Playing catch up with a few items that fell through the cracks during the holiday season by me, and went unreported in traditional media outlets.
The Akron Beacon Journal joined The Columbus Dispatch giving the Associated Press its required two-year notice to cancel its contract. While the cancellation notice by the Beacon Journal could be just saber rattling in their dispute with AP, the paper has begun to look at alternatives for AP produced content.
This follows the formation of the Ohio News Organization, a content sharing cooperative by the eight largest papers in the state who have grown dissatisfied with AP’s service. While the OHNO arrangement was formed by the larger papers it appears that smaller Cox Ohio properties are taking advantage of some of the content that is posted.
In New Philadelphia, The Times Reporter is laying off 14 people at the newspaper. No photographers were among those let go. These follow cuts by Gate House in Canton where a total of 25 employees where shown the door in last quarter of 2008 at The Repository. In the newsroom, two reporters, a wire editor and a graphic artist were among those affected.
Gate House has also announced that 401K company matching contributions would be discontinued for non-union employees.
We reported a few weeks ago that former ONPA member Mike King was among those who were laid off from his staff position at the Appleton Post-Crescent. King is now a visual journalist at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. King will be doing multimedia work for www.GreenBayPressGazette.com as well as provide multimedia training to other staffers at the Gannett property.