Here's how things have played out at the Lee-owned St. Louis Post Dispatch: There have been furloughs, wage reductions, higher health insurance premiums and the company-paid pension was frozen: j.mp/2RyV1Z4
In 2019, Lee shutdown a Montana alt-weekly overnight: j.mp/36Dhj0e
Amidst layoffs and and other cost-cutting, the top three Lee execs have gotten 6-figure bonuses. @caspernewsguild's @SethKlamann: “If you want to draw a straight line, that’s (a laid off employee's) salary going into someone’s bank account,” j.mp/2GA9X34
Anyways. This is the company that now controls (even more, because they already were managing them) most of the newspapers west of Richmond.
Meanwhile, @tribpub and Alden own a large chunk of the papers east of Richmond, and you all know how that's going.
There's a crisis in local journalism and folks, the problem's not the local journalism. Corporate ownership is bleeding us dry and it doesn't have to be this way. Invest in journalists. Make the product better.
My best advice to anyone working in the new Lee Enterprises newsrooms:
Heed labor activist Joe Hill's words: "Don't mourn, organize!"
DM me or reach out to @newsguild.
Heed labor activist Joe Hill's words: "Don't mourn, organize!"
DM me or reach out to @newsguild.
