Virginian-Pilot Cuts 125 Jobs

The Virginian Pilot, the larger of the two newspapers in this area is cutting 125 jobs, citing declining advertising sales as the cause. While the advertising sales are down due to the economy, in my personal view, the bigger cause is the generally poor quality of the news coverage in the Virginian Pilot. Often stories of national note appear days later - if they are covered at all - than in larger newspapers after those stories have been available for 1 or 2 or 3 days online. In addition to late coverage, the Pilot has shown time and time again that the concept of investigative reporting is a virtually unknown concept. Serious readers want more than just a regurgitation of what often disingenuous people are saying when the available facts show them to be lying.

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Along this line, many of the Pilot reporters I have dealt with over the years are young, lazy, and I'm sorry to say not overly bright. As I recently told one reader who is a journalism professor in another state, you can research and write a story and give it to the Pilot reporters and the story will still come out screwed up. The only thing the Pilot has going for it is that the Daily Press on the Peninsula is even worse. Newspapers and the larger media have a serious role to play in keeping politicians and others honest through probing investigations and hard hitting reporting. Unfortunately, the Pilot forfeited this role years ago. Here are highlights from how the Virginian Pilot describes the cuts:

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Plagued by advertising declines, The Virginian-Pilot is cutting at least 125 positions - or 10 percent of a 1,260-person work force - mostly through layoffs and shutting affiliated publications, publisher Maurice Jones said Friday.

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The size of the newspaper will be reduced, and the weekday and Saturday business sections eliminated, in January, Finley said. Local business stories will appear in the front and Hampton Roads sections, he said, and the front section will include a "market page" Tuesday through Saturday. Stock listings will appear on The Pilot's Web site, Jones said.

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The Pilot, Jones said, will remain "the most thorough source of news, information and advertising in the marketplace." The newspaper's owner, Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, continues to negotiate a sale of the newspaper. A buyer is trying to get financing, Jones said. The potential sale, he said, did not influence the cost-saving measures. The Pilot also is expanding ways to generate revenue, Jones said. In October, it began printing front-page advertisements.
"The paper will be a little smaller," Finley said. "I think readers will notice. We will keep the quality of the journalism as high as possible. There will just be less of it in the daily Pilot."

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Already struggling with Internet competition, newspapers nationwide have suffered further declines in advertising and circulation with the shriveling economy this year. Many have been cutting costs and laying off workers.

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A recent report showed that The Pilot's average circulation for the six months that ended on Sept. 30 declined slightly less than the national average. The weekday average fell to 174,573, down 3.4 percent from the previous year, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported. The Sunday average fell 4.3 percent, to 200,457. The declines nationally were 4.6 percent on weekdays and 4.8 percent on Sundays.