Written by Gregory B. Hladky for the New Haven Advocate
It's been a rough month for Connecticut newspapers
This has turned into a bummer of an autumn for Connecticut's traditional newspapers.
Last week, the owners of The New Haven Register announced they would be laying off 30 to 40 members of the newspaper's business-side staff and transferring those operations to the Journal Register Company's Michigan business office.
That came down just after The New York Times came out with a massive front-page exposé on "the deal from hell," as Sam Zell characterized his takeover of the Tribune Company. The Tribune owns the Hartford Courant, this weekly newspaper, and Fox 61 here in Connecticut.
Meanwhile, you have AOL's new Patch system of hyperlocal news websites hiring away good young reporters from The Meriden Record-Journal and The Waterbury Republican-American.
The only semi-good news about the New Haven Register layoffs is they apparently won't affect the paper's editorial staff, which has been emasculated by brutal cuts in recent years.
In an e-mail to the New Haven Independent, JRC Chief Executive Officer John Paton said the layoffs are "the result of strategically re-positioning what is currently largely a newspaper company to become an efficient media company. A very necessary strategy and, in this case, tactic if newspaper companies are to thrive in the future as news companies."
A member of the paper's business staff said Publisher Tom Wiley told them one reason for the shift of jobs to Michigan is that state has an unemployment rate of 16 percent. Moving those positions may help Michigan, but it's not going to do anything but hurt Connecticut's current 9.1 percent jobless rate.
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