After years of stuff reductions, farming out of printing to Springfield, and closure of its physical newsroom, staff at the Hartford Courant have received some good news of their own. The Courant Guild secured a contract with Tribune’s owner, Alden Global Capital, that will guarantee raises and retirement benefits.
Media coverage of Springfield municipal politics is at a low ebb, which is not unique nationally. Critics will say most outlets privilege Mayor Domenic Sarno’s version of events or subject his side to no more than contrasting he said/she said claims. WWLP, the Springfield-Holyoke market’s NBC affiliate, aired a garbled description of events that confused and misinformed.
After a year that saw tumult and retirements across journalism, the two main players in the public media space in the 413 have undergone some hopeful changes. New England Public Media, the complicated union of UMass-Amherst’s WFCR and the GBH Foundation’s WGBY, has begun a new talk program. Meanwhile, Albany-based WAMC has hired a new reporter to man its bureau in Springfield.
Some five months after Boston appeared on Axios’ expansion list, its local newsletter is about to arrive. Over the last 18 months, he “smart brevity” news site has begun an aggressive expansion into a local news space that is growing increasingly bare.
“Because it’s Boston!” an energetic Nick Johnston says when asked why the Hub of the Universe is on Axios’ expansion list this year.
“It’s a big thriving city,” the Axios publisher continued. “Why not Boston?”
Axios is coming to Boston, following success elsewhere. As the capital of a small state like Massachusetts, landing here can ripple out much farther.
A local battle in the crackling labor movement within journalism came to a close on Monday. The Pioneer Valley NewsGuild, which represents employees at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, announced their members had unanimously ratified an agreement with the paper.
It happened.
On Friday, shareholders for Tribune Publishing, which owns the Hartford Courant among other titles, agreed to sell the company to Alden Global Capital. Alden, a hedge fund, has a nasty reputation for tossing newsgathering resources overboard for profit’s sake.
HARTFORD—The signs of Connecticut’s largest paper still linger around downtown side streets within view of the State Capitol. The name is everywhere. Lights flash on idled shipping docks. Signs denote parking for Hartford Courant employees though nobody from the paper works at the Broad Street
Nearly seven years after Meredith Corporation purchased WGGB and effectively merged it with WSHM, the company is selling its television assets including those in Springfield. Des Moines-based Meredith will unload its 17 local television stations onto Gray Television, whose home base is in Atlanta. Meredith
Not two months after announcing the idling of its presses and outsourcing printing to Springfield, the Hartford Courant is closing its offices in the world’s insurance capital. The paper’s Hartford offices will close on December 27 which its parent company called a COVID-era real estate