The Gannett Blog is keeping its bit of the news biz honest.
Per The Wall Street Journal:
Jim Hopkins, former Gannett reporter and editor for more than 20 years, operates Gannett Blog, a one-man show that tracks all-things Gannett, ranging from layoffs, furloughs and newspaper home delivery cutbacks. With the economy stuck in a recession, unemployment rising and the newspaper industry declining, Hopkins has become a voice and outlet for current and former Gannett employees to express their emotions about corporate news and the industry’s troubled state.
(...)Without a traditional newspaper job to occupy his time, Hopkins has spent much of his time tracking layoffs at Gannett’s 85 daily newspapers. His blog — which was one of the first media outlets to report Gannett was cutting 1,000 newspaper jobs in August as well as an additional 10% workforce-chopping in late October — chronicled the layoffs as they were happening in real time.
He also reported a rumor in December — several days before it was officially announced — that the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News would cut home delivery of their print editions to only three days a week. And he reported rumblings of the one-week unpaid leave that Gannett has ordered its non-unionized employees to take this quarter.
(...)
Several corporate watchdog groups have raised their finger to former employers: "...Starbucks Gossip, BlueOvalNews.com, which tracks Ford Motor, and McClatchy Watch, a blog that focuses on developments at the Sacramento Bee as well as its parent, McClatchy Inc."
Read Hopkins comments about Brevard County's daily here.
