Editor’s Note: The following is an editorial written by Marijke Rowland, editor of The Modesto Focus, sister publication of The Merced FOCUS.
When I worked for The McClatchy Company, owner of The Merced Sun-Star and The Modesto Bee, one of the gallows humor jokes we used to make about the company’s current owner, Chatham Asset Management, was that at least we worked for the “less evil” hedge fund.
Between 2011 and 2019, private investment funds’ stake in our country’s newspaper business rose from 5% to 23%. Today it’s estimated that these private investor groups own more than half of the daily news circulation across this country.
But after decades of watching the industry’s precipitous decline, it’s clear that private equity and hedge fund ownership of for-profit local newspapers across America has resulted in far more gallows than humor.
Their track record the past two decades speaks for itself: More than 3,500 local newspapers closed and some 80% of local journalism jobs have been lost.
Earlier this month, the ax fell again across McClatchy Media – which has an outsized impact on Central Valley news as owners of the Modesto, Fresno and Sacramento Bees and Merced Sun-Star. More than 90 McClatchy journalists were laid off nationwide, including three in Modesto, seven in Fresno and at least 13 in Sacramento.
The Merced Sun-Star didn’t record any layoffs because McClatchy already doesn’t employ any full-time reporters stationed in the city to lose, instead a Turlock-based journalist handles content from afar.
That’s at least 23 fewer journalists watching and reporting on Central Valley communities. Twenty-three fewer journalists asking questions and demanding answers. Twenty-three fewer journalists giving Valley residents the news and information that will help them lead healthier, happier, more productive lives.
And this isn’t just a McClatchy problem. The week prior USA Today Co., formerly known as Gannett, had another round of layoffs and the Stockton Record lost its government/education reporter. That brings that newsroom down to just three remaining reporters and a photographer – for a city of some 325,000 people.
The simple but sad truth is the for-profit model for local news is not sustainable in its current form. And legacy media leaders have shown no plans for a viable path back, as CVJC Executive Director Joe Kieta and Fresno State Institute for Media & Public Trust Director Jim Boren told KVPR last week.
But worse than that, it’s become clear that the executives running these for-profit local journalism outlets aren’t actually trying to save the journalism anymore.
Otherwise, why would so many accountability and government journalists – foundational watchdog roles in any newsroom – be among the likely more than 100 McClatchy journalists losing their jobs? Those should be the last reporters to turn off the lights, not be ushered out as the company seeks to replace them with “personalities/influencers,” as recent McClatchy job openings advertised. (I say likely, because the reported 90 number is only among the company’s unionized newsrooms – and far more of its 30 newspapers are not in The NewsGuild-CWA.)
I reached out to McClatchy corporate last week with a series of questions about the mass layoffs, including the total number of journalists across all newsrooms let go. But I have received only radio silence back. Among my other questions was whether any McClatchy executives had been laid off in this most recent purge.
Instead, I’ve independently confirmed that in the week following the layoffs McClatchy announced the recent hiring of three – yes, I double checked, three – new corporate vice presidents.
Remind me, how many stories do vice presidents write each week? How many city council members do they call? How many police chiefs do they meet with? How many victims of crime do they interview? How many artists do they profile?
Oh, yeah, none. They don’t produce any journalism.
In that same tone-deaf announcement, McClatchy Media heralded the hiring of three new “Content Directors” for its new “Content Innovations Labs.” What exactly are “content innovations”? If I had to make an extremely educated guess, I’d say AI. McClatchy already signaled its aggressive pivot to artificial intelligence earlier this year – despite reporter objections.
So you can expect the embrace of AI to continue, and likely escalate. What’s that joke about the beatings continuing until morale improves? Yeah, that’s what it’s like working in legacy media these days.
(Quick reminder, we here at The Modesto Focus do not use AI to write any of our stories or other content, period.)
Now, none of this is meant to disparage the hard-working, dedicated and talented journalists left at McClatchy. The nine remaining journalists at The Modesto Bee do this work because they care deeply about the communities they cover, and believe in the importance of local journalism. But the reality is we are witnessing the end of the American newspaper industry as we know it in real time.
Their corporate owners are simply managing the decline. These new hires show that their only interest is in keeping the money machine working, not the local journalism.
Which makes what we’re doing at The Modesto Focus, The Merced Focus, The Intersection (our health equity reporting lab) and our parent nonprofit the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative all the more important.
If journalists don’t find new ways to bring people vital news and information, that void will be filled with misinformation, partisan agendas and outright propaganda. Something always comes rushing in when institutions are lost.
And that’s why we started this nonprofit newsroom and are championing other nonprofit newsrooms across the Valley. The San Joaquin Valley deserves a healthy, thriving media ecosystem. Without it corruption can spread, power can go unchecked, and local residents will suffer.
So, please, continue supporting the journalists left at The Bee. But also read and support nonprofit newsrooms like ours. (And, if you can, support the Valley journalists who lost their jobs this month.) There’s a reason the press is the only profession explicitly named in the U.S. Constitution – and right in the First Amendment no less. Without it, we are all less free.
Marijke Rowland is the editor of The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at marijke@themodestofocus.org.
