prior to the buyouts and layoffs.

I thought it was bad for southeastern Wisconsin when the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel merged.

Monopolies aren't good for democracy.

It's also not good for democracy when the public is uninformed.

Ideally, the press serves as a watchdog, keeping an eye on those in power. It plays an important role in the functioning of a democratic society.

Of course, the Journal Sentinel has been shamelessly biased, leaning far to the Left.

Still, I don't celebrate its implosion.