Another photographer is victim to newspaper downsizing as Steve Schenck has been laid off at Tribune Chronicle leaving one full time photographer, R. Michael Semple holding down the fort in Warren. Schenck had been at the paper for quite some time and previosuly worked at the Morning Journal in Lisbon.
This is another sad turn for a newspaper that once had a staff whose names littered the top ten standings of the NPPA Region 4 and ONPA clip contests. The descent has been slow as the newspaper went from the local ownership of Helen Hart Hurlburt to the hands of Ingersoll to Thompson to Ogden. Apologies if I missed an owner or two in there.
Mike Semple is the lone survivor from the glory days of the Trib. He followed his father’s footsteps to work at the paper. In the 80’s the staff also included, Bill Lewis, Steve Ilko, Rob Engehardt, Ed Suba, Jr. and Fred Squillante, who was the new kid on the block at the time. They were followed in later years by the likes of Steve Rosenberg and Gary Green with students Luis Sanchez and Apryl Pilolli getting their first taste of journalism there as well.
Although a mid-sized paper, Warren was not mid-sized in talent. Ilko was an ONPA POY while at the paper, Suba a three-time POY at the Beacon Journal and Squillante went on to win a POY title at The Columbus Dispatch. All of the other names on the list went on to work at much larger properties including the late Steve Deslich who was a photo editor for KRT and MCT in Washington D.C..
It is sad to see for me as the Trib was the competition, and a measuring stick for me as I broke into the business. While Semple is the last one standing at the Trib, I can only wonder what his late father would think about the demise of a paper with such rich photojournalism history.