Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | May 13, 2024 | wbjournal.com The new Worcester media, part 1 This two-part series examines the ongoing fragmentation of the news media industry in Central Massachusetts. This first part chronicles the curtailing of the largest newsroom in the region, while part two starting on page 9 scrutinizes the challenges of emerging publications and business models. e downsizing of the Telegram & Gazette Over the past 10 years, the journalism prowess of Worcester's paper of record has been reduced 75%, as smaller players strive to pick up the slack BY KATHERINE HAMILTON Special to WBJ I n November 2013, one month af- ter buying the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Boston billionaire John Henry announced his plan to re- sell the paper. His parting promise was to sell to a local owner. Henry told T&G staff, "It's important for the Telegram & Gazette to be under local ownership," the paper reported at the time. "If we don't find the right owner, you're stuck with me." Henry did find a new owner, but it wasn't local. In May 2014, he sold the paper to Florida-based Halifax Media Group. Aer a series of mergers, the company became part of Gannett, a $2.66-billion conglomerate operating 200+ daily papers, according to Forbes. e first day aer the sale to Hal- ifax closed, 20 of the T&G's 80 newsroom staff members were laid off, according to Dave Nordman, who was then a managing editor and later became the paper's exec- utive editor. Over the next two years, another 20 were let go, and the paper today has about 20 reporters, according to its website. With resources spread thinner, the 75% drop in staff at Worcester's paper of record occurred alongside a decline in the quantity and quality of news coverage, the Worcester Business Journal found by analyzing T&G articles over the past decade. e result, largely, has been a trend toward so-called transcription journalism relying more on press releases than exclusive reporting to fuel news. is story is not unique to Central Mass. e plethora of free news online has made it difficult for local newspapers to remain profitable. Since 2014, major corporations like Gannett have bought more than 1,000 local papers, according to research by the University of North Carolina. ese sales oen come with staff cuts, reducing the capacity of news- rooms to cover local news. With its paper of record shrinking, Central Mass. has seen several small me- dia companies emerge to try to fill the gap. Together, they offer a more diverse range of news sources with different business models, but none compare in scale or reporting power with the T&G, even with its reduced resources. Transcription journalism During its decade of non-local owner- ship, the T&G's coverage has changed in both quantity and quality. ese changes illustrate the increasingly limited re- sources, as the region's paper of record is publishing fewer stories and relying more on press releases rather than origi- nal reporting. e paper published more than 2,400 articles in September 2011 compared with 506 in September 2023, the T&G's online archives show. WBJ analyzed major publications' coverage of one of Worcester's largest economic investments in the past 15 years: the $160-million construction of the Polar Park baseball stadium. PHOTO | CHRISTINE PETERSON After the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reduced the size of its lease in the Mer- cantile Center, the company's logo was removed from the top of the building. John Henry, former owner of the Telegram & Gazette The new Worcester media: Part 1

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