Former TLer: owners 'care nothing' about quality

[bob quarteroni]

From a post on Romenesko.com

Terrie Morgan Besecker

I left three months ago because I saw the writing on the wall that the paper was going to go downhill under the new ownership. We all understand that budgets are tight, and that investors need to make a profit. But they care nothing, and I mean nothing, about quality - only the bottom line. I am proud to have helped made the TL a quality product for so many years, and I am truly heartbroken to see its decline, and the loss of so many talented people. Civiitas is turning a Mercedes into a Pinto. Only a matter of time before it crashes and burns.

[Eyewitnessing the News]

The Times Leader is going through a slow and painful death. Multiple buyouts, top people losing their jobs, reporters leaving out of fear for what will come. It's a shame and very sad, as the newspaper employs some good journalists and very hard-working individuals, but it comes down to some key facts: the newspaper business is in decline, Wilkes-Barre is not a two newspaper town, the Citizens' Voice has more spending power, decline in the publication's quality, and did I mention the newspaper business is in decline?

You know it's bad when some of the top people at a sister publication, The Sunday Dispatch, comment in an editorial that they're not necessarily happy with the formatting changes due to the company outsourcing it. What ever happened to pride in your employer?

The newspaper becomes thinner by the month. Weather, which was previously provided by WNEP with local commentary, used to take up the top half of the page. Now it's provided by a cheaper national company and only takes up the bottom quarter of a page. The former business section is now just a page in the sports section.

Content and quality have diminished. The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if Wilkes-Barre became a one newspaper town in the near future.

It's sad but it is what it is.