As rumored, a campaign to “save the Journal Star” started today. A full-page ad was taken out by the Newspaper Guild, and a website has been set up (www.savethejournalstar.com), saying:
As newspapers across the country change hands, greedy buyers are cutting staff, coverage and service and raising advertising rates. It all amounts to much less newspaper. […]
We will not tolerate an owner who insults our region with mediocre and half-hearted news coverage in the name of short-term profit. We will not tolerate an owner who refuses to recognize a responsibility for civic engagement.
To current Journal Star owner David Copley, we say: Continue to be a steward of first-rate journalism and civic responsibility. Sell only to a buyer who recognizes the common good that journalistic excellence represents.
To anyone who is in the market for the Journal Star, we say: Buyer beware! Regardless of who owns this newspaper, it belongs to this community.
I have to admit — and I said so in the comments section of their website — the Journal Star has the most comprehensive local coverage of any media in the greater Peoria area. Does the Journal Star have its shortcomings? Yes. But is there anyone in Peoria that covers more local news, crime, arts, neighborhood issues, civic events, sports, and other local fare? No. And seriously, overall they do a very good job. That doesn’t mean they’re above reproach, and I stand by my past criticism of them. But compared to the volume of news they cover every day, that’s really not bad.
In order to cover so many local events, it takes a lot of reporters. And to cover them well, it takes experienced reporters — not just experienced as in “been a reporter for x number of years,” but experienced in Peoria. To lose a large number of experienced reporters would be a huge blow to the quality of news coverage we’ve come to expect from the paper.
Still, I’m not — and I’m sure the Guild is not — so naive as to think there will be no job cuts regardless of who the new buyer is. Nor is every position indispensable. There will undoubtedly be some cost cutting, but my hope is that it will be, as the Guild states, “responsible.”
