This isn’t good…
UPDATE: A former co-worker says that Bowers left for personal reasons, as stated in the article. I remain skeptical of such explanations, but that’s the story that’s going around.
———–
The publisher of the Register Star, my hometown newspaper and my former employer, resigned yesterday.
Newspapers are in a tough spot with the economy in the tank and internet advertising platforms undercutting their revenue.
But when a publisher lasts less than two years — especially an insider like Scott — I kind of wonder what’s going on. Especially when he’s only the second publisher to bail since a new corporation took over three years ago.
GateHouse Media bought the Register Star in 2007, when I still worked there. Veteran publisher Fritz Jacobi stuck around, but left a year later to retire early to a house on a Wisconsin lake. A couple months later, the paper laid off staff for the first time in decades (it had already done voluntary buyouts near the end of Jacobi’s tenure). I don’t know if it was true, but there were rumors that he left rather than hand out the pink slips.
Just a few years ago, GateHouse was the Great White Hope of a flailing industry. Now it’s hemorrhaging money like every other newspaper company.
