If one visits the Montevideo [MN] American-News online these days, the content seems fairly generic and national. And head down the Minnesota River to Granite Falls, much of that content is repeated in the Granite Falls Advocate Tribune.
The publication's Facebook page is mostly ads from the Star Advisor shopper, as is that of the Granite Falls paper.
Both are Gannett publications; Gannett was swallowed by Gatehouse last year. A quick search shows that what's happening in the Upper Minnesota River valley media is happening across the country. Witness headlines like Gannett’s staff reductions, asset sales take toll on New England newspapers in MassLive and At Gannett’s Journal News in suburban New York, the local in local news went missing from the Sunday’s front page from Poynter, and Gannett buyouts hit Colorado newspapers bookending the Front Range from the Colorado Independent.
From the latter article:
This week, as the buyouts rolled out across the country, local outlets from Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and elsewhere published goodbye items to and from longtime editors, publishers, writers, and photographers. One East Coast editor had “an unmatched institutional memory of Rhode Island history,” his paper reported. In Indiana, six veteran journalists at The Indianapolis Star are taking buyouts— “including the investigations editor who oversaw the newspaper’s exposé of USA Gymnastics that led to the arrest of the team doctor who molested more than 100 girls.” The Florida Times-Union is “losing at least four staff positions through voluntary buyouts.” In Illinois, this month marked “the end of an era” for state government and political reporting after the buyout retirements of two longtime journalists from the Gannett-owned State Journal-Register.
In 2018, Columbia Journalism Review reported in a piece titled “The Bought-Out” that newspaper buyouts “seemed rare and relatively novel” a decade ago. Not anymore. “Many of those who have taken buyouts point out that when newspapers lose their more experienced workers,” CJR reported, “they also lose institutional memory.”
That brings us to Jeff Mills on Facebook, who begins a post:
I am the Great Grandson of the founder of The Montevideo American News; This editorial by the current Editor says volumes about what is currently going on with small town newspapers.
We couldn't find the column online, so we're cutting and pasting the text from Mills' post, on the assumption it's accurate.
My Two Cents By Mike Milbrandt Editor
To business, as usual...
Despite the Montevideo rumor mill working on overtime the past month or so, the Montevideo American-News is open, and will remain so for the forseeable future. It is not closing down, and we have been implicitly told on more than one occasion that our corporate owners, Gannett, realize how important this newspaper is to our community and that they have no intention of ceasing production of our local print newspaper. Gannett owns several newspapers in it’s southern Minnesota region, and we are all equally experiencing the same things.
That being said, the past year has brought about a number of changes as to how each of our local newspapers operate, which can be summed up with one word: centralization.
It all began approximately a year and a half ago or so when we were notified that our then owners Gatehouse Media had intentions of acquiring media giant Gannett (think USA Today, as well as many TV stations and other print outlets). The acquisition received approval, and beginning late last year a number of changes began to be implemented throughout the corporation. The new megacorporation kept the name of Gannett. The effects of the merger have been felt throughout the corporation, and especially so at the local level where newspaper staffs had been decimated in recent years due to the cold hard reality of economics. In order to become financially profitable, the new Gannett began looking for ways to cut expenses.
Employees that left were not replaced. Those of us that stayed admirably picked up the slack of those that left. Other changes that have occurred over the course of this year included centralization of services, meaning things that were once handled locally in our small-town offices by people you know would no longer be handled that way.
For instance, all obits for the newspapers in southern Minnesota owned by Gannett are now handled by one employee, elsewhere. Another employee handles all legals. Another answers all the phone calls, etc.
There are no in-office bosses (a veritable dream come true for your average Joe and Jane Slacker, and a veritable nightmare for those of us who actually care about our jobs), and each employee has a different immediate supervisor. For example, the “boss” of us editors is in St. Cloud. Another of our employees here in Montevideo has a “boss” located in Florida!
For those of our readers, governmental entities, and advertisers who have attempted to navigate the maze of changes that have been implemented by Gannett so far, I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and any lack of good customer service. I have been assured that bugs in the system will be worked out in the near future and the result will be an efficient and not entirely-impersonal welloiled machine.
My last day as editor of the Montevideo American-News will be next Tuesday, December 1.
Legacy Gatehouse employees were offered cost-cutting Voluntary Severance Offers almost two months ago, and myself and our ad designer Janell Sjurseth opted in and were accepted.
Janell has been an employee of the Montevideo American-News for the past 37 years, and her creativity and expertise will be sorely missed.
I’ve only been here a little over five years, and I’ve seen this newspaper dwindle from a two-section, 22 page paper down to one section averaging 12 pages. I’ve seen our employees go from 12 down to four fulltime employees and three parttime employees. (I’ve been told that at one time, the Monte American had 17 full-time employees, plus several part timers. Good times!) I will not be replaced, at least in the near future, nor will Janell.
Meaning there will be two full-time and three part-time employees working locally for the Montevideo American-News.
My daughter and part-time staff writer Danae is being asked to produce enough content for each week’s paper on 29 hours. That’s for finding stories, researching them if needed, setting up and conducting interviews, taking photos, attending meetings, attending community events, attending sports events (when they start up again), writing the stories, and typing them up. And then there is corporate training which seems to come up every few weeks or so!
Impossible you say? Maybe, but she is young, she is bright, and she is a good writer. If anyone could figure out how to manage this, it is her.
I will miss working alongside her, and I will miss working with my local co-workers. We aren’t just employees; we are friends who share the ups and downs of our everyday lives. We care about each other, we care about our community, and we care about the Montevideo American-News. We have truly been a team in every sense of the word.
Those who remain are now part of a corporate team consisting of Gannett’s other newspapers here in southern Minnesota.
A toast, if you will, to business as usual, and the unintended consequences of greedy American Capitalism!
To business, as usual! Cheers!
How will rural towns cope with centralized news? For the meantime, we're happy there are papers like Madison, Minnesota's Western Guard. Subscribe to the local and unique while you still can. The voice you lose may be your own.
Image: A banner from the Montevideo American News from its Facebook page.
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