By: Joe Strupp Editors at The Register-Mail of Galesburg, Ill., didn't want the shutdown of the town's 50-year-old Maytag refrigerator plant to be reported with just the usual tribute. So when production ended in mid-September, sending hundreds of workers to the unemployment line, the paper sought to reflect the loss with a four-part series detailing the stories behind those losing jobs, the plant's history and hiring prospects in the area.
But the true image of the story came out in the ambitious four-page wrap that ran with the first installment of the series Sept. 15. The wrap offered a front-page photo of 15-year Maytag employee Diane Guldenzopf, formed from smaller images of 134 other Maytag employees, all slated for layoffs. The remainder of the page listed many of the laid-off employees' names. "The goal was to literally put more of a face on the Maytag closing," said Register-Mail Publisher Don Cooper.
The plant shutdown had already resulted in the loss of 600 jobs, according to Editor Tom Martin. But the largest single cutback, of 800 workers, occurred that week when the site ceased production, leaving only 200 on the job until the plant closes completely in February.
"It is one of the biggest stories that the newspaper is ever going to handle," Martin said about the 14,000-daily circulation Register-Mail. Martin said the series required nearly every editorial employee's help at one point or another. "I pulled a couple of guys out of the sports department, too," he added.
Editors and photographers began gathering photos of workers for the Page One image during a rally following a local Labor Day parade on Sept. 4. Others were photographed on four occasions at a nearby union gathering hall, editors said.
"We wanted to do something that had the impact the story deserved," Martin said of the front-page image, adding that reader reaction had been positive, and "someone said it made them cry."
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