Hartford Business Journal

18 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | May 23, 2022 The Hartford Courant's former headquarters at 285 Broad St. in Hartford. The Courant closed its newsroom more than a year ago and currently operates a fully remote workforce. HBJ FILE PHOTO Fourth Estate Amid news industry struggles, CT's media landscape faces significant changes By Robert Storace rstorace@hartfordbusiness.com C onnecticut's media landscape is vastly shifting as consumers are finding more of the news they want online, smaller newspapers are being sold and the future of the state's most iconic newspaper – the Hartford Courant – remains cloudy as its staff and print circulation continue to shrink under a new owner. Meantime, some traditional and nontraditional media organizations have seen opportunity in the market. Hearst Connecticut Media Group — publisher of eight Connecticut daily newspapers, 13 weeklies and Connecticut Magazine — recently announced plans to enter the Hartford market by hiring 11 new newsroom employees to cover the region. The company has aggressively poached former Hartford Courant reporters and editors to fill out its expanding newsroom, which now has a statewide focus. And the Connecticut Mirror, a 12-year-old online-only media outlet that covers state politics and public policy, has added to its 13-person newsroom over the past few years, proving that its nonprofit journalism model not only has staying power but legs. Three other small Connecticut newspapers — the New Britain Herald, Bristol Press and Willimantic Chronicle — recently lost local ownership after being sold to the Rhode Island Suburban Newspaper, publisher of the Westerly Sun. The shifting landscape is playing out against the larger backdrop of a struggling news media industry, as more readers and advertisers turn away from print media in favor of digital platforms. The transition has been a bumpy one. While U.S. newspapers in recent years have been able to increase the percentage of revenue coming from digital advertising and subscriptions, not all have been able to survive the shift. From fall 2018 to 2020, right before the pandemic created even more stress for the news industry, 300 U.S. newspapers closed, 6,000 journalists lost their jobs, and print newspaper circulation declined by 5 million, according to a report by the University of North Carolina's Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Over a 15-year period ending in 2020, almost 25% of the 9,000 U.S. newspapers that were being published had gone under, the report found. "There will always be a place for newspapers in this state and country regardless of their delivery system," said Rich Hanley, a media expert who is an associate journalism professor and co- director of sports studies at Quinnipiac University. "The delivery system, though, of the present and future is clearly online. Physical newspapers will, overtime, disappear, although not the mega-papers like the New York Times." Courant's troubles Former Courant staffers and media experts say the country's oldest continuously published newspaper has significant challenges ahead. Rich Hanley The paper reached its staffing heyday in 1994 with 400 newsroom employees. That number dropped to 135 in 2009. Today, those familiar with the Courant's newsroom staffing levels say the company has fewer than 25 reporters. In April, the Courant's last full-time photographer, Mark Mirko, left the company to join Connecticut Public, according to The Laurel, an online site that tracks Connecticut's media industry. There have been many bumps in the road during the last few years: • Suffering from a declining workforce, several rounds of buyouts and discontent with its ownership, a majority of the Hartford Courant's newsroom staffers unionized in February 2019. • In October 2020, the Courant announced it would close its Hartford printing operation and outsource its printing to the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts. • Two months later, the company announced it would shutter its longtime Hartford newsroom at 285 Broad St., and move to a fully remote workforce. Shortly after that, the Courant's headquarters building was put up for sale. Perhaps the most significant event was the Courant's takeover last year by cost-cutting hedge fund Alden Global Capital, a move that was decried by staff and others, who launched a campaign to fend off the deal by trying to find a local ownership group.

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